A letter from a reader Wilma S
I have stopped buying shoes I need to sit down to put on.
On the sandal with nothing to fasten — you step straight in, and the elastic at the sides does the holding.
I am 63, and there is a small thing that has quietly changed the way I choose shoes. I do not want to have to sit down to put them on.
It is not that I cannot bend. It is that bending down, finding the buckle, lining up the hole, doing it again on the other foot — it has stopped being nothing. It now happens at the end of getting ready, when I am already carrying a purse and somebody is waiting, and it is the reason two perfectly nice pairs in my closet almost never get worn.
It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to stop buying shoes with anything to fasten at all and pointed me at a small family boutique here in South Carolina. Before I tell you what it did, I think you should read the Clarke family's letter first.
The Clarke family runs a small boutique here in South Carolina, family-run since 1986 — three generations, mother to daughter. The sandals are called the Wilma, and their letter walks through the handful of things they refused to compromise on. I am going to let their words carry it, because they say it better than I could.
1Nothing to fasten, so you never bend down
No buckle. No strap. No zip. No laces. You put your foot in and that is the whole of it, standing up, at the door, with your hands full. Every fastening on a shoe is a small transaction between you and the shoe at the moment you are least patient, and the ones that need two hands and a good light are the ones that stay in the closet.
2The elastic gives, where a strap cannot
Set into each side is a panel of elastic, and it is doing the work a buckle would normally do. It grips as you walk and it gives when it needs to — which matters, because your foot at six in the evening is not the same foot that went into the shoe at nine in the morning. A fixed strap has one setting. Elastic has as many as your day does.
3The back is closed, so it does not slip
This is the half of it people miss. A slip-on with an open back is a mule, and a mule has to be gripped on with your toes every step. We built a proper closed counter around the heel instead. Between that and the elastic at the sides, the shoe is held on at two points and your foot is not asked to do anything at all.
4It looks closed, and it wears open
From a few feet away it reads as a proper shoe. Up close the toe is cut open in a wide square, and above the elastic there is a large opening on each side, so a great deal of your foot is actually in the air. It gives you the look of something closed and the feel of a sandal — which in September, when it is still eighty degrees and nobody wants to look like it is July, is exactly the right thing.
5Comfortable, and it does not look it
Here is what usually happens. You buy the easy shoe and it is beige, rounded and unmistakably the easy shoe. This one is black, the finish has a shine to it, and the heel is a squared block with real height — so your weight lands on a broad base and stays there, and the shoe still goes out to dinner. Easy to get on is not written anywhere on the outside of it.
6One black, and sizes 6 through 10
The Wilma is made in black only, which is deliberate — black is the shade that goes with everything already in your closet and it is the one that lets a shine look expensive rather than loud. Sizes run from a 6 to a 10, half sizes included. Because the sides are elastic there is more give in them than a fixed shoe of the same size, so take your usual.
The Wilma, against the shoes you leave in the closet
| The usual pair | The Wilma | |
|---|---|---|
| Putting them on | Sit down, bend, find the buckle, twice | Step in, standing up, hands full |
| How it holds | One fixed strap setting | Elastic that gives as the day goes on |
| At the back | Open, so your toes grip it on | A closed counter around the heel |
| In the heat | Closed, and your feet know it | Open toe and open at both sides |
| How it looks | Easy to wear, and it shows | Black, with a shine and a real heel |
- Sit down, bend, find the buckle, twice
- One fixed strap setting all day
- Open at the back, so your toes grip it on
- Closed, and your feet know it
- Easy to wear, and it shows
- Step in, standing up, hands full
- Elastic that gives as the day goes on
- A closed counter around the heel
- Open toe and open at both sides
- Black, with a shine and a real heel
Why they're clearing them now
They priced the Wilma at $149.95 when they launched, and they sold at that price all season. But for America's 250th, the Clarke family wanted to give something back to the women who have kept their doors open since 1986 — so every pair is going out at well below half of what it was.
Mine arrived a few days later in a box on the bed. I stood up, put them on without using my hands, and walked around the kitchen in them.
The Wilma Sandals
- No buckle, no strap, no zip — you step straight in
- Elastic panels at both sides that give as the day goes on
- A closed back that holds the heel, so nothing slips
- An open square toe and open cutaways at the sides
- A squared block heel · black patent finish · sizes 6–10 · Free UPS shipping
The Wilma Sandals · $59.95 while sizes last
Buy 2 get 10%, buy 3 get 15%, buy 4 get an extra 20% off. When it's gone, it's gone.
I do not usually write things like this. But I have two perfectly nice pairs of shoes in my closet that I never wear, and the only thing wrong with either of them is a buckle. If you know exactly which pairs I mean, I hope you find your size before they clear.
— Sandra Thompson · Mount Pleasant, SC
See the Wilma — $59.95 →This is a personal account from a Clarke Family customer. Sandra was not paid to write it. · The Clarke Family · Family Fashion · South Carolina, since 1986 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.