The Evolution of a Paracord Sandal Shoe Design

Over the course of many years I've evolved my thought process and strategy for foot wear. As I've had a very active, rugged, outdoor professional, recreational, and political lifestyle I've hoofed countless miles across virtually ever type of terrain. As with a lot of questions about what is the best, or what is one's favorite, the answer is "it depends". Another expression, "there are no solutions, only trade-offs" comes to mind.

In the context of footwear, I've discovered paradoxes that seem to logically contradict each other. For example, there are times when the sturdiest, most overbuilt, combat/hiking/work boots are called for to enable confident and rapid movement over disaster debris, rough natural terrain, insect/plant/animal threats, etc. However, there are other times when on the same terrain, if the job/mission/objective is not an acute rush, but rather a long duration slow methodical process, I've found that the very boots meant to protect the feet and ankles can become their worst enemy. The least of all concerns is simply the odors that build up as sweat. The more insidious threat is the compounding factors of lack of sunlight and oxygen, pathogenic microbial growth, blisters and chafing, etc. If ever submerged in water even momentarily, let alone for extended periods all of these issues are made much worse. An ample supply of fresh clean socks are the saving grace in most circumstances, however having an adequate supply and the means to wash and keep them rotating through soiling and cleaning cycles can become untenable at times.

What I've arrived at is a balance where, in my unique circumstance, I have a bit of versatility. If ever in a storm, medical emergency, or other incident requiring less mindfulness over my footwork and more of a focus on rapid paced incident response, I have redundant pairs of well worn combat/hiking/work boots that I can put on and go to work. However, most of the time as I'm working the land and doing typical permaculture homesteading chores and projects, I'm fine with even the most minimal of footwear. Essentially just a firm sole which serves two basic functions: 1. prevent impalement of the feet by wasteland sharp debris such as invisibly buried yet close to the surface bits of glass, nails, metal scraps, corroded tin cans, etc.; and 2. during the summer months where once the sun is out, the desert sand bakes and without a pad under my feet, even a second of exposure to the ground temperature on bare skin can result in painful blistering burns.

While so-called flip-flops are a common go-to solution, a more sandal like design was what I needed to make a d-i-y project out of. I needed the sandal to the ability to be put on easily, not fall of easily and have very few breakable, or hard to replace components. It just so appended that the Chinese Kung Fu style black slipper-like shoes that I'd worn for years as street wear, were my only alternative to the cumbersome and problematic boots. Unfortunately, the desert terrain just tore them to shreds one pair after the next. I went through several pairs until I arrived that the realization that I should take a chance and experiment with a modification of the shredded remains.

With just the bare sole left, and stripped off the last remaining fabric threads and made the first iteration: a black duct tape sandal. I'd see very well designed duct tape wallets and other crafty such projects before. It worked well during the winter as I was layering socks and the shape of my foot was snug and not irritated by the duct tape. Unfortunately on my morning and lunch time walks, the duct tape wore to nothing quickly. I was not thrilled to be shedding the nasty material into the ecosystem or in the durability and potential cost to maintain.

The next iteration, the one that I'm still using now makes use of 500 parachute (a.k.a. paracord), which is, while artificial and not the most eco-friendly solution, a very strong and reliable form of cordage. I've tried to substitute jute rope, eventually I'll keep experimenting with other natural fibers, for now I'm accepting the trade-off.

After having a sense of structural placement of the duct tape straps, I simply took out a drill and a small drill bit, looked at the sole for a minute and just intuitively drilled 5 holes into each sole. Two on either side of the back where the heal rests, and three at even spaced across the top. I left approximately a quarter inch of space from the outer edge of the sole to the center of the drilled hole to hopefully prevent the hole from breaching too easily.

The next phase was to figure out how to enmesh and fasten with knots several lengths of paracord to approximate a more elaborate sewn strap sandal with buckles and other features.

While there's still a lot of room for improvement on the sort of prototype design, for months now I've been able to continually maintain it with minimal use of new material. The soles are holding up amazingly well, and the paracord, while it does where through where in contact with the ground, it's simple and efficient enough to start with longer lengths and just continually truncate and tie off again as needed. Just a series of half-hitch knots are easy to adjust for tension.

The first prototypes also used strips of salvaged bicycle inner tubes, one of my favorite materials to re-use and upcycle. This made for an elastic effect so that I could have a snug fitting strap without a buckle. I knew however that the life time of such a strap would be limited, eventually it wears and falls apart, and much faster than the paracord. Now each sandal is in a different state of degradation and maintenance, but still getting the job done.

As of the time of writing this, I've crossed a threshold of replacing the bike tube strap with paracord, while there's now a slight be of "play", it's barely noticeable and if I really want to get more elaborate there are many advanced knots that can be used to implement very agile tension methods.

Eventually when the soles wear out, I'll be on a mission to find the best rubber like rigid material to replace them. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mud-flaps on my truck and thought, I may have to re-purpose them as future shoe soles. They're not much use in the desert biome anyhow.