Allbirds Loungers
$95
That’s right. Allbirds also makes a slipper — or, a “Lounger” as they call it. They’re famous for their $95 all-wool “Runners” sneakers, but they more recently released their $95 lounger shoe as well. We’ve already reviewed their Runners, but what about their loungers? Are they worth the money — especially if you already own their sneakers?
Website & Order Process
The Allbirds website is a downright pleasure to look at and use. Ordering is simple, and shipping is fast — just a few days. Plus, they have an absolutely ridiculously good “no questions asked” return policy for 30 days. Wear them outside, in the rain, around the house — whatever you want. And try as many sizes as you’d like, too (something we’ll come back to soon). If you don’t like them, send whatever you’d like back to them, you guessed it, no questions asked.
Quality & Construction
These shoes follow the same quality and construction as the sneakers do. They have a super light custom foam/rubber sole and are all-wool uppers. They have their super comfortable insole, and wear extremely light and comfortably (with or without socks). It’s like walking on a cloud.
These shoes can also be fully washed — just throw them in the washing machine and watch them come out like-new. No surprise, I wore these in the rain with no issues whatsoever.
Still, while these shoes by no means feel cheap, they do sort of feel… insubstantial? This is no doubt due to their weightlessness, but I cannot help but feel if I work these things too hard they will wear out. They are slippers, so I don’t expect this to be too much of an issue, but I thought I’d mention it, especially because of what we’re about to discuss…
Style
I think slippers in general should have a place in every guy’s wardrobe. There are times around the house you don’t want to be barefoot — or even if you need to run out quickly but don’t want to put on real shoes. In fact, these slippers are just fashion-sneaker-y enough that you could get away with wearing them for a quick supermarket run or something — and I have. (Indeed, Allbirds even markets them to be worn outside, both in pictures on their website and on their box.)
These Loungers are available in two regular colors — grey and dark grey — as well as a whole slew of limited edition colors that, quite literally, change with the season.
Just about whatever color you get can go with anything you wear, given they are slippers and are meant to be worn more casually and thus don’t really need to match. Still, I went with the light grey, which is technically the most versatile of the bunch.
Fit & Sizing
Right away I was disappointed that they don’t offer half-sizes. For a shoe company that only makes two shoes, this borders on unacceptable. No shock, I had a hard time finding a size that fit me. While their website suggested a 12, it ran a bit too short for my feet, and my toes visibly make indentations on the front and side of the shoes. I think this is made more noticeable because of the light color option I got, but if you look around on Google, you’ll find that most Allbirds have this issue. The material is so soft, your toes shape is just somewhat visible. Still, it’s not uncomfortable. Even though in a typical shoe this would be considered too tight, because the shoe is so damn comfortable, and stretchy, it actually feels totally fine. I tried a size 13 which was a bit longer, but it was also too big all around and slipped a bit as I walked (I’ve never worn a 13 in my life). Plus, you could still see my toes even with the size 13. So, I stuck with the 12, and have broken it in a bit as the shoe stretched from natural wear, and all is well that ends (mostly) well. I still wish they had half sizes, and I still wish you couldn’t see my toes quite so much — but I doubt anyone but the person wearing them would really notice.
Value & Conclusion
There is no doubt that $95 is pricey for these things. They are essentially slippers, after all. However, given our conclusion when it came to the Allbirds Runners, I really think that these Loungers are the way to go if you’re going to order only one of the two. If you just need a pair of slippers, I don’t think you need to spend $95 on these. But, if you want a pair of Allbirds, I think you very well might get more wear and use out of these slipper/sneaker hybrids than the sneakers.
I have found that these Loungers have become a go-to, and somehow fill a void in my shoe collection that I never knew was there. Running out to take out the trash? Loungers. Supermarket or CVS quickly? Loungers. And, of course, hanging out around the apartment/house? Loungers. And so on.
As far as slippers go, these are the most comfortable I have ever had the pleasure of wearing. As a bonus, they are decent fashion sneakers in a pinch, too. Are they really $95 slippers? Probably not. It seems a bit difficult to me that the Loungers and the Runners are the same price. Still, if you’re only going to get one of the two, get the Loungers.