I can't remember when I first heard about
Tieks but I knew the concept was one that made sense to me. Maybe I heard about them from Oprah? Regardless, the idea of owning easy, portable, fold-up flats that were cute but functional and very comfy appealed to me especially as a travel option. Indecision plagues my preparations for a plane trip. I often swap shoes a few times before I settle on something that I think will be good enough for walking (or potentially running, in the case of a tight connection) through an airport and big enough to handle the potential for water retention (as travels are prone to do).
Since most of the trips I take entail visiting cities, I expect to walk a lot so I always need shoes that can be comfy but also cute. I have a big conference trip planned for October and might have another one in November. I also usually take a trip in December and hope to go somewhere for Spring Break in March.
With many trips on the horizon and my old airport standbys looking pretty beat, I decided to try
Tieks. They shipped fast and in a very compact shipping box. I've never seen shoes take up such little space. When I opened the package, the bright blue box was decorated with a bright purple elastic flower (which Emilia has enjoyed as a toy since). Inside the box were my shoes (folded up), a handwritten thank you note from someone at Tieks, and two shoe totes (a small black one that holds the shoes while folded and a bright teal one to fit work or "going out" shoes).
Before ordering I had three concerns: size, color choice, and comfort at the elastic heels. Although there are plenty of flats for sale at higher price points, Tieks are not exactly inexpensive. So I weighed everything beforehand. My size concern was because Tieks only come in whole sizes and I wear a half size usually. The website said to order down in size unless you are between sizes and sometimes go up and/or have a wide food. Because my half shoe size skews larger more often than smaller I ordered up and got an 8. The 8 is a bit big but that is better for travel anyway.
I had no idea about what color to pick. The color I chose needed to be worth the investment from a "statement piece" angle while being neutral enough to be versatile. I wound up with
Tangerine in regular leather. I don't have any orange flats, I knew fall was approaching, and the startup uses a lot of orange in the logos which enables me to coordinate and match with our "brand." haha
Finally, I was a bit concerned about the elastic backs digging into my heels. When I attempted to wear my Tory Burch Revas for flight travel, the elastic dug in and felt painful at the end of the day. I am happy to say at least during everyday wear, Tieks do not dig into heels! We'll see if they pass my flight travel test in October!
Thank you, Tieks for providing me with the flats to review. All opinions are my own.
