All of these shoes are essentially barefoot footwear, though they are all meant for different environs and tasks. Find out which one wins my heart (and toes) when walking around the streets of China.





Starting from left: Soft Moc moccasins, Counterfit Vibram KSOs, Gong Work shoes. Counterfit Toms





The streets of Xuzhou: covered in spit, grease, and water really take a toll on any foot wear. Furthermore, riding a bicycle doesn't necessarily save the souls because the riding conditions are often stop-and-go which demand a lot of foot scrapping. I have given each of these shoes a good working in and am now going to share with you what I have learned.









The Moccasins.

Cost: $80 CAN / ¥

Barefoot Factor: 8

Durability: 4

Coolness: 10

Tried and true. I love these moccasins, though you wouldn't know it looking at the state they're in. The holes in the bottom started out as little tiny imperfections but quickly grew to the gaping wounds that you can now see in the picture. I bought them in Canada and will bring them out of retirement when I have a dusty old cottage to pad around in.





The Toms

Cost: $11 CAN / ¥

Barefoot Factor: 6

Durability: 6

Coolness: 7 I bought these at the Silk Market in Beijing and if you've ever been you'll know that much haggling was involved. I took the insole out to maximize flatfooted-ness. The truth is that these things hurt my (right) foot. I can't figure out what it is about these shoes, but they abuse my right foot to no end. The grip on the tread is also pretty useless. I actually had to revert to the moccasins for a while due to the pain.









Counterfeit Vibram KSO

Cost: $22 CAN / ¥

Barefoot Factor: 7

Durability: 4

Coolness: 8 I bought these on taobao.com from a vendor who didn't have any comments. I didn't have very high hopes for these things in the first place so I wasn't very distraught when I noticed that the big toe material started to come apart (pictured below) after only a couple days of use. I gave these shoes a 'Coolness' score of 8 because everywhere I go the locals, after seeing that I'm a foreigner, often look down at my feet and are then even more confounded. The rubber soul is definitively not made out of the same material that real vibrams use. It seems to be less flexible thus reducing the 'barefoot-factor'. Regardless I'm still going to keep wearing it for things like skipping and running until they give out.





T_T





Gong Work Shoes

Cost: $3 CAN / ¥

Barefoot Factor: 8

Durability: 7

Coolness: 8 This shoe is a modified version of the shoes which are issued to Chinese students during their freshmen military training (pictured below) making this shoe very cheap yet fairly durable. The shoe is also popular among the migrant construction workers in Xuzhou.

These shoes really are great. The tread is waterproof and has a good grip while still being flexible and unrestricting. The shoes is also durable, light, they can be put on without having to tie up the laces, I can run in them if I do choose to tie them up, during the winter months I'll be able to put on big woolly socks to keep me dry and warm. In fact I bought an extra pair at this work clothes vendor (pictured below) for future use.









EDIT: After googling around a little bit I have found out that I am not the first person to think that these Worker shoes have a high 'coolness' factor. Indeed the shoe company OSPOP has, in true Chinese fashion, pirated the shoe model and designed their whole business around paying tribute to the toilsome migrant workers who don these shoes and go to work in the world's factories. The irony being that no migrant worker would pay $48 / ¥ 300 for a shoe that costs only ¥ Also, I'm not sure if the OSPOP models are flatfooted as the company has actually reworked the interior design of the shoe, apparently outfitting it with insulation as opposed to the canvas material of the simpler model I reviewed above. Also, I'm not sure if the OSPOP models are flatfooted as the company has actually reworked the interior design of the shoe, apparently outfitting it with insulation as opposed to the canvas material of the simpler model I reviewed above.



























