Living Life In The Midwest
- التعليق
I am a male with a narrow fitting heel and an average or narrower forefoot (toes). My bone structure is slight and I am very thin and I have no “meat” (fat) on my feet or ankles (or anywhere for that matter). I have a difficult time finding clothes that fit my frame and finding shoes that are long enough for my foot without being loose and sloppy in the width especially the heel. I owned a pair of Keen Men’s Newport (original from the first model year not H2) size 10.5 and found them to be rugged for working outdoor and great for slip on ease and airport travel. They were also crazy wide. When the Keen Company was just getting off the ground they focused on ruggedness and roominess. The Newports were just too heavy, way too roomy in the width and too clunky for my slight foot and I could not stand to wear them for any great length of time. Also I had to cinch the heck out of the bungee fastener to get the shoe to stay on and not slip off my heel when I walked but the way the shoe was constructed didnt make this a problem. The original Newport ran small in length and I had to go up one size or half size to get the proper length. Then years later Keen introduced the CNX line, a lightweight and fitted (narrower) series of shoe. I originally got the Men’s 10 CNX Clearwater and found them to have too much material over the top of my foot and at the ankle. This was because the shoes was just too roomy for my skinny foot. I had to cinch the heck out of the bungee fastener to make the shoes stay on and not slip off my heel when I walked. This had the effect of folding over excess fabric in the mono-sock collar design of the shoe and the folded over double thick material would dig into the top of my foot uncomfortably. I tried the Men’s CNX Clearwater size 9.5 and found they were just not long enough for my foot and my toe just slightly hit the toe cap of the shoe in an uncomfortable way. The 9.5 however was a much better fit in the ankle and did not have as much excess material around the mono-sock collar when the bungee was cinched. I found the Clearwater to be about true to size where the Newport ran small. I really liked the lightweight feel of the sandal and was not yet ready to give up just because I have a skinny foot. Over the years I have found that women’s shoes are often narrower than men’s. They usually are more colorful too and that isn’t bad for someone like myself that likes colors other than traditional black, grey, brown and athletic shoe white. I tried the Women’s Clearwater size 11 and found the fit was spot on. I still have to cinch the bungee a decent amount but there is no fold over of the mono-sock collar. The width of the Women’s size 11 is really the best I have ever had in a sandal. So far I have had great luck wearing the Womens CNX Clearwater shoe all day with no issues. The size of the Mens Clearwater CNX size 10 was about the size of a size 9.5 Converse Chuck Taylor. The size of the Mens Clearwater CNX size 9.5 was similar or a bit smaller than a size 9 Converse Chuck Taylor. I do want to point out that the Mens 9.5 probably would have worked fine if the toe box was not slightly pointed. Looking down at the Mens 9.5 next to the Womens 11 you can clearly see the mens version is pointed so the middle toes can be the longest toes and the womens version of the shoe has the big toe as the longest toe. Otherwise they fit exactly the same.