BlackOut Singapore

Ottie and I aren’t big fans of thin, rubber-soled sandals (I’ve had one too many experiences with the wet ground of misery wearing rubber slippers in a country which, when not dishing out hot and humid melanoma-inducing heat, spells out hot and humid tropical thunderstorms; Ottie on the other hand, is just plain picky about footwear). Thus when BlackOut Singapore contacted me to try their customisable non-slip sandals, we were intrigued.

I dragged Ottie out to their storefront down at City Plaza after work one day and was treated to a comfortable carpet of faux grass and the hospitable attention of Norvan, who put up with us way more than anyone should have had to, especially since we arrived close to closing time and, thanks to Ottie, took way longer to customise his sandals (although the fault lay in part with me, since I vetoed a few of his mad choices). It’s a cosy little hole-in-the-wall which houses a surprisingly large number of options for customising sandals:

One side of the wall held a showcase of the different sandal styles plus colourful swatches available for customisation. The second picture is me trying on my new BlackOut SG sandals! I went with a size 42 (*le gasp*) black sole and mixed up the front black panel with an orange ankle strap.

It was interesting how the customisation extended not just to colours, but also to the size of the straps. I’d have thought that they would all be the same size, but it turns out that the length was different according to the shape of one’s feet. Part of the reason why Ottie’s selection took so long was because we had to try on smaller strap sizes to fit his slimmer feet. Poor Norvan had to detach the straps and re-attach the new ones on the spot, but it was pretty fun to see it in the making. By the way, due to my wider feet, I share the same size 42 as Ottie. But this means that I get to steal his sandals!

Here are our BlackOut SG picks on a couple of DIY-ed Shibori-dyed cloth thanks to a fun craft party by PX a while back, because #myjobisprettyawesome, and so are my colleagues. Also, I’ve been enamoured of this cute little picture book lately, It Might Be An Apple by Yoshitake Shinsuke (Original Japanese: りんごかもしれない). Hey, the colour scheme of the book matched the orange of my new sandals – it couldn’t not be in the photo.

I don’t know how they do it, but these soles have astounding grip. I walked hesitantly in these babies on what was usually a slippery surface of death one rainy day last week, and was surprised to find that it held up really well. Also, for all that the sole is thin, I had a great time being in them the entire day; no pain at all for the balls or heels of my feet as compared to slippers I’ve worn with thicker soles. Even Ottie conceded that for ‘flip flops’, these were the most comfortable he’s ever worn. Magic? Perhaps. My only qualm is that the thin soles do not provide relief for the germaphobe in me regarding the need to put as much distance from public restroom floors as humanly possible, so I’ll wear this when I know that I’m heading to a place with a toilet I can trust.