anatomical footwear for women that isn't ugly or boring
trendy, weird, different, classic, designer, vintage, and otherwise
I’ve seen people on Reddit looking for cute footwear with an anatomic shape, like in this thread. This is possible to find. You just need to get good at being able to identify foot-shaped toe boxes in the absence of clear marketing terms.
I’m putting “✼” in front of each brand that’s not affordable to most people when purchased new, for example, brands which generally sell products $300+. However, there’s variation. Also, some brands do sell on resale markets for significantly less, or may have items on sale which are much less than $300.
I only included brands which I think have a distinct sense of style. What I think is ugly is like, Softstar, and basically the huge majority of barefoot brands. I left out some anatomic brands that I personally think are ugly, like Vibae.
I’m not an affiliate of any of these brands.
trendy & weird & different
Many of Unif’s shoes and boots have a wide, square toe. It’s hard to tell on the website because they don’t provide top-down views in the product images, so I recommend searching for products on resale websites. Some resellers include top-down images. From the top-down images I have seen of one pair of Unif boots, they look square and roomy, like the Lolita shoes below.
Lolita subculture footwear has options, because the wide toe box is sometimes part of the style. I’m not sure where people tend to shop for these styles, but searching Google brings up links to dropshipping websites, which makes me think that it would be easiest to buy from AliExpress or Taobao. The r/Lolita subreddit has a few threads about brands. This one was informative. I saw the brand Bodyline a few times.
In this vein, lots of dropshipping sites sell shoes with bulbous toe boxes. Dwarves is a big one. I bet you could reverse image search their images to find them on AliExpress. Pinterest can also help point you to other cheapie slave labor shoes, for example here.
Obviously, the Stomp Clog, and other Crocs platform models.
✼ Rombaut made a barefoot line of footwear called Alien. Not chunky, but really weird, so I’m including them. Search “Rombaut alien” on Ssense for the other models.
✼ Most of Yume Yume’s footwear has a bulbous toe shape.
Sou Sou (SF) makes anatomical tabi shoes (no tapered medial side!). They come in prints and solid colors.
Suicoke seems to have a somewhat anatomical model on most of their shoes. You’d have to check each image carefully to make sure. This boot, the New Wave Bit Boot, looks like it has a Birkenstock-like shape.
✼ Honorable mention: Margiela’s freaky anatomical line. They look narrow in general, except for these.
✼ Ami Paris has an anatomical line, which I will also link below because many of them are classic styles, but they also have unique options. Very expensive.
✼ Same deal here, I will also link J.W. Anderson below, but they have some crazy anatomic models I’ve found on resale sites, like these similarly wild silver heels on Poshmark.
✼ Hypebeast designer brand AMBUSH has these chunky huge rubber boots.
classic & designer & vintage
✼ Ruth Emily Davey makes classically gorgeous handcrafted foot-shaped shoes and boots. She has ready-made and custom options. I think her work is incredible.
✼ Loewe has been the biggest designer churning out anatomic footwear. They’re nice just to look at. I think Loewe might turn the tide for anatomic shapes to trickle down into the mainstream.
No. 6 makes a flat, flexible wood base for a couple pairs of their clogs. I’m not sure how molded the footbed might be.
The Camper Peu and Right lines are narrow (Right moreso than Peu), but both have flat soles and an anatomic shape. Camper is good at designing barefoot shoes, because they understand how to manipulate proportion to make a flat shoe look beautiful. Some of the Peu models are not anatomic. Pay attention to the toe shape. I don’t trust the Touring, Stadium, and Pista models, but I don’t know for sure.
✼ Another designer brand is Ami Paris, which has an anatomical shoe line in men’s and women’s styles.
✼ J.W. Anderson also makes some beautiful $800 anatomic shoes. Not everything by them is anatomic, so check the toe box. J.W. Anderson has a strong resale market.
✼ Other expensive designer brands with anatomic models: Bottega Veneta (the Atomic line) and Proenza Schouler (the glove ballet flats, the glove slippers).
This is a popular hack, but I should put it in here. The Birkenstock Lutry has a removable insole you can swap with a barefoot insole. You need to size down a full size or two, though, because the cork insole is like an inch tall. It might end up feeling sloppy and loose on your foot unless you get the right replacement insole. I tried it, it was too sloppy for me. The Zermatt model also has a removable insole. Don’t pay attention to the “medium/narrow” width, it’s still very wide.
Another brand to look at is NAOT. I have some thrifted boots of theirs with a heel, and they allow some toe spread, although they are somewhat narrow.
I’ve also seen Trippen listings on secondhand sites and noticed that many of the shoes have an anatomical, although narrow, shape. These are “unconventional” (their term). They have a kind of Bauhaus sensibility. The current models of Trippen look pointy and narrow, but vintage models look more anatomic. Check Etsy.
In the same context, I’ve seen vintage John Fluevog shoes and noticed their shape. They also look narrow, and the current models look even narrower and pointier. Searching Fluevog + foot-shaped brings up this blog, which reviews some 2012 Fluevog heels, which look very wide.
Searching John Fluevog + wide on Poshmark gets me a few listings which look more anatomic.
✼ Conker Shoes makes custom foot-shaped shoes and boots. They can be made barefoot, or not. I like these cowboy boots. (These are around $350 USD, but other models are less.)
Duckfeet boots don’t work for me. They feel stiff and don’t move with my foot. Maybe their shoes are different. I like the look of Arhus.
actual barefoot brands
I think most shoes made by actual barefoot brands are profoundly ugly. I don’t really endorse any of them. But, I could see myself wearing these, if I found them secondhand for under $50.
Be Lenka’s Snowfox model looks nice.
Shapen’s Frosty 2.0 boots.
Mukishoes makes some decent shoes. They’re very twee. I like their Pantufa slippers.
Otz Shoes is one of the original barefoot lines. It’s now defunct. I like some of their stuff. You can find Otz shoes on Poshmark, eBay, etc. There’s a boutique seller on Poshmark with a bunch of them, but pay attention to his comment section, because it looks like Otz had really bizarre EU/US conversion sizes that don’t correspond to any other brand. They have some really ugly models, almost Softstar-level ugly, but then they have some nicer Ugg-style boots.
Wildling’s winter boots can be nice. I wear a pair of them often, which I bought used. As I wrote in another post, I think Wildling successfully designs a shoe that looks good on a flat sole, because they reference visual codes historically associated with flat shoes, like tabi shoes. They don’t try to look like they’re a shoe meant to be on a heel with the sole cut off, they look natural. However, I don’t like the crunchy plastic membrane that’s between the fabric layers in the winter boots.
I also think that Vivo has some good design principles. They have a curved edge on the midsole and outsole on most models that adds visual interest to the sole, and again makes them look more natural, not a decapitation event. I like their moc toe boot, because the moc ridge originates from flat, thin shoes (meaning the moccasin), so it looks cohesive.
If you want Lems, first try looking at Goodyear welted boots made on a Munson last. I listed some options and search terms for resale sites in my other post. This isn’t an option for everybody, but boots like those crush Lems. The soles of Lems do not look good, at all. They are plastic and mushy. The seams of the toe on Lems pucker and warp. They are not resoleable. However, many of these boots are not available in women’s sizes, unless you cross the threshold at the women’s 9/men’s 7 dividing line. (There are exceptions.) Lems also has a genuinely anatomic toe box, while many of the Munson lasts are still somewhat narrow or cut off the medial edge.
Vibram’s Fivefinger line can be nice, if you’re up for it. It’s easy to find examples of VFFs in high-fashion contexts now, like in Marie Lueder’s styling. I like their collaborations with Suicoke, especially the lace version (which seems to be sold out everywhere.) Their Furoshiki line is narrow and has a tapered toe box, so I wouldn’t go for them.
