Starting my New Job wearing Hotter Sol Sandals (Review & Giveaway)

I started my new job last week and I had a great time. It was so nice to feel part of a team again and to be doing something that is feeding into a goal that I believe in. As well as that, it was great to be able to dress a bit smarter again, and with it being summer I needed some sandals to complete my outfits.

As if by perfect timing I won a pair of Hotter Sol sandals and I knew these would be good for work as I still have a pair from two years ago. Back in April 2017 I went shopping at my local Hotter shop in Eastbourne and came away with metallic gold Sol sandals and they are still going strong now. Yes they have discoloured inside (that will be my sweaty feet!) but the actual shoe itself has hardly aged in two years.

I had a look on the Hotter site to see what the latest colours are for the Sol sandals and I had a choice of platinum multi-coloured, truffle multi and jet black multi in standard and wide fit. Or blood orange, royal blue multi or white in standard fit. I absolutely adored the orange pair but I saw that my old ones were the wide fit, so I ordered the orange in standard fit and the jet black multi in wide, both in a size 7.

Wearing Orthotic Insoles in my Hotter Shoes

It's funny how things change over time. When I was a teenager if anyone had said to me I needed orthotic insoles in my shoes I'd have probably cried and told them no way, they are just for old ladies! Nowadays things are changing, research shows that the orthotic insole market will reach around 3.5 billion dollars by the year 2020. With the increase of diabetes, arthritis and obesity more and more people are seeing their podiatrists and finding that an orthotic insole would help to alleviate some of their problems.

At the age of 44 years I am one of those people. I have been suffering with pain and various foot issues for quite a few years now and some of it I thought was bad luck (verrucas) and others I put down my being overweight. When I first saw a private podiatrist back in 2014 he treated my verrucas and tidied my feet up and I was very happy when the verruca went but the pain didn't so I headed back to see him again.

It was at this point he gave me a visual bio-mechanical assessment and declared I have short calf muscles and these are throwing my body alignment out of sync. As we talked and I told him of having been a tip-toe walker as a child, always having my feet positioned at ten-to-two and the amount of ankle sprains I have had in my life, he said it all made sense and could be the cause of my early-onset arthritis of the knees, the pain in the ball of my feet and my tight and uncomfortable calf muscles.

To cut a long story short, I was lucky enough to be able to be referred to an NHS podiatrist (as I am bio-mechanically incorrect) and have been seen over the last couple of years. I'm stretching every day (in all sorts of ways), I've had an MRI to rule out a Mortons Neuroma and if things haven't improved with my continuing stretching and the use of my orthotic insoles I'll be referred for calf lengthening surgery in a few months.

Taking care of my feet with Hotter Shoes

Increasingly over the last few years my feet have been playing up. For a couple of years I just ignored the niggling pain that prevented me from running and enjoying exercise because I thought it was the result of a longstanding verruca and if I'm honest I was embarrassed. I'd tried to treat it myself for months (years even) and it wouldn't shift so I finally met with a Podiatrist at a large cost in the hope he could help and he did, finally my feet were verruca free but sadly I still had the pain and it was getting worse.

Around six months later I decided I needed to go back and see if the pain was anything the Podiatrist could help with and it turns out that the verruca was never really the cause of my pain. I have short calves and this means my legs rotate out (hence having waked like a policeman forever) and this means I am misaligned. I finally have an answer to why I have early onset arthritis in my knees and pain in the pad of my foot. Just by walking I am putting pressure on the wrong parts of my foot as my feet tilt outwards and this explains why I have such trouble finding shoes that I can wear without pain.

A visit to the Hotter shoe shop

I've been a fan of Hotter shoes for a while now. I have a few pairs, a super comfy pair of boots that have done three winters now, a pair of Leanne trainers that travelled to Ethiopia with me and have covered thousands of miles on my walks and more recently a pair of Jewel pumps and a gorgeous red handbag.

So it is fair to say that I'm not new to Hotter comfort concept shoes. I am however, new to visiting one of their shops, all my dealings with them before have been online via their website. I was excited to see what they had in stock ready for Spring when my blogger visit was organised for the Eastbourne store earlier this week.

I arrived at the shop about 11.30am and approached Hayley the manager, my first words to her were 'wow, is this your busiest day of the year?'.  I could not believe it, there were probably 30 people in the shop actively looking at and trying on shoes, every seat was taken and it is safe to say it was heaving. I stayed in the shop for a good half hour before I tried anything on as I wanted to observe the service. I can honestly tell you that their service is superb, there were four assistants serving multiple customers at a time and Hayley walking the floor overseeing it all, offering help and talking to the customers.

When it came to my turn to try on my shoes I was served by Jess and asked her to try two pairs of shoes, she also bought me back an alternate style as her recommendation. She choose sandals that I would never have looked at in a million years but I thought I ought to try them on and they were super comfy and I might even head back in a month or so to buy them for summer. I was offered everything I needed - footrest, shoe horn etc.  I liked the service as it was attentive but not over bearing.

I choose which shoes I would have to review and was told about how to clean them and preserve them and yes I did end up buying a can of both!  I don't normally get persuaded to buy extras but I do like my new tan 'precious' shoes so much that I want to keep them looking nice. I thought it was really good that Jess reminded me they are a character leather and this means they can scratch and will start to look a little worn. For me this is part of the charm but I know for others that might not be the case, so good to be told I feel.

The Precious shoes come in the regular width fitting for Hotter (which is an E) and they fitted lovely. I do have very wide feet, so knowing this I just went up half a size to try them on and they felt great. Hotter shoes really are fabulously comfortable, just look at that cushioning inside and the flexible rubber sole. The Precious style shoes come in tan, black and blue and retail for £65.00 and they are available in a size 3 through to 9 and the more popular sizes also come in halves too.

It would be easy to look in the window of a Hotter shoe shop and just think the shoes are for a much older lady but don't be put off my some of the clientele, be brave, walk inside and you will see loads of stylish shoes. Mostly flats, some fabulous sandals, great wedges and some very cute heels (what I would call Mary Poppins inspired shoes). It really is worth a good look round or visit the website and browse there.

I also noticed that Hotter sells quite a large range of men's shoes too and I' never picked up on this before, so next time we visit Eastbourne I think I'll have to get my husband to have a look as well.

Many thanks to Hayley and the team at Hotter, Eastbourne. I love my shoes and you are doing a fabulous job.

Disclosure: I received my shoes free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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