After a debilitating back injury, the author rigorously tested seven different pairs of slip-on shoes from brands like Kizik and Skechers over several months. The goal was to identify the six best hands-free footwear options that combine ease of use, style, and comfort, leveraging clever design and flexible materials to eliminate the need for bending, providing much-needed relief during recovery.
I popped a disc in my spine a few months back, and one of the things that saved me a lot of pain during my recovery was slip-on shoes. With these, I could wear shoes that looked normal without the pain of bending over to put them on and do up the laces. I have been testing new pairs since then, looking at the various ways that manufacturers such as Kizik, Skechers and others create a shoe that you can slip on as easily as a pair of slippers, but which still look like normal shoes you could wear to work, socializing or anywhere. I tested seven different pairs of shoes, rating them for ease of use, style, comfort and the intangibles that make you feel comfortable and more confident, no matter how much your back might be aching. I have tested consumer products ranging from automatic coffee makers to Xbox peripherals for publications including PC World, Reviewed.com, CNET and many others. For all of those publications, I bring an objective scientific eye to testing products and helping consumers make better buying decisions. For the Filter US, I’ve tested the best gadgets if you live with back pain, the Kiziks hands-free shoes and an eco-friendly mattress. A good pair of slip-on shoes should be comfortable, cool looking and ridiculously easy to put on. So, I wore each pair for dog walks and ambles around town, logging how comfortable they felt on the move and around the house. I asked friends, family and strangers on the street to tell me what they thought of the look of the shoes, talking to sneakerheads, comfort fans and all those in between. To test the slip-on feature, I looked at how easy it was to step into the shoes and put them on, when paying attention and without looking down: imagine leaving a shoe-free friend’s house encumbered with leftovers and stepping into them by the door. A good pair of slip-ons should guide your feet into place, with a clean action to the heel mechanism that makes them work. A bad pair will need you to move your feet in a certain way, or, God forbid, reach down and move the shoes to get them on. After this review was completed, I donated all of the slip-on shoes to Goodwill. For more, check out our guide to tech neck fixes, the best seat cushions and products that offer help with back pain. Magic. Well, sort of: these shoes rely on a combination of clever design and flexible materials, all covered with a tasty sauce of patent law. The specifics vary, but the gist is that a precisely formed piece of plastic in the heel provides a specific mixture of flexibility and rigidity. This makes the heel flexible enough to bend under your foot when you put your heel into the shoe, but rigid enough to snap back into its initial shape when you move your foot forward, pushing the heel back around the ball of your feet without you having to pull on it. The real fun starts when the lawyers get involved. Kizik, for instance, has several hundred patents on what it describes as “rapid entry footwear”, while rival Skechers has their own portfolio of patents covering what they describe as their “hands-free slip-in” shoes. Kizik is now suing Skechers in the US and Europe, claiming that Skechers has used their patent designs without a license. Skechers have denied this. This case is continuing, but it hasn’t yet reached a point where either company has stopped making shoes. The winners? The lawyers, as the case is likely to drag on for some time. Yes. Although older slip-on shoes and slippers have a reputation for loose fits and slipping off when you move your foot, none of these modern shoes have this problem. No matter how vigorously I shook a leg, danced or gyrated, they all stayed on. (Oh, the things I do for the sake of journalism.) Other pieces you might enjoy from the Filter, the Guardian’s guide to buying fewer, better things: These shoes may look like any other, but Kiziks have a secret superpower Traveling or standing all day? Compression socks will help your feet You need to sit down for this – the best seat cushions in the US to relieve your back
