u/SaiFootwearCo

**才・**Sai Footwear

https://www.saifootwear.co.jp

Shipments might not be the quickest until late May, but should be smooth sailing from there on out.

The happiest moment so far, of the last two years' emotional rollercoaster, was when the local Japan Post worker came by this week to pick up a few shipments. He said he has wide and long feet, and thus a hard time finding good shoes. They are allowed to wear black sneakers of any brand. He tried these on, walked up and down the hallway, couldn't believe how comfortable they were and bought that pair on the spot. Coming from a postal worker who walks 15-20k steps daily for a living, that means the world to me.

Of course including an asterisk in the title, because of the obvious reason that I cannot know every shoe that exists. If there's anything out there just as wide, with similar stack height / cushioning, please do share! The more the merrier.

https://www.saifootwear.co.jp

Sincere apologies to everyone for the long delay since the announcement late last year, which has all the background info you might want to check out, and some Q&A in the comments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/barefootshoestalk/comments/1oz57ht/sai_a_new_small_brand_with_one_of_the_widest_toe/

And a disclaimer that shipments might not be the quickest until late May, but should be smooth sailing from there on out.

It turns out, good things take time. Import procedures, moving both as a business and personally, getting settled, sorting out accounting, setting up a corporate account with the post office & shipping carriers... all done in Japanese, far from my first language.

The happiest moment so far, of the last two years' emotional rollercoaster, was when the local Japan Post worker came by this week to pick up a few shipments. He said he has wide and long feet, and thus a hard time finding good shoes. They are allowed to wear black sneakers of any brand. He tried these on, walked up and down the hallway, couldn't believe how comfortable they were and bought that pair on the spot. Coming from a postal worker who walks 15-20k steps daily for a living, that means the world to me.

Of course including an asterisk in the title, because of the obvious reason that I cannot know every shoe that exists. If there's anything out there just as wide, with similar stack height / cushioning, please do share! The more the merrier. I see the barefoot and anatomically shaped shoes segments parallel to my old career, in craft beer sales back when the category was first going mainstream. Rather than short sighted competition among small brands, supporting each other and expanding the better quality craft segment against big beer / big shoe is always the better bet.

As always, toe socks are a must in my personal opinion, in order to make the best of these. Or at the very least, either tabi or extra wide non-restrictive anatomically shaped socks.

A note on sizing, as earlier I had posted every size's raw inner dimensions straight from the rubber sole factory: https://www.saifootwear.co.jp/uploads/b/8104fe60-bd1a-11f0-8c43-c9aa4a3b728f/Sai%20Footwear%20-%20Size%20guide.pdf

As you'll notice, they had measured the widths on a slight bias, and of course before the shoes were made. As expected, final measurements of the insoles came out slightly smaller, partly due to upper material taking space, but also because the insole widths were measured straight across without bias, parallel line to the wall if one's heel were placed against it. But given the knit material and plenty of vertical space inside, I'm feeling confident that the widest feet I've seen around here, will be happy in these.