Dr Martens are noriously hard to break in and I had a lot of questions about my experiance with my new Clarissa II Sandals so heres my thought so far...
So I had been browsing ASOS, which is something I do less and less recently but every now and again I give it a peek. One day I saw a pair of Dr. Martens sandals that quickly caught my eye and were swiftly added to my saved items and moved onto the next item. But then I kept popping back to look at them…. And then look at them some more… and then a bit longer and then all of a sudden I thought what the hell (which my impulsive moment was well-timed with a 20% off discount on ASOS that day) I ended up checking out.
When they arrived, (shout out to Paul, my ever suffering DPD driver!) and they were mine! I actually bought two pairs originally, one was the Blaire style which aew very similar, and the ones I ultimately settled on the Clarissa II Quad. The sole was chunkier and I really just preferred the overall vibe of the Clarissa’s.
Excitedly I rushed to my Instagram to excitedly announce my new babies and was met with a bunch of warnings. I'm pretty sure 90% of the comments said how badly they tore their feet up and how much trouble it was to break in, even a few saying they were never able to ever break them in. And I upset someone by saying that the comments were “dramatic” and to this day I still feel fucking terrible for my poor choice of words but like the comments were really really overwhelmingly negative and I was in fight or flight mode at this point about my poor choice of shoe.
I didn’t really know what to do, they aren’t cheap by any means, even with the discount they were still around the £100 mark and did I really want a pair of sandals that are gonna fuck my feet up and I'm gonna have to wear flip flops for the rest of the summer? But being stubborn and Taurus I couldn’t admit defeat I was going to try these out and they were going to be ok.
So the first thing I did was smash them up with a hammer. Not all over, just the back part. Its something my dad has literally ALWAYS told me to do whenever I get new DM’s and you always have to listen to what your dad says right? Well to give him credit I'm pretty sure he’s solidly wearing Dr. Martens or Wellys for the past 30 years so I think he has a single right to comment on things.
The first day I tentatively put my toes into the sandal I was worried. My bulk Compeed order from Amazon was still on its way and if trying to break my floral Chelsea Boot DM’s in then I knew what I was gonna be up against. However, I just thought, as I'm just gonna be wandering around the house, cleaning and doing the garden a pair of socks would suffice. I’ll swap to some slides if worst comes to worst.
I noticed they rubbed a tiny bit, right at the back of my foot where my most shoes tend to leave some sort of blister without socks and I was pleasantly surprised. I half-imagined ripping my socks off and it looking like when you use those foot peel masks that takes of ALL the skin. If you know you know.
But yeah, nothing a newly acquired Compeed couldn’t fix in a few days. I continued to wear socks around the house with them while looking so trendy I couldn’t imagine a more chic look on someone. By day three or four I decided to go in raw and try them without socks, and much to my absolute surprise… no pain?
And to be honest I’ve had none since. I did trip up unceremoniously in front of my postman once which he now references most times I see him so that’s our new banter now I guess… The sole is fairly heavy, it is the quad sole after all so its super-duper chunky. I can't claim I’ve worn these on holiday or on some grand adventure in the hot sun, Miss Rona meant festivals arena a thing and the furthest away from my house I’ve gone is to Tesco and back really. But even walking around the supermarket or just my daily (lol, maybe not daily) walk around I’ll wear them and still no pain. In fact, I find them super comfortable!
Now I cant say these won’t hurt you, and I feel like such a tosser saying “hee hee these didn’t hurt me!” But they genuinely didn’t and I don’t really know why. Im clearly in the minority when it comes to good experiences with this shoe so really do be prewarned if you’re thinking of investing!
However In all I LOVE the way they look, they add such a cool vibe to an outfit and are totally timeless. Im really glad I decided to bite the bullet and get them because they just are so perfect for me. Everything about them is just right.
