Chambanamoms Reviews: Clarks Wave Cruise

Photo courtesy of PlanetShoes

When chambanamoms.com sponsor PlanetShoes offered our readers the chance to try and review five pairs of shoes for free, we said “yes, please!” This week our cadre of reviewers and self-proclaimed footwear fanatics are sharing their thoughts on the Clarks Wave Cruise:

Jessica: I.  Love.  These.  Shoes.  The Clarks Wave Cruise felt and looked great right out of the box.  Casual but easily dressed up; stylish yet practical; soft but structured — this shoe truly has it all.

The pewter-colored leather has a slight metallic finish and is a great neutral shade.  I have yet to find a color that they don’t look fabulous with.  But it’s not all about looks, right?  Not to worry, the Wave Cruise feels just as good as it looks.  These shoes feel as soft and comfy as your favorite tennies right from the start, but also have enough structure to properly support the foot through a long day of walking.

This is a shoe that easily goes from work to playdate to Ladies’ Night Out and, thanks to chambanamoms.com and sponsor Planetshoes, has already become a staple in this Chambana mom’s wardrobe.

Julia: About a month ago, my second little box from PlanetShoes arrived in the mail.  To my surprise, it contained another pair of Mary Janes — Clark’s Wave Cruise walking shoes.  From the first, I loved these shoes.

The Clark’s Wave Cruise really is just my style.  They have a great look.  When I slipped them on they felt soft and bouncy.  I noticed that the sole of the Clark’s Wave is slightly curved, just like your foot would be in mid-step, so the leather upper doesn’t get that crease after you’ve walked in it for a while.   The construction is mesh and leather, so I can wear them without socks even on hot summer days.

And trust me, I’ve walked miles in mine since I got them.

In fact, I like this shoe so much it became my go-to shoe for work.  The first week I wore them to school, my fellow teachers remarked on how nice they looked and my students loved the cool pewter color (which, I have to say, was an easy match for *everything* in my wardrobe.)  Even after a month of wear, these shoes look and feel terrific. They have retained that “new shoe bounce” that keeps my legs and feet energized, even on days when I feel like I’ve been running my legs off.

Without reservation, I highly recommend these shoes.  They are super-comfortable and look terrific.  If there is one down-side, it’s that they are a bit on the pricey side.  But, for me, their style, comfort, and durability make them a ‘best buy’ for Moms.

Jodee: The Clarks Wave Cruise was the shoe I was most excited about receiving as part of PlanetShoes special promotion with chambanamoms.com, but little did I know they were going to be even better than I had hoped! See, I thought I was going to be getting them in black, which would have been cool enough, but when the package arrived, I opened them up to find a pair of cute pewter leather walking shoes. I’m a magpie girl, always drawn to shiny things, and the color of these shoes is perfect for me. The “pewter” is actually a dark goldish color, just shiny enough to thrill me but still muted enough to be classy and tasteful.

I wore the Clarks Wave Cruise around for a few days and found them to be extremely comfortable—they are designed specifically as walking shoes and so are engineered for comfort and support—but since it’s summer I was wearing them without socks and found them rather roomy. I didn’t get blisters or sore soles, but my feet did slip around in them while walking. I also found them a bit too bulky-looking for wearing with shorts or capris, but with jeans they look great, and with socks they fit much better, so these will be going back into my closet until fall, when I plan to pull them out and wear them every single day

Annalea: I am super glad PlanetShoes decided to send us the Clarks Wave Cruise as the second pair in this promotion with chambanamoms.com. Free shoes are nice and all, but free, comfortable and cute shoes are great.

And these are seriously so great. These are my new go-to shoes for running errands, taking walks with the kiddos, and even long stretches standing on the hard tile floors during kitchen clean-up. I must say it often, because my 5 year old calls them my “walking on pillows” shoes. Any of my friends who wear a size 9/9.5 have been forced asked to try them on, and marvel at their comfort (which is readily given after a test run). They are soft, flexible, lightweight, roomy, and cushion-y – which are key factors when it comes to my fibromyalgia foot pain. Better yet, I prefer to wear mary janes without socks and have had no blisters from my Clarks. Bonus!

Aren’t these fun and sporty? These are definitely too casual for dressing up, but really, how often is that my concern? I dig the pewter color. It is really versatile. Oh, and these wipe up nicely (which I wouldn’t at all know because my 6 month old spit up all over them).

I give these a big two thumbs up. So if you are looking to walk on pillows, go get yourself a pair!

Leighann: My husband has a pair of Clarks that he wears when he dresses up. He’s had them for years and was actually at the local shoe store last week looking for a replacement pair. I have a pair of black Clarks Mary Janes that I purchased to wear to a blogger outreach trip. They are great because they can be dressed up or down.

This pair of Mary Janes has a similar fit and feel as my other pair and were instantly comfortable.

You may ask what “pewter” really means. Are they silver? Bronze? Well, they are sort of in between. You know those outfits that you have that you just can’t figure out if black or brown shoes would look better? Well these are that perfect in between color. And with the black soles you could wear them with either.

I wear a lot of khakis to work and these are the perfect shade! They also look great with capris, shorts, or skirts.

And if you have wanted to try out the metallic trend, but just don’t want to wear gold (raises hand), these are a great way to wear metallic without being gaudy.

For comfort and styling, I give the Clarks Wave Cruise an A.

Jennifer: I am a fan of combining comfort with style and Clarks, is known for doing this well. Unfortunately I’d never previously met a pair of Clarks that actually worked for me in practice. There are so many positive attributes to the Clarks Wave Cruise shoe that its hard to say I didn’t love them (but I didn’t).

To start with the aesthetics; these are cute not-too-sporty Mary Janes, sent to me by PlanetShoes. All the little design details make fairly wide shoes not seem clunky at all. These are definitely less bulky than the Earth Simplista with enough support to feel secure. I was a little disappointed that the pictured color is not quite true to life. This “pewter” has a touch of gold/bronze, making the shoes a lot less silver than the photo.

At first sliding these on, I appreciated how easy they were to velcro and the immediate cushy feel reminiscient of Nine West’s dearly departed Cloud 9 line. First impressions are a good thing. All that cush and just the right amount of arch support made me really want to love these shoes.

Oddly enough the first issue I had was the width. This is not odd in that I tend to veer towards wide width shoes and that Clarks are almost certainly always too narrow. It is odd in that I felt these were almost too wide. No matter how tightly I pulled the velcro, the sides seemed to slouch as I stepped. Is all that cush providing too much give in the structure?

The main issue, however, was the way the back hit very high on my heels. (To be fair with my review, I even went and tried on the next smaller size in the store.) The backs of these shoes are curved inward at the top, making the entire heel more concave that my heel is convex. I know my heels are narrow and bony, but the Clarks Wave Cruise went above and beyond in banging them up with only a 10 minute walk.

This shoe, sadly, receives a “cute but I’ll pass” rating. Your mileage (and heel dimensions) may vary.

Amy: I get weird about my shoes. I latch on to a pair, and then I wear them until I am forced to throw them out, as I was with my all-time favorite Celtic green Chuck Taylor low-tops. But now … oh, now! I have found the shoe that finally made me forget about my beloved Chucks.

Enter the Clarks Wave Cruise.

I love these shoes. I love them so much I would marry them. As Annalea said above, it is like wearing a pair of pillows strapped to your feet. My active toddler is no match for me when I wear my Clarks Wave Cruise, and I wear them with just about every outfit you can imagine. When we first arrived in Chambana I bought a pair of orange Keens in the Mary Jane style, and those have been my daily shoe for almost four years.

Now? They have been ousted. I even convinced my mom to buy a pair of her own, and I cannot rave enough about the comfort and support in this shoe. I have psoriatic arthritis in all of my joints, but my hips, knees and pelvis are among my chief complainers. So these shoes make standing on my feet for hours so much easier on my body. I also love that this doesn’t have the orthopedic look of so many comfort shoes. The style and color are, in a word, adorable.

PlanetShoes, the Clarks Wave Cruise was a hit!

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