The Quest for the Perfect Work Shoe: Rothy’s vs Everlane Day Glove

As most of you probably know I walk to work. Or did, depending on when this post goes up. Its about 1 mile each way so I can tell pretty quickly if my shoes are comfortable or not. And I need them to be comfortable.

I remember on my first day at my current job I wore shoes that I had for years that I thought were pretty comfortable and about halfway to work my heels were covered in blood from these loafers rubbing on them. I had to stop in the 7/11 and cover my foot with bandaids to make it the rest of the way. And honestly, since that day I’ve been on the search for a great walking shoe that is cute and comfortable. And spoiler alert: I still haven’t found that shoe.

I’ve been hearing things about Rothy’s and the Day Glove from Everlane for YEARS. And a few months ago I finally became so fed up with my current shoe choice that I ordered both. Well, I originally ordered the Day Glove and when they arrived they were the wrong shoe in the wrong color. So that night I ordered the Rothys as I tried to exchange the Day Gloves for what I had originally ordered. Long story short, I was able to try out both shoes and here’s what I found. For reference, Rothy’s are $145 and the Everlane Day Gloves are $115.

Packaging

Rothy’s: A

The Rothy’s shoe is shipped in the actual shoe box. There’s very minimal packaging which I always love as its always a hassle trying to recycle boxes and the earth is dying so let’s not kill her even faster.

Day Glove: B

Everlane, although very eco-friendly in almost everything, they had a bit much when it came to shipping their shoes. They had the shoe box inside of a larger box. It just wasn’t necessary. Also, the tape that was supposedly holding the box closed wasn’t sticky so it was just sort of sitting there. Very strange.

Initial Thoughts

Rothy’s: C

They were much thinner than I expected. While I wasn’t sure what to expect, knowing that the shoe was made out of recycled water bottles, I was expecting it to have a stronger material for the shoe. I thought my toes were going to poke out of the top of the shoe. But they were comfortable. They felt like thick socks essentially. I could feel everything I was walking on top of. So if I stepped on a rock, I definitely felt it in my foot. There’s not much there for a sole.

Day Glove:D

My initial thought was “Wow I ordered the wrong size.” And I did. After going back on the reviews, everyone had said to order a half size up and apparently I didn’t listen so that was my bad. I then sent the shoes back and ordered a half size up. The difference between the 2 sizes weren’t that big. I almost thought I could go an additional half size up, but I did not. So once I got the right size, they were still tight. As expected, they are real leather and would stretch out, but I was not blown away by the comfortable-ness of the shoe.

The 1 Mile Test

Rothy’s: Passed

Walking to work in these was fine. Although I wasn’t blown away by them being “so comfortable” I was fine with them. The only place where they bothered me was on the side of my heel where the back of the shoe starts to join the side of the shoe and it created a small blister on my foot, on both feet. It wasn’t that bad though as I wasn’t in pain on the walk over. I easily managed to stay in them all day and had an after work function where I was on my feet and still was comfortable.

Day Glove: Failed

The first time I wore them to work, in the too small shoe size, obviously they failed. I was in killer pain about halfway to work and didn’t bring any back up shoes. I had to take them off when I was at my desk and cover my feet with bandaids. I was very upset. When I wore them in the bigger size, it was definitely better, but I still had to put band aids on my heels because they were rubbing pretty significantly and they still hurt. I wanted to give them a solid chance because I understand that leather won’t always be comfortable right off the bat. So I wore them with big socks for a bit to try and stretch them out and while it did help, the heel was still bothering me and that isn’t a place that will get bigger nor did I want to it, otherwise my foot would fall out. 

Return Policy

Rothy’s: A+

I knew they were going to have a great policy before I even ordered because they advertise it all over their website and advertising. That’s why I ordered them so nonchalantly when the Day Glove arrived wrong. There was a strip of adhesive on the shoe box it came in ready for it to be returned. The only thing I needed to do was print out the pre-paid label from the website and ship it out. Piece of cake. I received the refund shortly thereafter as well.

Everlane: D

When you’re almost entirely an online store that people are still determining their own sizing for, you need to have a better return policy than Everlane currently does. While they do make it easy to return, they charge you a flat fee of $6 if you do not want store credit. I love what Everlane stands for and their whole business model, but in the days of Amazon Prime, it hurts me to pay for shipping on anything. Especially returning an item. Where it gets worse is there exchange policy. When they originally sent the wrong shoes, they were able to make it right the next day and expedited the shipping to me and sent me a pre-paid shipping label for the wrong shoes to send back. When I returned the smaller size shoe to get the larger ones I had to submit it as a return and once they received that return they would then credit my account so I could re-buy the correct size. That whole process took about 2 weeks. That’s a lifetime.

Final Thoughts:

Rothy’s:

Although they were semi-comfortable and didn’t really give me any blisters, I wasn’t overwhelmed. For $145 I was expecting more. I wanted to walk on a cloud and I got a sole and some thin material to hold my foot in. I ended up returning these shoes and I still stand by my decision. I deserve more for my foot.

Day Gloves:

I have the shoes still sitting in my apartment, but I’m going to return them as well. Even for a lower price point, I should at least not be getting blisters from a shoe for $115. I love the way they look and how they go with everything, but it’s not enough.

So what now? I thought about trying Tieks, but I’m not sure. I really don’t like the blue soles and my foot typically doesn’t like the flats that roll up like that. It’s almost a sure-fire way to determine if they’re going to give me a blister or not. So I’m not sure. If you have any shoes that you love, PLEASE SHARE. My feet need help.

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this story on Instagram and you guys went wild. If you want to catch what I said, I saved it on my stories under “Shoe Hunt” So take a peak! I asked for your recommendations and the brands you suggested were Madewell, Birdies, Tieks, Nicolo, Sam Edelman, Tory Burch, Cole Haan, Toms, and Franco Sarto. I’ve been doing some more “research” aka shoe shopping recently and will be updating you all soon!