Wooden Sandals
By Cam White
If you love wearing wooden sandals, Wooccoli offers a sandal that actually flexes and moves with your foot. This innovative Austrian creation is a unique blend of advanced shoe-making technology and old-world shoe comfort.
Wooccoli sandals have an anatomically designed footbed that cups the heel, and has very pleasant arch support. The sandals have five "flex zones" that allows shoe to move naturally with your foot as you walk. A slight rocker at the heel and forefoot accentuates arch support and promotes a smooth, rolling gait. Natural materials and soft, vegetable-tanned leather uppers make these shoes healthy and hypo-allergenic, with no harsh chemicals used in the tanning process. The poplar footbed is coated with beeswax to prevent sweat from soaking into the shoes.
Wooccoli uses a very unique and innovative manufacturing process. The Austrian manufacturer takes a block of poplar wood and places it on a high-tech computerized router that mills the anatomical shape of the sandal and cuts the five flex zones through the foot bed. The sandal is then infused with semi-rigid polyurethane, which fills the flex zones. The shoes are then sanded, polished and finished with a protective beeswax coat. The leather uppers are naturally tanned using a vegetable tanning process, which eliminates harsh chemicals that can irritate sensitive feet or be harmful to those with skin allergies. It's an expensive shoe-making process, but the end result is a shoe that has a very pleasant, unique feeling.
Sizing, Fit and Feel
Wooccoli sandals are a good fit for people with medium (D width) feet who love the feeling of arch support in their shoes. The slight heel and forefoot rocker design helps offload pressure on the heel and ball-of-foot areas of the foot. Some models (Barbara, Baldo, Kiebitz) have adjustable velcro straps or buckles to ensure a more secure fit. If you have very wide feet or can't tolerate arch support, Wooccoli is not the sandal for you.
US Availability and Pricing
Wooccoli can be purchased online from The Shoe Shoppe for a clearance price of $40, plus shipping, while supplies last. When the shoes first arrived in the USA in 2011, they retailed for $170. While these shoes are high-quality, expensive-to-make products, consumers were simply unwilling to pay that much money for a pair of wooden sandals. Mark Poole, owner of The Shoe Shoppe, bought the entire lot of Wooccoli sandals on closeout, and is now offering them at a steeply discounted price. It's important to note that all sales are final, and no returns are accepted. As of April 2013, there are still plenty of shoes on hand, but they are selling briskly at this new, reduced price. When they are gone, they're gone.
Conclusion
If you are a woman who loves wooden sandals and craves arch support, Wooccoli may be just the right sandal for you. For less than a Dr. Scholl's wooden sandal, you can pick up a healthy European sandal that actually flexes and moves with your feet.
