Customer Quotes

“I am thrilled with my Shoes and Shandals. You truly transformed my toes, feet and life with your skills ! ”

“Just wanted to let you know my boots arrived and they are AMAZING. I don’t normally wear shoes or slippers indoors but l put these boot on and they stayed on most of the day. Sooo comfortable. Thank you again.”

“The boots are PERFECT. The photos on your site are great, but I must say they still don’t do justice to the workmanship, quality of material, and especially to the proportions. Somehow in person they look right from any angle.
The fit is like a glove. They are exactly as you said - snug around the instep and the heel and the toe box is definitely perfect on my hobbit feet.
You are a master at what you do.
THANK YOU”

“The Shandals are splendid, thank you so very much, not only are the Shandals extremely comfortable to wear, but I immediately feel more stable when wearing them than when wearing anything else on my feet; it’s something about having the full width of my feet and toes which then provide a more stable base; having the wider base means that I walk quite differently and much more in the manner encouraged by the Pilates exercises I am taught. If I’m on uneven ground, then instead of being tipped over (out wards) the extra stability from the width of the base of my feet, allows me to stay upright. I have a degree of osteoporosis so falling is very much to be avoided. Also I can move more freely if I feel more stable.”

“The quality of the experience Ruth provided put us at our ease and confirmed our hope that we were investing in a beautiful product designed with imagination and made with detailed skill and attention. The opportunity to talk about how the shoes are made and see various designs helped in choosing the style most appropriate for our feet and brought a particular meaning to handmade shoes. Looking through and feeling a variety of coloured leather samples and threads gave choice a personal quality. The thought of having such lovely shoes filled us with delight and we left the workshop confident that our new shoes would be a work of art. We thank Ruth for her friendly manner and providing us with a unique experience.”

“I have found I can spread my toes far more than before I started wearing your fantastic shoes. My little toe in particular is a lot more flexible and I have a bigger space between the big toe and the others. I am confident healing will continue after so many years of “shoe abuse”. Keep up the good work!”

“STUNNING...Thank you so much, clever shoe company, clever you. Absolutely love the copper eyelets...bang on trend. Best of the best going forward.”

“My Shoes feel like they were born to be on my feet.”

“Thankyou for my amazing dream shoes, they are worn everyday and everyone loves them. I can now cope with my 12 hour shifts more easily, and I have far less pain in my foot. The plantar Fasciitis has almost gone. My shoes are wonderful.”

“I went all the way to Wales to get fitted for my Shandals! I am an Early Childhood Educator (complete with bunions and a hammer toe!) and often on my feet for 10 hours a day. My feet now feel great at the end of every day.”

“Thank you for the most marvellous pair of boots! They arrived yesterday morning and I couldn’t be more pleased with them. They are without doubt the most comfortable of any sort of footwear I’ve ever had; wearing them is like walking around in a pair of thick socks. I was expecting them to be a bit stiffer at first but despite it’s thickness the veg tanned leather is supple and beautiful, and the smell reminds me of trips as a child to Ellerkers, an old saddler and rope merchant in York - long gone sadly.”

“When I wore my shoes for the very first time I forgot I had them on. This has never happened to me before breaking in a pair of shoes. I then wore them on a trip to Venice and was able to enjoy all the city has to offer and not worry about my feet hurting even after walking around for 3 days! As an orthotic wearer shoes that fit and are comfortable to wear is a rare combination.”

“My shoes are now 5 Years old and have lived through a remarkable history of being tried and tested to the limit. They have weathered storms, mountains, rivers, mud, warm summers, cold winters and to add to the list, for the past 6 months I have used them for riding the fastest breed of horse in the world: the Akhalteke from the foothills of Turkmenistan. When not riding the horse, I run behind it, taking us through a mixture of terrains. Thank you for the superb repair, I will do my best to look after my shoes for the next 5 years and beyond!”

“My new Shandals. Custom fitted, lovingly handmade, cut, stitched and blessed by the extremely talented ruthemilydavey, my feet and hands are two points that contact my bike when riding and racing - these shoes give them space to breathe, work and be feet, look after them!”

“I am very pleased with my shoes. My feet are warm and when I take them off at the end of that day there are no red or sore patches on my feet at all. I find I can walk much further and faster in them and I have less back and hip pain than ever before. Many thanks.”

““(About shoes brought over 4 years ago)

My shoes are wonderful. As you can see I live in them. There are no blemishes on my feet and the shoes are bliss to wear. I have worked out they have given me endless foot bliss for under 14p a day!””

“Seeing you has been like having a guardian angel, these Shandals have been so brilliant and far, far exceeded my expectations. I just wanted a more stable base indoors for those times the heel pain in my weaker leg made it too painful to weight bear. As I am in my senior years, it’s apparently most likely a weakening of the arch, even though it’s been slowly getting worse for years, especially after walks. I also have runners knee in both knees due to missed knee injuries in my youth. I have been though many knee sleeves and even tried splints to to try and get past that, all to no avail. I hadn’t realised I have been rolling the weaker foot outwards a lot to get out of heel pain. That looked within normal range in the shop, however, after a few weeks, I tried my light hiking boots on again and was quite shocked to my foot, now expecting to be horizontal, found fresh air all the way along the outer side. Plus the heel wear was now entirely in the wrong place. New boots by Ruth were on my wish list, but I wasn’t thinking an urgently needed essential.

I have had to monitor foot positioning, such as checking I haven’t rolled the weak foot outwards whilst sitting, a habit formed trying to relieve an aching and painful heel; include a mini exercise of repetitively pushing the large and second toe down to try and strengthen them and get a new muscle memory going. I realised I needed to do that after gently rocking on both feet and feeling the difference. I still get heel pain occasionally, it disappears frequently on the next step. Even when it lingers, the duration and pain level is drastically reduced and probably down to a missed unlace and lace.

As for runners knee, WOW! What has gone: the silent and not so silent sigh before going up or down a staircase. There is a low ceiling to negotiate on our stairs, duck forwards and I felt like I would fall forward, so I would hold on and lean back slightly, so painful (the knee inflammation was at a level, I had early notification of fighting off any viruses.) After just walking about the house and no extra knee exercises. All that GONE! I now go up and down without thinking. Gone: empty, energy less knees going up hill. I only tried that once up a short, but steep hill, just a few hundred yards. Shandals are not for hills unless you can afford multiple pairs! Feet push forwards downhill and will stretch the leather out of shape.Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist just once. Gone: walking even the slightest uphill on will power. In: walking uphill without thinking, strain or pain, devoid of energy, empty knees.
The easier it is on my knees has meant the more I want to do that requires knee bending. I still get the knock on effects, but it’s minimal, if any at all. I don’t do much of it as I am finding the open backed move a hard habit to get out of.

I’ve had bone chilled feet in the evening all my life, which I put down to genetics and concrete floors. So I did take the claim, better circulation, warmer feet, with a big grain of salt,(for me). but I have to say once the initial settling in period had passed, chilled to bone has gone. I’ve now warmed up to cold feet. Lovely jubbly:) During the day, I can feel warmth coming back to me from the base of the ShandaIs every now and again. Weird, but so nice:)

I have followed Ruth’s lacing and unlacing technique and the tightness required. As I have had to do that very few hours to start with, I was concerned it would stretch out the laces or worse, the leather around the eyelets Happily, a totally needless concern.

Also gone: that wooden walk to the bathroom in the morning! I started off with putting on Shandals prior, now I don’t need to bother. I am still stunned by all the changes! Ruth has changed the quality of my life that’s for sure.

All in a couple of months. So to you, Ruth, I am sending a big MWAH! MWAH! FANTASTICO!”