Sandals

Sandals are an open type of shoe and footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps or thongs. more...

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While the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear can sometimes be blurry (as in the case of the huaraches), the common understanding is that a sandal reveals most or all of the foot (especially the toes) to view. People may choose to wear sandals for several reasons, among them economy (sandals tend to require less material than shoes), comfort in warm weather, and (especially for women) for reasons of fashion and attractiveness.

There are many different kinds of sandals in the world. A sandal may have a sole made from rubber, leather, rope, or other materials. It may be held by a thong that passes between the big and second toe, or by a strap that passes over the arch of the foot, with or without a heel strap. It may have no heel, a high heel, or anything in between.

Usually, sandals are very comfortable during the warmer spring and summer parts of a year, because feet stay cool, dry and fresh. The chances to get a fungal infection on your feet - like athlete's foot - remain very low, and if you already have one then sandals can help you to recover from it.

Espadrilles are a kind of sandal. Related are Mules and flip-flops. The latter can only be worn with bare feet or special socks. They can be made of rope, rubber, leather, wood (as in clogs or geta) or tatami (as in zori). There are also many different sports sandals, worn by men and women.

It is said that the New Zealand expression "jandals" for rubber sandals often used at the beach and called "thongs" comes from the expression "Japanese sandals." This is derived from the shape of jandals being similar to the Japanese zori, basically a rubber sole piece held on to the foot by two cloth thongs extending from the inner and outer side of the foot to the gap between the big toe and the second toe. This construction for footwear used to be the norm in Japan before westernization of clothing, with "geta" (wooden sole raised with one or two horizontal wooden pieces and attached to the foot with cloth thongs), and "waraji" (sole woven from straw with straw or cloth thongs, and sometimes extra ties over the foot and around the leg, often used for travelling).

"Saltwater sandals" are/were a popular children's footwear, originally developed (by the Hoy Shoe Company of St. Louis, MO) in the 1940s as a way of coping with wartime leather shortages, as they were designed to be made largely from the scrap leather left over from making men's shoes. They are still made by the original manufacturer.

There is a new type of sandals that are gaining popularity that are known as Yoga sandals. They are sandals that have a thong between all the toes, not just the big toe and second toe. They were originally desinged to help spread the toes for better balance during the practice of Yoga. It was later found that they can have major health benifits on the feet and body. They can help arthritis in the feet, bunions, hammer toes, and other foot ailments. They can also help with lower back pain by providing better skeletal alignment.

Read more at Wikipedia.org