I wear walking / trail shoes as everyday footwear and for about the past seven years my clogs of choice have been North Face Hedgehog GTX XCRs.
I've owned two identical pairs in a row, but sadly the second pair are now on the verge of falling apart. Considering the hammering they have taken I have no complaints about their lifespan, but what I am disappointed about is that I don't appear to be able to go out and buy another pair.
I've tried the roughly equivalent current Hedgehogs but I have the same problem with all of the new ones - the cushion around the top rim of the shoe at the back is so narrow that it bites me on the upper part of my heel, roughly like having a bulldog clip clipped to me there. I wouldn't be able to wear them for five seconds.
Does anyone have any recommendation for similar 'low' walking shoes from the likes of Merrell, Salomon, etc?
Requirements are:
-Conservative colour essential - ideally slate grey or black, certainly no neon orange, yellow or green or metallic silver. Dark brown would be acceptable at a push. This actually narrows the field down quite a lot because there is an ongoing vogue for bright colours / pairs of contrasting colours (...why?).
-Light. At the moment I'm wearing a pair of mid-priced shoes made by one of the well known budget manufacturers. They feel heavy and inflexible, like a pair of diving boots in comparison to the old Hedgehogs.
-Sole flexible enough to twist quite easily by hand, with a deeply cushioned heel pad (I have a touch of arthritis in my hip nowadays - walking around in supermarkets with their unyielding hard floors in flat soled shoes aggravates it in just a few minutes, but well cushioned heels help a lot).