I ordered these beautiful Fitflops for my Rick Steve's tour of Italy. The tour involved a lot of walking. I have really bad feet; i.e. fallen arches, Plantar Fasciitis, and Chronic Venous Insuffiencency, which causes pain and swelling in my feet, ankles and legs.
Pros:
1. These stay on without scrunching my toes! The design is such that the top comes up far enough for gravity to work on your side. I had NO trouble keeping them on.
2. Cushions every step. I immediately felt the difference from the moment I put them on. Very little to no impact upon my knees when walking great distances. My knees never ever hurt with these shoes.
3. Beautiful I have received several compliments on the style. They are quite fashionable and go well with dresses, skirts, slacks, jeans and shorts.
4. No plantar fasciitis pain at all. This was so wonderful that I had to pinch myself. I have owned, Merrill, Born, and Clarks and these simple little things out-shined them all combined.
5.Unfortunately, my feet and ankles did swell excessively during the trip, but the sandals always fit! The design allowed for the top of my feet to swell without adding any pressure or making it hard to put them on. My ankles were the same way. Even with feet and ankles the size of footballs, they were STILL comfortable.
It is not as though I had no pain during the heavy walking days of the tour, but anyone would have no matter what they put on their feet. I am a photographer and I normally take an extra pair of shoes with my on event shoots because my feet start to kill me. I did a 3 hour shoot and never thought of my feet once! Fabulous!
Cons:
1. I have average width feet and these are slender and attractive in the toe area compared to the athletic styles. The downside is that they are just barely too narrow in the big toe area. After wearing them for two solid weeks, I developed small blisters and large calluses on the sides of my big toes.
2. These are not fit for all terrain use. In Florence the streets are old cobblestone and very uneven. The height of these and lack of ankle straps combined with the cobblestone equaled a fall when I hit uneven patches with both feet.
I've been wearing these exclusively! You would have to pry them out of my cold dead hands to get them away from me.
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I ordered these because I thought they were the cutest pair of FitFlops that I could find. I'm an extremely consistent size 7.5, so when I found out that these only came in whole number sizes, I was a bit hesitant. Usually, people recommend choosing the larger size, but I noticed that the page said that the manufacturer suggested the smaller of the two sizes, so I ordered a size 7. They just arrived today and they fit me absolutely perfectly. They are probably narrow; I can't really tell because my feet are not very wide.
They are also really cute, which is what I like most. As for toning abilities, I have no idea if that's working, but at least they are very comfy, especially for a flip-flop type sandal.
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I was excited to find this product in a style I thought would work for a variety of situations. Many people have complemented me on these sandals, not knowing they are fitflops.
The first week I was so sore I had to take a few days off from wearing the fitflops. I jog 3-4 miles a few times a week, but do very little weight training. I'm in decent shape, but was no match for the fitflops at first. At first they feel so comfortable you don't think they'll do much. However, those first few days I became as sore as if I had done lounges or squats for the first time in my life. It was exciting and challenging.
They won't replace cardio, but are great for toning. I'm very happy with my purchase and will probably buy another pair sometime soon. They have really helped define my leg muscles and lift my butt. Also, I used to have a fair amount of swelling in my feet from day to day activity and the fitflops have significantly reduced swelling in my feet. It might be the arch support.
I was skeptical, but am now a big fan of fitflops.
Honest reviews on FitFlop Women's Pietra Sandal
I decided to write this review because I wish I had known about this issue before purchasing $70 flip flops. First of all, these shoes are very cute and make my feet look nice. They are amazingly comfortable, kind of like memory foam for your feet. I bought them just because of that, and then realized they claimed to tone your leg muscles, which I don't really need. I am a runner and within 2 weeks of buying these shoes, I had knee problems (after years of running with no knee issues). I was diagnosed with runner's knee, which is a death sentence for any runner. I didn't even think of blaming the sandals because they felt so comfy and cushioned on my feet. However I did notice when wearing them, they forced all of my joints to work differently, i.e. ankles were wobbly and knees were felt forced past a straight line when standing up straight (you'll notice one of their 'features' is a shaved off heel which supposedly makes you use more muscle to stabilize). I was hesitant to attribute my runner's knee to the sandals, but coincidentally stopped wearing them for a couple weeks as the weather got colder. I noticed my knees felt just a bit better as I wore regular shoes. Then after a heat wave hit this weekend, I was back to wearing these sandals. I wore them walking for a while today, and noticed that my knees feel like they are burning around the knee caps. I'm going to talk to the doc about this, and likely will throw out the flip flops.
I just need to put this out there for other runners. I would never recommend this shoe to another athlete as you know the health of your knees and ankles and leg muscles are vital to your running, and basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it. So if you don't need to buy shoes that make some claim about making you fit by messing with your legs, joints, and muscles, don't do it. I don't so much regret throwing away $70, as I do regret with all my heart not being able to run :(
I also hope this starts a discussion about the effects of this shoe on knees. I get some results when googling, but if this is happening to others, we need to let everyone know!
Thanks.
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I just received my Pietra Fitflops and I love them! They are a tiny bit more narrow than the Walkstar, which is great for me because I have narrow feet. Same comfortable fit as the others and very pretty.
