Why My Mom and Her Chicago Mom Friends Collect This Orthopedic Sneaker
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your account’s‘Saved for Later’section.
Comment
No one knows exactly how it started, but about a year ago a pair of low-profilewhite sneakersstarted to take over one working-moms Facebook group in Chicago. I got the tip from my own mother — a member of the group — who noticed that more and more moms were recommending the brand Taos in response to ISO posts seeking comfortable yet dressy-enough work and vacation shoes. After seeing the recommendations multiply, my mom bought a pair — specifically, white leather sneakers that she could wear to her office at Wonder Works Children’s Museum.
At the office, she effused about the shoes’ comfort and cuteness to the point that her boss, Rachel Weber, purchased achunkier blackpair for herself. Across town, communications expert Dawn Glossa would field compliments whenever she wore her cherry-red pair to the office or while “bopping around.” Meanwhile, Joanna Skubish, the director of annual giving at Dominican University, was touring Prague in her white leather Taos. The sneakers, which easily packed into her carry-on, were so comfortable and versatile on the trip that she recommended them to even more people in the Facebook group when she got home.
New! You can now save this product for later.
Taos is an orthopedic brand but not obviously so. The white leather sneakers could be easily mistaken for pairs from, say,Tom’s,Sam Edelman, or evenRalph LaurenandCommon Projects(for just a fraction of the price). And while the brand offers a range of sneakers styles, the Plim Soul Lux was name-dropped most in the working-moms Facebook group. It has a soft leather exterior, stout rounded toe, and generously long, easy-to-tie laces. It also comes in a variety of colors — includingcherry red,petrol blue,metallic silver, anddeep merlot— and materials likecanvas, for those, like Blue Cross Blue Shield’s director of technology Jen Purrenhage, who mourn a time when their feet could wear Converse. There’s alsoa zipper versionfor anyone who ditched their laces long ago.
When I asked the moms who obey Taos-ism what distinguishes the shoes from similar options on the market, I heard over and over that the sneakers’ arch support, which comes from a removable footbed that’s designed to absorb shock and decrease foot fatigue, truly makes them stand out. “That Taos arch support is something that is tricky to find,” says Katie Cummings, the president ofJAYNE, a popular Chicago-based boutique where many of the women bought the shoes. “So once somebody tries that on and feels that footbed hug their arch, it’s tough to step away from.” The footbed is removable, but everyone I spoke to has kept it in her shoes. Even Purrenhage, who hasplantar fasciitisand an assortment of inserts for her flats and pumps, calls hercanvas pairperfectly supportive as is: “I don’t shut up about them because I really do love them.”
In addition to the arch support, fans credit the wide toe box and inclusive size range — which runs generally from size 6 to 12 — as part of the appeal. “A lot of different shoe manufacturers don’t make size 11s,” says Weber. (Just note: Retired nurse-midwife Shirley Moore recommends sizing up a half size for the leather sneakers in particular as the material has less give.)
Many of the women I talked to had ordered multiple pairs in different colors — including legal assistant Stephanie Goldman, who recently ordered twopairs of the Starsin denim-washed blue and now-sold-out olive green and says, “I was only really going to keep one because I didn’treallyneed two, but I really liked the colors, so I kept both.” Purrenhage, for her part, is such a big fan that she’s even experimented with a pair ofcherry-colored combat boots. Among all eight women I spoke to, each one either had an entire collection of Taos or was in the process of picking out a second pair. Notably Laona Fleischer, a librarian by trade, bulked up her supply during the pandemic. “I would order shoes and just have them sent to my house, then I would post them in our Slack groups,” she told me. Last time I checked, she owned ten pairs, all of which were a different color or pattern. “There’s no reason that I need to have, like, 50 pairs of shoes,” she told me. “But we all collect something.”
More shoes from Taos
More From The Strategist
- The Back-to-School Hall of Fame
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
- Everything You Need to Outfit Your College Dorm
- The Strategist Summer 100
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
