Note: this item was provided for review.
If these slippers look impossible simple, it’s likely because that’s exactly what they are: a simple bit of leather rolled over and stitched. There’s nothing more to these CP Minimalist Slippers. They are a part of the barefoot mindset, and minimalist even on that spectrum. I take my slippers very seriously — I hate cold feet, and I don’t like to walk through my house in socks (or worse, shoes), as that’s a good way to have really dirty socks, or really dirty floors.
Slippers are a must, and something I always wear.
The CP minimalist slippers are an interesting offering, and I think will prove polarizing for most people. If you are already on the barefoot train, then these are the slippers for you. If not, read on — I certainly was not (and am not) a part of the barefoot mindset and yet these are compelling for a lot of reasons.
Materials & Construction
As mentioned, there’s only two materials at play with these: leather and thread. The leather used here is veg-tanned from Spain, which is where the slippers are also made. The top-grain leather is buffed on the grain side as well as the flesh side. The stitching is Lin Cable thread.
There are very few points of failure, and the minimalist model I have in for testing is only leather. It’s a much thinner piece of leather than you might expect, but after wearing them, it seems clear that this is the correct thickness for this application — I’ve yet to see much wear on these at all, thus, no worry about longevity.
Wearing Them
I’ve been wearing these as I normally do, and whenever I am at home they are on my feet. Before I dive into the upsides, I want to mention a few notes on what these do not work well for:
- Warmth: a common misconception with leather like this is that it will add warmth, but that’s not really how leather works. It has no true insulating properties. If you are walking on a cold or warm surface, you’ll feel that translate through the leather. Thus, for this model, these do not offer any additional warmth for your feet that I have noticed — though I’ve not had the chance to test these in the heat of the summer.
- Padding: seems redundant to say, but there’s no padding here. There’s nothing but a thin bit of leather between your foot and the floor — that’s the point of these. These do, however, offer a slight bit of protection, but not padding.
- Socks: these are best worn without socks. Which is not normally how I wear slippers, but I found that many (most) of my socks causes these to slide off my feet while I walk. However, without socks on, there’s no issue with this happening.
For some, the above is good news, for others it’s likely more confusing than not. I fell into the latter camp. When these showed up I pulled them out, looked at them, and thought “so that’s it?” It took a good bit of time to break these in and feel that they were formed to my feet. During break in, it’s not an uncomfortable slipper to wear, rather, I found that they often slipped off my foot during fast strides, and were tricky to slip my feet into. This all went away after the first week or so.
However, post break in, and with the warmer weather arriving, I can attest to some very bright spots with these:
- As the weather warms I tend to run into a lot of issues with my feet being too warm to wear slippers, and I’ve yet to have that issue with these. Each time my winter slippers get too warm, these have proven not to be.
- These offer a nice bit of grip which you don’t get with socks, and on hardwood and tile flooring, that’s proven awesome. While at the same time, they are not that rubber type of firm grip, a nice middle ground.
- These can be completely flattened, and take up a much smaller amount of space than anything I’ve tried or owned before, making them ideal slippers for travel (hotel floors are gross, wear slippers).
- As they have formed to my feet (they still are forming) they’ve gotten more comfortable and better looking. They can look a little silly as they mold to your feet at first, but once they start to wear-in, they look much better.
- They are better without socks, which means for those sock-less loafer and sneaker wearers among us, they offer an easy transition from slipper to shoe to slipper, without needing to grab socks in between. A blessing.
In the time I have had these, they’ve become much better with each wear, while at the same time the bottoms of the leather are not becoming nearly as matted, or as worn as any of the other leather soled slippers I own.
Overall
These are not your typical slipper — and they might not even be something I would have ever sought out. But I feel certain that these will be the only slipper I wear this summer, and I’ll likely take these with me when I travel from here on out as well. In fact, my wife asked me why I hadn’t bought her a pair to travel with yet.
They are not the type of slipper you look at and see a lot of anything with them, but the pattern is cleverly done such that the leather takes the shape of your foot well. And for those who love barefoot shoes, these are an ideal slipper to accommodate that choice.
Really nice stuff.