Flip flop, slide or clog: how to pick between the five

Buy the Halo Clog if your floor gets wet at work, or if your workplace wants your toes covered. If neither is true, the only thing left to decide is whether you want something between your toes: yes means a flip flop, no means a slide. That is the whole decision, and it is short because the part of the shoe you actually stand on does not change between the five.

What is genuinely different between the five styles?

The upper. Nothing else.

All five sit on the same contoured ArcFit™ footbed, the same fused CloudFoam™ sole and the same geometric outsole. Not similar versions of those parts. The same parts. So the arch shape is the same, the heel cup is the same, the cushioning is the same and the grip is the same, whichever one you put in the bag.

What each upper does:

• Ultimate Flip Flop, toe post, open over the foot
• Ardour Flip Flop, toe post, open over the foot
• Aroma Pro Slide, one strap across the forefoot, no toe post
• Adventure Slide, one strap across the forefoot, no toe post
• Halo Clog, closed over the toes, drilled through for drainage

You will have noticed that adds up to three kinds of shoe rather than five. There is a section on that further down.

Does a toe post or a strap actually change anything?

More than it looks like it should, and the difference is less about comfort than about how the shoe stays on.

A toe post anchors the shoe at a single point, between the big toe and the second one. Your toes do a small amount of work to keep it there, all day, without you ever deciding to. Plenty of people have worn thongs their whole lives and have never once noticed this happening. Other people cannot stand anything sitting between two toes and know it inside a minute. If you have never worn a toe post, find that out on somebody else's pair before you order, because our returns are defect-only. No change of mind, no size swaps.

A strap holds the foot across the whole forefoot instead, and your toes do nothing at all. You step in and step out in one motion, without bending down or using a hand. That sounds like a small thing until you are carrying something, or your feet are swollen at the end of a shift and you would rather not have to aim them at anything.

The clog is that same strap continued over the end of your foot. Same idea, more coverage.

Which of them is best on a wet floor?

Underfoot, none of them. All five are identical there.

The outsole is a geometric non-slip pattern with channels cut through it, so water runs off the sole instead of sitting as a film between the sole and the floor. That film is what makes a wet floor slippery. It is the same outsole on the clog as on the flip flop, so anyone telling you the closed one grips better is describing a shoe we do not make.

What does change on a wet floor is what happens above your foot. An open upper leaves the top of your foot in the open. If the wet on your floor is water, that is fine, and it dries. If it is oil off a fryer, mop chemical, or something in a clinical room, then coverage is the thing you are actually shopping for, and coverage is the clog.

What does "drilled for drainage" mean in practice?

Closing a shoe over the toes creates somewhere for liquid to collect. The Halo is drilled through the upper so that it does not: whatever gets in has a route back out, and a spill drains instead of pooling around your foot. It is the same reasoning as the channels through the outsole, applied to the part that would otherwise hold water.

The construction helps here as well. The whole shoe is one waterproof piece, with no fabric lining and no insole glued in on top, so the closed style avoids the usual penalty of a closed shoe. There is nothing inside it that can stay damp. Rinse it under a tap and shake it out. Cold or lukewarm water only, because hot water deforms CloudFoam the same way a dashboard does.

Why does the clog cost the same as a flip flop?

Because the clog is more material in the place where material is cheap, and exactly the same material in the place where it is not.

One price runs across the whole range. Five styles, sixteen colourways, and the same number against every one of them on the shop page. A clog is visibly more shoe than a flip flop, but the cost sits in the sole, and the sole is the same part in both. Putting a price step between them would be charging you for surface area.

A second effect matters more while you are choosing. Nothing is held back for a dearer version. There is no better footbed on the clog and no upgraded foam on the slide, so the decision is about shape and situation rather than what you can stretch to. The reasoning behind the single price is on the about page.

So who should buy the clog?

People whose floor is a workplace.

Wards, kitchen lines, salon floors, counters. Anywhere with a spill risk, or a rule about covered toes, or both. The clog is the only one of the five you can wear through an actual shift in most of those rooms, which makes it less a preference than a requirement. There is more in for nurses and healthcare, for retail and hospitality and for long shifts.

Standing still is the harder case, and it is the job the footbed is doing. Walking unloads a foot every step. Standing on a hard floor holds the same two spots under load for the length of a shift, and a flat sole leaves the arch spanning air the whole time. A contoured footbed makes contact along the arch, so the same body weight is spread over more of the foot and the peak under the heel and the ball comes down. Pressure is force divided by area. All of that is true of every style here, the clog is simply the one you are allowed to wear at work.

The slide is for the end of the day

You reach for Aroma Pro or Adventure once your feet have already done the work, which makes it the style for taking shoes off rather than putting them on. Stepping out of trainers in a car park, moving around the house, the last hour of the evening. Nothing to aim at, nothing to fasten, one motion in and one motion out. See for post-workout recovery and for home and everyday.

Who should buy a flip flop?

Anyone who already knows they get along with a toe post.

Ultimate and Ardour are the least shoe of the five. Less upper means less of it against your foot in heat and less of it to dry after a rinse. They are the open, warm-weather end of the range, and they are the wrong answer for a kitchen or a ward for precisely the reason that makes them good everywhere else.

If you have never worn one, this is the only style here with a real chance of not suiting you, and it is not the kind of problem a different size fixes.

Ultimate and Ardour, Aroma and Adventure: what separates the pairs?

The look. That is the honest answer, and it is why the list above has two entries that read almost identically.

Within each of those pairs the footbed, the foam and the outsole are the same parts, and the upper is cut differently. So you are deciding which one you would rather have on your foot and which colourway you want, not deciding between two levels of performance. Anybody who tells you otherwise, including us on a bad day, is selling you the surface area again.

If that leaves you no closer, the fit quiz asks four questions about what you actually stand on and points at one of them. And if you are weighing this range against something else entirely, Fanture against Crocs and Fanture against OOFOS are written up separately.

The thing that rules out all five

Heat.

CloudFoam is heat-sensitive, and this is the one place where picking the right style will not save you. Direct sunlight, a closed car, a room heater, a dryer and hot water will all deform the foam, and heat damage is not covered by returns. If your work is outdoors on a roof in summer, none of these five is the right shoe, and we would rather say that here than take the order. The full account of what the foam can and cannot take is on the technology page.

Dry them indoors, in shade. That applies to the clog and the flip flop equally, because it is the same foam in both.

Frequently asked

Can I swap style or size if I choose wrong?

No. Returns and replacements cover a manufacturing defect, damage on arrival, or the wrong item sent, reported within 7 days of delivery. Change of mind and size swaps are not covered, which is why the size converter and the fit quiz get as much room on this site as they do. If you are between two sizes, or unsure about a toe post, ask us before you order rather than after.

Which style is best for standing all day?

For the standing itself they are the same shoe. One footbed, one foam and one outsole in every one of them. The real question is which one your workplace allows, and in most rooms with a wet floor or a dress code that is the Halo Clog. For long shifts goes through it properly.

Is the clog heavier than the flip flops?

We have not published a per-style weight, so we are not going to imply one. The only figure we have measured is roughly 120 g per shoe at EU 42, and EU 42 is the size we weighed. A clog has more upper than a flip flop, so it will not be lighter, but we would be inventing the difference if we put a number on it.

Do all five come in the same sizes?

Yes. EU 38–46, IND-UK 5–11, unisex, right across the range. Changing style never changes your size, so shape is all this page asks you to decide.