Hi all! I have recently finished my studio ~ hooray! ~ its in the basment of my home. I hate wearing shoes in the house and take them off as soon as I get home. Anyways, I have a concrete floor in the studio. I need a COMFY pair of shoes that I can keep outside the studio door and slip on when i head to work. Any suggestions?

My podiatrist told me New Balance with the mesh top. The mesh is forgiving of movements and the higher the number the better the shoe. Also, work shoes need to be replaced every 400 miles.

You should get a mat of some kind to help cushion from the concrete.

Vonda

Not sure on the shoes, but I have a Gel Pro Mat (bed bath and beyond) and it works very well. I have wood floors and often had the same problem as you. Check out the mats, expensive but worth it!

I don't know about shoes, but we don't wear shoes in the house and as soon as we come home we wear our Okabashi sandals they are very comfortable.

A lot of people like Dansko shoes as well and Clarks are also great for comfort. I personally don't like Dansko but a lot of Doctors and nurses wear them. I love Clarks though. And as LKing12 says New Balance are very highly recommended by a lot of podiatrist. Sorry to go on and on but I also work in shoes as well as cakes.

I also have the Gel Mat. The substitutes are nowhere near the same. For shoes, I use Merrill and Nike Shox (5 cushion bottoms).

The biggest thing I do for my feet is a prescription insole. It may be covered by insurance. My husband is a physician and he introduced them to me. They are for people with problems and for preventive maintenance. If anyone is interested, I can find the site and they will suggest a physician near you. Just pm me.

Between the mat, great shoes, and those insoles, I can work all day with very little leg, back and foot fatigue.

Gel Mat, definitely. I love my Danskos. I sometimes forget to put on my shoes when I start working in the kitchen, but after an hour or so, my feet are screaming at me. Danskos make my feet and back much happier.

Alegria, pricy but worth it and I order from Cherekee4less. I have some shoes that resemble crocs from them right now, but they are elevated. I also have a pair of Nurse Mates. Since I have started wearing the elevated shoes I haven't had bruised feet or problems with fascia tendonitis, I think that's what it's called.

I wear Sanita clogs. I used to wear and swear by Dansko, but they moved their production to China several years ago and the shoes haven't been the same since.

I have sadly flat duck feet. I bought some of the Dr. Scholls costom orthotics at Walgreens and that helped tremendously. But I'm going to look at some of the shoe brands mentioned here.

I wear Okabashi sandals all the time. They have a break-in period of about two weeks and they will hurt during that time, but after that they're great. I used to have problems with plantar fasciitis before I switched to those shoes.

I love my shape ups

MBT's! The BEST!

I have worn many different kinds of shoes and every time I need new shoes I usually end up with a different kind. I have to try on shoes for hours when my feet are burning in pain to find the next pair and it takes forever!! I put one shoe on one foot and another on the other and walk around to compare. When I narrow it down I'm sometimes successful and sometimes not.

My latest pair are actually work boots, very high end work boots. And having the ankle lace up is nice for back support of all things. I can decorate for hours on my feet!! I may not go back to running shoes at work. The soles are non skid (the boots are worn by oil rig workers), so no slipping on greasy wet floors again.

Tami

I highly recommend the Birkenstock work clogs. My feet/legs/back feel great after a day on my feet and they last a long time. They also have the added bonus of being dishwasher safe if you pull out the insoles. They also go under the name birki, but it's the same shoe.

Love my Klogs. Recommended to me by a nurse and they are much better than any of the Danskos I wore for years. Bonus is that when the two of us in my kitchen who wear Klogs work all day, the floor stays pretty clean. When the ladies who wear Nikes and New Balance come in the floor gets dirty really quickly. It might not have anything to do with the shoes, but then again it might.

I wear K Swiss Tubes sneakers all day, 12 hours a day. You can find them at Lady Foot Locker. They have this unique sole that has tubes through them. One day I wore my very expensive running shoes and my feet were killing me within an hour. I have worn nothing but my K Swiss ever since.

I also use gel mats and I intend on getting insoles, only because I have a very high arch on one foot and it does make a difference with the insoles. and especially now that SCP1127 recommended them.

Also one of my employees swears by her Crocs, but I cannot bring myself to use them. I just don't like the look of Crocs. Nothing personal, it's just me.

Linda, I only have one 6 foot mat. Sometimes I realize I'm getting tired and I realize the mat has moved and I'm not on it or I'm at the stove. I can really tell. It is a pain to clean. Soap and water only and flour loves the grooves. It's really heavy and cannot have floor cleaner on it. I now just quickly wipe it down and around the edges every night and avoid that strip with the floor cleaner. So after figuring this out, it only takes me less than one minute every day to clean it.

I would love to know why a mat used by chefs has grooves. On the official site, you can only pick patterns of grooves.

These mats are at Bed Bath & Beyond and I used a 20% off coupon.

i actually buy most of shoes at the nurse scrub shop, i think th brand is nurse maid, they are not pretty but they are good for being on your feet all day.

Ok, I'll now reveal how back woods I can be. I have the gel mat but for shoes in the kitchen, give me Crocs any day. I love that I can wash them off and most of all they are comfortable.

As a old farm girl, I love Muck clogs. They work great for standing on concrete slabs all day!

Nike Shox.............I used to worked in a factory on concrete floor and a large percentage of the workers wore Shox. No other running shoe type is as comfy. Also agree with the high lace up work boot for support. I have a commerical kitchen ready in a few months at my house and will wear the shox.

Great post!!! Having problems with this myself!
For those of you that have Clarks - do you have clogs or the tennis shoes?
The clogs just look so fancy - and leather, not good for frosting. For all the other brands listed also - do you find the clog style to be really comfortable - some of them just look so bulky?
Thanks!