Entrepreneur from a young age and current CEO of SOLE shoes, Mike Baker knows how to think on his feet. He’s done a lot of work on his feet, too, which led him to starting SOLE.

He quickly jumps through conversation, an active lifestyle matches his active mind. At one point, though, he wasn’t so mobile. He had a herniated disc in his back that severely limited his outdoor activities, and after back pain led him to orthotics, he decided to get involved in the field—SOLE was born to help others find comfort and relief from back and foot pain.

His back problems are now a distant memory. Since the inception of the company, Baker has worked with podiatrists and doctors to develop shoes that would help with pain.

“The level of awareness of what was under my feet made a dramatic difference to how I was feeling,” he said. Baker realized that it all started at the bottom, at the feet.

There has been peer reviewed research about the benefit of SOLE shoes, and the company is constantly trying to push the knowledge barrier. Currently, the company offers flip-flops, sandals, boots, tennis shoes, slides, socks, and footbeds.

“Customization was the core piece we continue to hang our hat on,” Baker said. “We wanted to make it moldable and acceptable to masses.”

With all the options for comfortable footwear, it’s certainly customizable. The company also focuses on being sustainable and minimizing its footprint on the planet.

One of their biggest efforts at sustainability came to Baker in a surprising way. While up north with friends, he came across a 60-year-old floor made completely of cork. After years of weather change, dirt, dogs, and children, the floor was still standing tough.

He figured why not put what was underneath his shoes, in his shoes. When most people uncork a wine bottle, the cork goes straight to the trash. An almost untreated and natural useful product—into the trash heap.

Since the cork cabin floor incident, SOLE introduced ReCORK, a wine cork recycling initiative that uses wine corks ground down into other recyclable and useful products, one of which being SOLE’s cork flip-flops. The program has collected 50 million corks since it began, and has almost 2,000 collection partners. In an effort to bring their collection and use full circle, the organization plants cork oak trees in Portugal, ensuring that cork will continue to be a useful material.

ReCORK has planted more than 8,000 trees since it started, an effort that offsets the impact it has by collecting the corks.

I was sent a pair of SOLE’s Cork Flips to review for ActionHub, and with the amount of walking I do, I was pleased to give them a try and happy to learn about the environmental efforts that went into the product.

Let me begin by saying that I have extremely flat feet. There is no arch in my foot, there never will be, and regular flip-flops and sandals have only made that fact more evident. My first question when buying shoes is always, “Does it have decent arch support?” I tortured my podiatrist mother for too long with demands for cute, but flat shoes, and now I’m paying for it.

The Cork Flips have excellent arch support. Whereas with some shoes that have cork bottoms, they take a week of breaking in, these already fit to my foot. I was happy to not have to bear through days of mashing my feet into a material that just wasn’t ready.

I felt balanced and poised in these, and the thick straps ensure your foot doesn’t slide around in the shoe. My feet stayed in place even when walking fast. That being said, I don’t love thick straps when it comes to shoes for the most part. I understand why they are necessary in this case, but for style concerns, I would have preferred something smaller, or perhaps two smaller straps for a more feminine look.

I reviewed sandals that had a white bottom and white straps, something I would recommend only for someone planning to wear these strictly by the pool or in the comforts of their own clean home. While the white is nice, it dirties easily. The flips are also available in Bark, Bloom, Coal, Dahlia, Frost, Gala, Lily, Vellum (mine), and Willow. The other color combinations are attractive and well thought out.

As Baker said, the customizable nature of the products is a huge perk. If you’re looking for a SOLE shoe, there’s most likely a style and color for you.

The only downfall of the flips was the between-the-toe strap. I found that it cut into my toes a bit and became painful. This being said, I don’t wear flip-flops that often and I find that I’m a bit picky with straps that go between my toes. The strap isn’t too thick, but was thick enough to be painful when I simply went outside to take out the trash. If your toes are sensitive, I would recommend trying a different style of sandal by SOLE.

I am also blessed with exceptionally wide feet. It’s a gift, or something, and has stopped me from buying many pairs of shoes in my day. I often run into the problem where my foot is hanging off the side of the shoe—not with the Cork Flips. These were just wide enough, and not too wide to the point where they look silly. They would certainly accommodate anyone with wider feet, and would be fine for the lucky ones with slimmer feet who just enjoy a bit more room in their sandals.

At $79.00, the price for a pair of flip-flops is steep at face value. When considering that the flips are extremely beneficial to your feet, posture, and back, the price becomes a bit more reasonable. For someone who enjoys the open and casual look of flip-flops but needs more support than traditional flip-flops, these are perfect.

To learn more, check out SOLE’s website.

Images by Chelsea Hohn