There was a time in my life when I traveled for six months on end with just a pair of walking shoes and flip-flops. At the time the flip-flops were my ‘dress-up’ shoes. Unfortunately for me, Buenos Aires turns out to have far better fashion sense then my 21 year old self was blessed with and my lack of fashionable footwear kept me off more than a few dance floors. Probably for the best.
These days I’ve learned that in many countries (okay, and much of the U.S. with the exception of Seattle and Portland) nice footwear is a requirement for travel. I still don’t like to overload on shoes, but sadly my delicate princess feet (hah!) do not walk miles in flats as well as they once did. So I’ve solved the problem with Superfeet.
Um, insoles? Are those suddenly classy, you might ask yourself? Next it’ll be nurses’ shoes. Hey, there’s no accounting for taste.
Seriously though. A light, cheap and cute pair of flats (such as this zebra number) are nice, but a nuisance to pack–unless you remove the insoles. Then they’ll fold, roll, and generally contort themselves into near nothing-ness. Meanwhile, the insoles travel in my running shoes that I always have on a trip anyway (in case there is an emergency scenic hike stop, or what have you). When I need to wear the flats, I switch the insoles, pretend I’m classy, and boom I’m out the door.
Said fashion, in action. This is a $10 pair of sparkly flats, equipped with a pair of Superfeet Insoles. They took me on a mile-plus long hike through DC summer heat to a pizza mecca.
To buy Superfeet on Amazon: Superfeet® Active Blue Insoles Blue