What's new

Boat shoes with socks

BigFoot

I wanna be sedated!
Staff member
If you are going to walk a lot a good pair of sandals are way more comfy than Boat Shoes IMO. I think you could get by with colored socks if wearing khakis. Shorts or Jeans...no way.
 
No, you do not wear socks with boat shoes.

And a good pair of boat shoes are very supportive, the wrap around lacing system gets them snug to your feet and helps them mold to your feet.

I wear them in all but the coldest months, they pair with shorts, jeans and khakis flawlessly.

I have been turned off Sperry, as the last ones I bought didn't have the leather footbed liner. My current Sebago Docksides are better (half leather lined) - but the best ones I own are Quoddys

They have full glove leather liners and are fully recraftable. On sale (15% off) at the moment
 
I agree with everyone else. No socks.

for casual shoes, I almost exclusively wear boat shoes. Especially in the summer. They work well with shorts, jeans or a decent pair of slacks for a casual night in town.

I own Sebago Docksiders. They are definitely a bear to break in. They didn't take too long though, and now are very comftorable. I wear them for walking all the time. I even wore them most of our last trip to Disney.

Surprisingly, they don't stink either. Thats because they are all leather. If I wear them for long periods of time a few days in a row, I do make sure I put them on some shoe trees for a while.
 
Only time I wore boat shoes was when I inherited a pair form my old man. Hush puppies. I wore them without socks because that’s how I saw Tom Selleck do it in Magnum PI. Never had an issue with smell or anything. But they did break down Quicker than expected. Only lasted two summers. If you want them to last I would consider some “no show” socks. But that’s just me.

Johnny
 
No, you do not wear socks with boat shoes.

And a good pair of boat shoes are very supportive, the wrap around lacing system gets them snug to your feet and helps them mold to your feet.

I wear them in all but the coldest months, they pair with shorts, jeans and khakis flawlessly.

I have been turned off Sperry, as the last ones I bought didn't have the leather footbed liner. My current Sebago Docksides are better (half leather lined) - but the best ones I own are Quoddys

They have full glove leather liners and are fully recraftable. On sale (15% off) at the moment

Dang, those Quoddys are pricey!!
 
They are pricey, but very tempting.

BTW, I would think that classic boat shoes should be unlined. Just like the sock questions, these shoes were intended to get wet. Which is not to say I would not get lined. My feet are unlikely to get wet doing the kind of sailing I am likely to do. And if my feet are really going to get wet, I would wear a pair of old Topsiders.
 
Meritime by Allen Edmonds=no socks and nothing but class. I also ordered a pair of olukai flip flops just to see what all the hype is about.
 
I have socks made my Sperry that are no show that I wear that still make it appear that I have no socks on that I will wear with my boat shoes if I feel the need to wear socks with them.

I wear the Sperry "Billfish" variant and have been for over 10 years and find them to be as comfortable as any shoe I own. Just last night I went on a mile long walk around my neighborhood in them and was never once uncomfortable. (this is something I do on a pretty frequent basis on nights it is pretty, so it wasn't just this one time I did this..) If I were you if you like the style I would look into them, they are much more comfortable than the more classic sperry boat shoe. I live in a coast area and this model here is more popular I would say than the classic boat shoe, they also work pretty good on a boat too.
 
Last edited:

cleanshaved

I’m stumped
Boat shoes with no socks. But if you want to wear socks there are no show shocks that may be of interest.

main-qimg-b0001337c13e76178d782b5785ee5fdc-c.jpg
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I have Sperry and Allen Edmonds. Never worn either with socks. Never gotten a blister. Never had sore, tired feet or back problems. Never felt anything but pure comfort.

Yeah I know, there's one in every crowd.

Like many, I was put off at first at the idea of wearing shoes with no socks. "Won't my feet smell?" "Won't I get blisters" "won't the shoe become all sweaty and stinky?" The answer to my questions were no no and no. And now I wouldn't dare wear them with socks. If I'm going somewhere I might need to wear socks I'll put on a different shoe. I'm guessing it has something to do with the leather maybe as to why they don't stink? I don't know and honestly not worried. Boat shoes are my shoes 80% of the summer I'd say.
 
Ooh, I might have to try these Sperry short socks. I love my Sperry Top Siders, but the leather under the tongue gets stuck to the top of my foot when it is really warm here in the AL summers.

Tim
They won't help with the tongue. They are more for the soles
 
The Quoddy sale over Memorial day sucked me in....they arrived today and are gorgeous. No regrets, no remorse!
IMG_3375.JPG

Quoddy Classic Boat Shoe
Upper : Horween® Chromexcel / Navy
Sole Type : Boat Sole
Sole Color : Boat Sole / White
Thread : White
Hardware : White
Lace : Rawhide / White
Lining : Gold Glove Leather
Size : 10.5
Width : D Standard Medium
 
I tried wearing some boat shoes without socks, but they got nasty within a month. Perhaps I need to try higher quality boat shoes, because the no-name ones I bought from Target were falling apart, stank to high heaven, and did not handle water well.
 
I sometimes were them with no show socks if I'm at work but no socks any other time. I reading some complaints about Sperry boat shoes not being comfortable or hurting their feet after walking only short distances I learned the hard way. I always bought the original boat shoe from Sperry and yes they aren't bad looks wise but offer little support and the leather takes time to soften up. It's the more expensive Gold Cups that not only offer more support but are made from a better grade of leather and have a nicely cushioned inner sole and full leather lining. I wait for a sale and go for the Gold Cups.
 
<falling apart, stank to high heaven, and did not handle water well>

None of that should happen with better quality boat shoes, including the less expensive Sperries, at least the traditional brown ones, at least as far as I know. It has been awhile since I had a new pair and I see some at Nordstrom Rack where I wonder whether the leather is really made for shoes to be worn on a boat. Why at least traditional Sperries do not tend to stink more than they do, is an interesting question. I find that they do sort of develop an inner coating of oily who knows what, I assume from human skin. I suspect that however the leather is traditionally tanned in way to hold up to even constant salt water may tend to be anti-bacterial, too. They smell some, but not to high heaven. (I may not be a good test. My shoes do not seem to stink much in general.)

BTW, the traditional navy blue Sperries were absolutely notorious for rubbing off on one's feet and dying them blue. I would not consider them authentic if they did not do that. :) I do not know if they would wear off on socks or not, as I do not wear shoes with boat shoes, except enough to know that the brown ones do not seem to dye feet or socks!

Do the Gold Cups actually hold up well to being in water? I had assumed that part of the original design--that is, just a piece of leather stitched to a sole white piece of rubberized material--was because that way it could become completely wet and not have some kind of lining tear away. Zero support is surely correct though. As I recall, way back, Sperry topsiders did not have a lining of any kind. Your foot rested directly on the piece of leather sewed to the sole. Later they started putting in a thin brown liner of some other kind of material glued to the inside bottom of the shoe. Even later that liner started to have some modicum of padding in the form of some blue foam material, but not much. My recollection is that either lining tended to tear away from the inside bottom pretty quickly.

Again, the original idea of these shoes were that they were what some rich kid at an Ivy League or similar college wore sailing in New England. The idea was that they were intended to be non-slip no matter how wet they or the deck was, and they could live in salt water and always dry back to something wearable. The idea was not comfort.

Of course, real Weejuns never provided any support either and you could break your neck with the slippery all leather heels, which never made any sense!

What kind of lining do the Quodies have?
 
Top Bottom