Shapen Fleur – A Full Review | Obsessed with Barefoot Shoes

If you want ultimate elegance in barefoot shoes, go right to Shapen Barefoot. Their smooth lines, beautiful designs, and attractive shoes pair well with your best outfits and elevate any look.

Shapen has more narrow designs in their Poppy, Tulip, and Lily models, and wider options in Ivy, and Fleur, the latter of which was sent to me for review and is the focus of this post. If you choose to use my affiliate discount code OWBSHOES you will save 5% and a small portion will go to support reviews like this.

Sections

Technical Details

Upper: leather
Insole: leather with 2 mm foam support
Sole: 3.5 mm rubber
Sizes: 36-43

Fleur is available in numerous color options, with new gold and yellow models just recently released. At the time of this writing, there are 8 different colors, including this beautiful Bordeaux color.

Company

Shapen is a Slovakian brand started by Mia, who faced very personal reasons for moving into barefoot shoes. On her Our Story page you can see how her foot has changed with barefoot shoes and how she moved from a personal need through to building a successful business centered on creating a perfect marriage of style and barefoot shoes.

Appearance

First, the color. It’s quite the chameleon! If you’re in shadows, it’s purple, but when you move into light the red shines. With this in mind, I do not try to match the color exactly, but rather use it as a color pop accessory to more neutral outfits, especially with blues, browns, and greens.

Here are some 100% unedited #nofilter pics of the colors in these Fleur shoes, both in shadow and light. Back:

Front:

This is Bordeaux – always changing, and always beautiful. You will see both purple and red in the images throughout the review, depending on the lighting or weather around me when I took the pics.

Style-wise, these Fleur are a Derby and have a formal look. They are not something you’ll pick with joggers/sweat pants, but you can use them to enhance a city-casual look with a clear jump up in style.

Shapen sells accessories for most of their shoes, and these have aglets available in silver and gold that you can attach to the tips of your laces for an additional accent. I have yet to use the ones included with my review pair as I’ve so far been wearing them with low-key looks, but tend to favor silver myself.

Instructions for attaching them are available here on Shapen’s blog, which is a great place to keep up with news like new launches such as their beautiful handbags.

You will find that the place where your toe bends does soften the most and show that it is breaking in, which is exactly what you’d expect with leather shoes. This page from a mainstream shoe company (ignore the parts about the kinds of toe spring you ‘should’ have and other unhealthy aspects) describes it in detail, as well as ways you can combat it, if it bothers you.

Fit

These are well cut and work with both low- and high-volume feet, and are one of Shapen’s wider-cut models. If you’re both especially narrow and low-volume, I’d suggest looking at Poppy, Tulip, and Lilly to get the best fit, or expect that you might need an extra insole to take up some space in this style.

Sizing

You will most likely be in your normal size in these shoes, but check Shapen’s detailed size chart against your measurements to be sure.

The ideal extra space based on research is 12 mm. Verify your measurements using one of the methods described here, wearing the socks or hosiery you plan to wear with these shoes, to get your size.

I personally ascribe to 12-15 mm, which puts me squarely in the 43s that I’ve been sporting. I’ve found this to be a great fit and have verified with the Plus12 device that they measure accurately against the listed measurement on the chart.

How do they feel?

They have a great groundfeel with their thin and flexible sole.

I did feel like they were slippery at first, with the points of the pattern giving you less surface area on the ground, but I only feel that now if I twist my foot quickly, so it’s likely they have softened and increased the surface area connecting with the ground.

The sole pattern and color does vary based on the color of the upper you choose. Black, white, and a light brown are typical.

The upper is designed to maintain it’s clean, classic lines with a structured construction, but that does not impede your foot movement in any way. I find them very comfortable shoes to wear.

My initial impressions were a bit of stiffness, especially at my back right heel which required a bit of protection until the shoes softened. This happens with some shoes and not others. If you find it to be an issue, thicker socks or moleskin pads can bridge the gap until they break in.

Cleaning and Care

Shapen has an exhaustive care guide available directly on their website. Impregnation, polish, and regular care is recommended. You should do your best to keep your shoes clean with a cloth as needed, never machine wash them, and keep them hydrated correctly with appropriate products to keep the leather supple and somewhat moisture-resistant as hydrated leather doesn’t absorb new moisture easily and instead lets it run off.

Purchasing and Returns

Shapen has an English-language website selling all their shoes directly and ships via various means depending on your location. You can save 5% on these with my affiliate discount code OWBSHOES.

These shoes are also becoming available on different shops around Europe and the US, so inquire with your favorites about them possibly carrying Shapen in the future.

Returns are accepted within limitations and you can check out their policies here.

Final Thoughts

I’m a big fan of their stylish designs and will always love wearing these to elevate an outfit like jeans and a sweater to the next level. You can trust that Shapen’s shoes will look and feel good, and can even match many of the colors with 3 different bag designs for the ultimate style experience.