These Grogu Shoes Are The Coolest Mandalorian Apparel Out So Far
A line of fandom shoes just dropped from Fun.com. They stretch across fandoms- Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter, Wonder Woman – but it’s their Grogu shoes that really stand out. I wore them around to try them out, and here’s how that went.
Fun.com sent a free pair of their Grogu shoes for review. The opinions are my own.
First off, it’s important to note that we don’t usually put up geek swag reviews from the same company close together. We like to space things out a little bit, because otherwise it starts to feel like a shopping catalogue in here. However, we made an exception for these Grogu shoes because…. I mean, LOOK AT THEM.
These are just really fun. They aren’t silly, but they do push the border of what’s expected and I’m into that.
Let me break my thoughts down by category.
Packaging
My Grogu shoes arrived in a cardboard box, tucked into a plastic bag for weather protection. There wasn’t any bubble wrap or other filling in there. These are shoes, though, so they didn’t actually need it. I am not a fan of useless packaging, especially not after a year of mostly ordering things online and stressing over the amount of waste that produces.
The inside of these shoes was stuffed with paper and a cardboard form thing to help the shoes hold their shape. Nice. Was it necessary, considering how firm the sides are and the fact that there’s nothing else in the box to crush them? Not sure. It is pretty standard industry practice with hi-tops though, so I assume all the shoes are stuffed during production.
Material and Construction
The uppers are a faux leather material, with The Child in his carrier printed on the side. All of the uppers are the same material in different colors. The stitching seems decent, though I only wore them around a day before this review.
I think the stitching on the cuffs is supposed to be a little wavy because all of it is. Does it itch my desire for orderly parallel lines a bit? Just a shade.
Grogu’s head is half printed, half embossed: there are little embossed borders around his features. I thought from the promo pictures there would be foam inside the head detail, but it’s actually a bit slim from the side profile. That was a huge relief for me, because I did NOT want to have a big fat stuffed head pushing against my foot while I was walking around.
The soles are vinyl. They’re a lot like other shoe soles at this level – perfectly fine for city shoes, though you don’t want to be hiking out in the woods in them. (You aren’t hiking in the woods in fashion sneakers anyway, are you?)
Fit and Comfort
Like other shoes on Fun.com, the Grogu shoes come in men’s sizes. They do list the equivalent women’s size beside them.
I will warn you that I wear a women’s 8-8.5 depending on the brand. I went with a 9 (or a men’s size 7 instead of a 6) and it was a perfect fit. The lower size would have been way too small. If you are also between sizes or on the close end of your size, go up a bit. You’d rather these be a shade big and adjust with lacing than have to squeeze into them.
Because I’m a dork of the highest caliber, I ran into a bit of trouble lacing my Grogu shoes. All the promo pictures showed the laces tucked neatly away, but I tend to lace my shoes over the tongue as a habit. I had no idea how one hides laces.
They come with the laces threaded to go naturally behind The Child’s head. I tried that first, just tying my shoes like I always do and stuffing the loops wherever they would fit. Not comfortable, and it also came undone as I walked.
I took a break and tried again. The laces were really long, and I realized that I could wrap them around my ankle before tying them. That worked really well. The smaller box naturally easily stayed under my pant leg, and I didn’t really notice the lace around my foot.
When I sat down to write this, I Googled “how do normal humans tie their shoes so laces don’t show” and found a WikiHow. The “hidden bow” method worked especially well with Grogu’s big head to hide the bow, so enjoy!
My shoes fit really well – just big enough not to pinch without tons of extra room for blisters. I gave my doggo an extra long walk and also drove around the block. Both worked out all right. There wasn’t any squeezing or stiffness when I went up the steps and shifted gears. (It was maybe a little cold for the pleather leggings, though.)
You’ll want to wear narrow leg pants with these. I was wearing bootcut jeans when I tried them on and switched to the pixie pants, because Grogu’s ears got weirdly caught in the larger pant legs. I appear to be one of 7 people on the planet who still like bootcut jeans, though, so maybe you won’t have that problem.
Final verdict on the Grogu shoes
I like these shoes a lot. They’re geeky but not too ridiculous to wear around. In fact, they look really cool paired with skinny pants and a lacy green tank (the only one I had that matched the color).
I will say again though – these are city shoes. You don’t have to be afraid walking across your yard or dancing around, but vinyl soles are not meant for scrambling up rocky hillsides. You’ll just tear your brand-new Grogu shoes up and feel bad about yourself. I did this with some She-ra shoes a friend painted me a while back and I’m still mad about it.
This is an exclusive line designed by Fun.com. Here are the other shoes in the series:
It’s apparently selling out quickly. Several sizes of the Grogu shoe are already sold out, and the other styles are close behind. I reached out to Fun.com and they’re considering a second run. They don’t have any idea when or if that will happen, though, so use your best judgement.
If you do order a pair, tag us in your Instagram or Twitter posts and let me know if I’m the only one who doesn’t know how to tie shoes like the Cool Kids.
Author: Khai
Khai is a writer, anthropologist, and games enthusiast. She is co-editor (alongside Alex DeCampi) of and contributor to “True War Stories”, a comic anthology published by Z2 Comics. When she’s not writing or creating games, Khai likes to run more tabletop RPGs than one person should reasonably juggle.
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