Lemme be honest: I always hated toe shoes. Still kinda do. I resent their... toe-y-ness. No one needs to see them thangs. Put 'em away. The problem with toe shoes was that, even though they covered the dogs, they almost emphasize them more than open-toe styles because they insist upon highlighting the individual toes. Eeeyuck.

But now that they're kinda in, even us certified toe-shoe haters gotta admit: some of these new styles are... kinda good.

If you're ever gonna get me to come around to these things, it certainly helps that they actually look kinda cool nowadays. You can credit (or blame) Vibram, the shoe-sole company that created these things, and longtime collaborator Suicoke for really innovating in this arena.

Vibram's FiveFinger line produces the most famous toe shoes known to humankind and it's recently begun proposing admirably tolerable styles like the sleek Graspifier — basically a camo foot glove — and some road-running variants that mask their toe shame with surprisingly solid tonal colorways.

But Suicoke was perhaps the first third-party brand to fully grasp the toe shoes' potential.

Though better known for chunky slides, Suicoke was early to reposition Vibram's toe shoes as something — dare I say — stylish. It brought in designers for toe shoe collaborations and remixed them with fresh colorways in its seasonal collections long before they were culturally normalized.

And Suicoke's newest toe shoes are even better. In tonal grey with suede up top and a super-grippy micro-sole below, these things look downright suave. (well, as suave as toe shoes can be.) Really, the biggest problem is one true of all shoes intended to be worn sans sock: you know it smell crazy in there.

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