A weekend on the beautiful Aegean island of Samos was a great opportunity to give the fresh sandals a proper wear testing. Samos is a small greek island just a short ferry ride from our Turkish HQ near Seferihisar. The island is very beautiful and the terrain just perfect to give the sandals a really robust workout. Rough, steep cobbled roads in the old town situated on a hill overlooking the main harbour and 'off the beaten track' paths through coastal pine forests and clifftop olive groves leading to pristine white pebble beaches.
Feride is wearing the new sample with a single strap which is stitched in place at both ends and loops around the big toe, the mid foot and the ankle. We wanted to keep the design minimal with no buckles or other methods of adjusting the strap length. After wearing a few times the strap had stretched a bit and needed to be shortened a couple of centimetres. After a few more months and another length adjustment we feel that the strap has stretched as much as it is likely to. Next time we will try pre-stretching the leather for the strap before fixing the ends in place.
I am wearing an earlier prototype model I made for myself and have been wearing for nearly two years now. They are both minimalist with very thin and flexible zero drop soles and no arch support. Initially we were wearing them with just the thin leather soles but have now fitted a flexible natural rubber outsole for greater durability.
