What Are Water Shoes?
If you are searching this topic, you might have an idea about water shoes. But there are a few things to look at. First, you need to find out the differences between water shoes and water sandals. Water shoes are shoes that are specified for using in the water. These shoes are preferable when someone playing or walking into the water and needs to keep the feet protected and comfortable.
Features of Water Shoes
Let’s jump onto the features of water shoes first to get a clear idea about them. Water shoes are very flexible in nature. These are made from tracery material which increases breathability. Moreover, water shoes will allow you to walk smoothly on the river bed without being imbalanced. It is structured to allow water into its outside body also. These are designed to flow out the water from the shoe. Water shoes dry quickly and have a flexible body for passing out water. And so, these shoes are perfect for kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding. There are water shoes designed for both keeping your feet warm as well as cool despite being wet.
Difference Between Crocs and Water Shoes
Crocs have a lot in common with sandals than shoes. Water sandals have straps and holes all over the shoe but water shoes are designed to protect your feet from rocks or anything hard that might hurt your feet. It does not have any straps or wholes. But crocs are designed with straps and holes and look similar to a shoe.
Water shoes are made from mesh which is suitable for increased breathability, instant drying capability, and capacity to absorb water into its body. On the other hand, crocs are made from rubberish materials and this also has holes within the shoe, and it’s similar to water sandals.
Why Crocs are Good Water Shoes?
There are some definite reasons why crocs are good as water shoes.
Carries Sports Facilities:
Crocs have a special feature for sports person. The straps of the shoe help you to hold your heel steady and keep your toes in front of the feet. This feature will help you to prevent slippage and make you secure on the playground.
(4.4 modes) It is also known as 4.4 mode which indicates the athletic feature of the shoe that enables a person to hike and lounge around the campsite.
Floating Capacity:
Floating can be both a benefit and a drawback for the users. Let’s discuss the drawbacks later. The floating capacity of crocs is a major benefit. If someone goes through a river stream while kayaking, it is possible to lose the crocs because of the heavy stream. So, if this happens, the users can get their pair of crocs because of these flow on the water. So, this is a huge benefit.
Multifunctional activities:
Crocs are versatile in their actions. People prefer it more when they think to put on something lighter, more breathable, and easy to wear. Crocs have straps that either go over the back of your heels or slightly sit on the top of the shoe. These features make it easy to wear and take off easily anytime. These provide quick services to the users which is a great advantage.
Fast Drying Ability:
Crocs are usually made from rubbers. For that reason, these don’t absorb water, so they can dry quickly. So, if you go into the water, and shoes get wet, it will eventually dry in some moment, so your legs won’t be wet for so long. If you compare all the water shoes, made from fabric, it’s clear that crocs are the easiest and smart option for the users. It is faster than all other shoes.
Featherweight:
There are people who like to carry light things while traveling or for going for the day out or even while going to sports. Now the crocs carry maximum 16 ounces of weight in total which varies from 11 ounces. While hiking, light-weighted shoes are more preferable. These are comfortable while going through paved and smooth sections of the trail. Besides, there might be the need of changing the normal shoe while going through the water. If you wear crocs, there won’t be the need of changing the shoes again and again. So, it will be time-saving and beneficial for the users.
Cozy and Comfy:
The material of crocs is really soft and comfortable. This is popular among the users because it has a very light and comfy body, easy to wear, and also fashionable. This is a really great way to keep your body balanced and go for the activity you are supposed to do. For its breathability, your feet won.t sweat. This will make your movement much easier.
The other side of the camp: There are people who don’t find crocs comfortable. For the special features, crocs are preferable to a lot of people. But These also have some drawbacks, for these, some people don’t find it interesting. They prefer other types of shoes than crocs. Now, let’s discuss the drawbacks of crocs.
Drawbacks of Crocs as Water Shoes
The drawbacks are mainly because of the safety issues. There are some points indicating why all the people don’t like crocs to use as water shoes. The following points will give you a clear idea about it:
Rock Accumulation:
As the crocs are structured with holes in them, you can gather rock unintentionally within your shoe. But this can be irritating to most people. Because these gathered rocks create problems for the users. These can hurt their legs or create obstacles while walking or running. Not only in the cases of rocks, but these shoes also gather sand and other debris.
These all are very disturbing. Your journey can be annoying for these things. Although you can wash them, still it will create a lagging to your smooth traveling. But one thing to clear the whole matter is that all kinds of water shoes have this problem and crocs are not free from this. This problem is a very broad one.
Imbalance and Slippery Problem:
You really need to ensure your safety while moving through the water. You need to choose a shoe that is not slippery and stable enough to keep you safe and sound. The watery places are often very slippery and have rocky bottoms. So, it is really important to stay balanced and safe.
There are many types of crocs that are not made for water use. They might not carry the perfect materials and features to be used as water shoes. You should not use those kinds of crocs as water shoes. Even there are incidents where hikers faced major accidents for choosing the wrong pair of shoes and had a severe injury.
Not Fitting Properly:
While hiking, you really need to wear a fit shoe. If your feet move around the shoes, this will hamper your walking or hiking. Many people find crocs loose which makes their movement unstable and uncomfortable. This is a problem in any kind of situation, especially while going through quickly moving water.
For avoiding these kinds of situations, the users should keep their crocs on 4× 4 modes. Also. They can use adventure straps to make them fit. You should rather buy crocs that are not a little tight for your feet than buy oversized pair.
Bulkiness:
As crocs don’t compress much, some people find it bulky and hard to wear. So, you might make it comfortable to wear before using them. You can strap them to the outside of your pack or choose other hiking shoes that will be more comfortable for your use.
Floating Feature:
The floating capacity can be a benefit as well as a limitation. While going through the water, you might lose them. But floating can be dangerous at some times too. Because of floating too fast, the feet of a hiker can be floated before the body, which can cause serious injury to him or her.
Parasites:
As crocs don’t cover up all of your feet, this can create hassle at some point. There are some areas like Arkansas or Georgia, where you need to use closed shoes and long pants for your safety issue.
Noisy:
Squeaky sound is a really irritating one. So, wearing crocs will be a problem for those who can’t bear squeaky sounds. But there are other greater benefits of using crocs that are greater than this sound. So, you can ignore it for the sake of its usefulness.
Final Decision
So, now that we have discussed both the advantages and disadvantages of crocs, it’s your decision to use it or not. To summarize, Crocs are light-weighted, easy drying, It can be comfortable as well as uncomfortable at different times, might not be fast moving all the time.
So, it might not be the best option, but still a pretty acceptable one. So if you want to take it despite all its drawbacks, you can wear it and enjoy it. But if you don’t want to wear it, there are other options for you.
It is completely on you which one will be most suitable for you.