If anyone knows the dark and cold, it’s the Danes. On December 1, they’ll get seven hours and 29 minutes of sun all day. The entire day. (For comparison, my AAA Rochester Red Wings once played a 33-inning baseball game that lasted eight hours and 25 minutes.)
Dark means cold. And cold means I want to be comfy. Which is why it’s no surprise that my latest winter survival gear is 1. Comfy and 2. Danish.
I had never heard of Glerups slippers until they were suggested to me by an Iditarod racer. If it’s good enough for people who race dogs through the snowy expanses of Alaska, I figured they’d be good enough for me.
The slippers are made from felted wool. And let me say, wool is the greatest material of all time. I don’t want to hear about your love of rayon or cotton-poly blends. Wool keeps you warm, prevents your feet from getting sweaty, resists developing that “funky” smell, and is soft as hell. All those combined means you can wear your Glerups without having to find a pair of socks. So you can go out of bed to into sweater without a terrible panicked jump/walk around the cold floor of your bedroom.
I went with the boot style so they come up over the ankle, a chunk of the foot that gets no less cold but often goes unprotected. The opening of Glerups has a slit down each side so they open wide, but the foot shape of the slipper means they wrap around your foot naturally once it’s inside. No need to tighten or fiddle with the fit. This means you can put them on without bending over and using your hands, and they’ll stay on.
The soles of these slippers are calfskin, which means using them to walk through the morning dusting of snow to get the mail likely isn’t the best idea. But they’ll keep you from slipping on those hardwood floors. Double thick felt in the insoles mean those hardwoods won’t feel so hard anyway.
In brief, Glerups are the best slippers I have ever owned. I never want to take them off. I often yell, “Glerups!” as I pass people in the hall as I am wearing them. And it doesn’t even bother me that they look pretty elven, maybe even a little bit Papa Smurf, because gosh darn it they work. And I can just tell people its Scandinavian design and they wouldn’t get it. Do yourself a favor and get a pair. Give a pair to your mother as well, she’s worth it.
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