Oh My Sore Feet!

Back in college, while I loved buying beautiful shoes (secret obsession haha), I also was a practical student. You won’t see me shod in Manolos (which I’ve sold after I gave birth then hahaha) while running across campus to catch my Greek seminar class. I wore what every other student on campus wore back then — Birkenstock!

Before my feet became permanently glued to high heels or those archless flats (very affordable flats became staples in my shoe closet– I could no longer afford Manolos– I’m in perennial recession haha), I had no foot problems at all. But once I started experimenting with footwear, and then wearing flats practically all the time, I began experiencing a little discomfort on my feet *right foot in particular*.

I was later diagnosed as having plantar fasciitis. Some of you may recall me discussing this at length (rather, complaining at length hahaha). According to Wikipedia, “Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the foot caused by excessive wear to the plantar aponeurosis that supports the arches of the foot. The pain usually is felt on the underside of the heel and is often most intense with the first steps of the day. It is commonly associated with long periods of weight bearing or sudden changes in weight bearing or activity. Jobs that require a lot of walking on hard surfaces, shoes with little or no arch support, a sudden increase in weight and over activity are also associated with the condition.”

In other words, your feet hurt as you walk. Today was one of those days my plantar fasciitis problem BECAME a problem. I had extreme discomfort walking and had to sit around half the time. Then I remembered my Birkenstocks from my college days– those sandals have good arch support so they’d be ideal to wear while I deal with this foot problem. Problem is, my old Birks are not in Manila 🙁

I remembered my friend DaphP whom I’ve seen wearing Birkenstock- like slippers. Then I remembered the brand. Papillio. My mom also owns Papillio, which we had bought together in Hong Kong. In fact, I know a few people who do own a few pairs of Papillio.

So I headed to Jump at Bonifacio High Street (it was the closest to me– I was in a dire foot emergency) to pick out a pair of Papillio slippers, hoping to ease a little of that foot discomfort.

I am actually stoked to find out that Papillio and the original (or rather traditional) Birkenstock are from one and the same company! Oh and the funny thing is, I heard that even Heidi Klum is a fan of Papillio, so much so that she designed her own line for them!

Papillio is hands down, a better version of the traditional Birkenstocks. I used to think traditional Birks were too chunky for me but then I was in college and my outfits usually just consisted of “Sweats”– and oye they were SO comfortable! None of those skinny jeans outfit kinda thing! (Life was much simpler back then hahaha).

I love the current Papillio designs. Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking! 🙂

My friends had the thong type slippers (perfect for summer), but I opted for the Madrid style with the Spring florals print in white.I’m thinking they’d look great with my brightly colored shorts. 🙂 And more importantly, my feet won’t hurt anymore.

I was with my children this afternoon as I picked out my new sandals, and I ended up picking one for my eldest baby too (oh boy, my kid resents being called baby hahaha but I do call him that anyway). If this is going to help maintain the “health” of our feet, I think we should be willing to spend a little for good sandals (as opposed to paying a hefty amount to the podiatrist some day– which was what I ended up doing 🙁 ).

I ended up wearing these sandals for dinner, and thank goodness my other foot doesn’t hurt as much anymore *whew*. From now on, Papillio will be replacing my other rubber thong slippers and those funky rubber slip ons as my “casual” footwear– my feet need to go on “days off” too hehehe 🙂

Thanks so much to the very kind sales people at Jump who were patient with me as we tried on different shoes before making the final decision. I’m now a happy camper with my new sandals!

Papillio is available at Jump Bonifacio High Street (02) 856-5749, and is also available in TriNoMa.

x
Mrs.T