For as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve been searching high and low for the most comfortable shoes for my wide, flat, bunion-laden feet that weren’t orthopedic sneakers. Sometimes, laying in bed at night, I still have traumatic flashbacks to my middle-school days, wearing chunky pink tennis shoes with custom orthotics shoved inside. (With bell bottoms. The hell does not end.) Trust me, it was not the look.
Admittedly, I have a penchant for pretty shoes, but one thing I can’t do, no matter how much I wish, is suffer for them. Beauty *is* pain, but I don’t have the budget for daily $150 taxis when my feet hurt so badly I’m hobbling. In my rule book, if shoes are pretty, they also need to be walkable. Living in NYC, “walkable” is a lofty standard, because here, five miles go by in a flash. I
If you’re like me—and my colleague Executive Editor Dara Katz, who apparently also struggles in the footwear department—and don’t subscribe to the “beauty is pain” philosophy, but still want to look cute, I've got you. Here are nine pairs of shoes, from my staple ballet flats to heels, and, yes, a couple pairs of sneakers, that I, and my fellow flat-footed friends actually do wear on the daily. They all hit our criteria for comfortable shoes: wide widths, stretchy or flexible materials, padded and/or supportive insoles, no (or minimal) break-in time and lovely design. May you strut your best stuff yet
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