Arch Support: The One Word That Separates Slippers From Foot-Shaped Bags

Working from home changed what a slipper has to do. A shoe worn for the twenty steps between a bed and a kettle needs nothing; footwear worn for eight or ten hours a day needs the same support any other shoe would. Most slippers were designed for the first job and are still being bought for the second.

A flat sole is what makes feet ache on hard floors. Tile, laminate and concrete give nothing back, and standing on them in an unstructured slipper is close to standing barefoot. A moulded footbed with a raised arch is doing the work a good insole does in a proper shoe.

Men wear one pair of slippers into the ground and then keep going. It is genuinely common for a pair to be a decade old, flattened to cardboard, held together by habit — and equally common for the owner to have no idea they are the reason his feet hurt in the evening.

• A husband who works from home and is on his feet indoors all day
• Anyone with tiled or laminate floors, which is most flats
• Someone who has mentioned aching feet or wears orthotic insoles in his shoes
• A father or grandfather whose current pair is visibly finished

• Worn more hours a day than any other footwear he owns
• Structure, which almost no slipper actually has
• He will never buy replacements himself

The things worth checking before you order — this is where gifts like this most often go wrong.

• Order his normal shoe size and check the seller's chart rather than assuming. Slipper sizing is frequently sold in single sizes or in pairs of sizes, and a clog-style slipper that is too large slides off at the heel while one too small defeats the footbed entirely.
• A moulded footbed feels wrong for the first few days if he has only ever worn flat slippers. That is normal and it settles, but it is worth saying so, because the usual reaction to unfamiliar arch support is to assume the shoe is faulty.
• Check the sole is genuinely rubber and rated for outdoor steps if he takes the bins out. A soft indoor sole wears through quickly on concrete and tracks grit back inside.
• Wool-like and plush uppers are warm by design. In a heated flat, or for someone whose feet run hot, a lined winter slipper can be too much for year-round wear.