A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It may have escaped your attention, but there’s a new shoe on the market that, on one hand, is designed to cater for those with an active lifestyle and, on the other, is aimed at those who can’t see their own feet.

The Sketchers hands-free slip-ins have no laces which is not that new; we’ve had slip-ons (as opposed to slip-ins) for decades, but the added advantage is that they are a built-in panel above the heel that means they don’t fold like an accordion when you put them on.

This means you can slip in and out of your shoes like Batman donning his bat gear when the big red phone signals an emergency.

You can get these hands-free slip-ins with or without faux laces, so that they look like an updated and slightly more athletic version of the slip-ons your grandad used to wear, or indeed – if someone was casually looking at your feet – they would never know you hadn’t spent several minutes putting on your shoes.

Other shoes are available of course, but the point here is twofold; the drive to make life easier shows no sign of abating – and yet everything eventually turns the full circle anyway.

Without sounding like a social influencer (which nobody has ever suggested), they are more comfortable than slippers and easier to put on. If you’ve a bad back or a big belly, there’s no bending over required and, from a casual distance, you are the epitome of foot fashion.

We’ve had everything from Hush Puppies to Doc Martins – and I’m going to give Joe Hanley the credit for bringing Ecco shoes to Galway, when Hanley Shoes on Abbeygate Street brought a new level of comfort to tired feet – not to mention, sneakers or loafers.

And that’s just for men.

Docs never go out of fashion nor does the sneaker, but the desire to make life even easier means that we’ll continue to search until we find the shoe that puts itself on.

And it’s not just in relation to feet that the quest for an easy life continues; there was a fair bit of coverage in recent weeks as well about the driverless car – ironically at a time when the car in any form is under greater threat than ever.