I have reached an age where I am increasingly suspicious of anything described as having a “cult following”. Usually it means there’s a Facebook group. Perhaps a waiting list. Almost certainly a subreddit. There will be people who own seventeen versions of the thing and refer to themselves as being “obsessed”.
I’ve seen it happen with water bottles, planners and air fryers. There was a period a few years ago where I became convinced that every American woman online owned the same giant cup and spent most of her day discussing it. Tieks, for me, fell firmly into this category. The Tieks reviews are outrageously positive.
I’d been hearing about them for years. If you don’t know them, they’re foldable ballet flats that come in dozens of colours and seem to inspire a level of devotion normally reserved for Labradors and Taylor Swift. When I was offered the chance to try a pair, I was intrigued, partly because I wear ballet pumps a lot and partly because I wanted to know whether they could possibly live up to the hype.
The first challenge was choosing a colour. I like to think I’m a pretty decisive person, who follows their gut, and I found myself immediately drawn to the Poppy colour.
In my head, they are red. Other people insist they are orange. The Tieks website seems to hedge its bets by calling them Poppy and leaving the rest of us to fight it out amongst ourselves. I genuinely don’t know who’s right. They sit somewhere in that space between bright red and orange-red where colour becomes surprisingly subjective. What I do know is that they are impossible to ignore.
Ten years ago I probably wouldn’t have chosen them. I would have worried about whether they matched enough things. I would have talked myself into a sensible neutral shade because it would “go with more outfits”. These days I find myself increasingly attracted to things simply because they make me smile.
There is something unexpectedly freeing about getting older. You care less about following rules that nobody was enforcing in the first place. You stop asking whether you’re allowed to wear bright red shoes and start wondering why you spent so many years talking yourself out of them.
The shoes themselves are lovely. The leather is incredibly soft and they were comfortable from the first wear, which is not always a given with ballet pumps. Most ballet flats seem to regard your heels as a personal enemy and require a period of mutual suffering before you can learn to live together peacefully. These didn’t.
I’ve worn them for teaching workshops, wandering around town, meeting friends for coffee and all the other everyday activities that make up a life. They’ve become the shoes I automatically reach for when I’m heading out of the door. What I’ve enjoyed most though is how many people comment on them.
Not in a dramatic fashion. Nobody has stopped traffic to admire my footwear. But people do seem drawn to them. I’ve had strangers ask where they’re from, friends tell me they love the colour and more than one conversation that has begun with somebody pointing at my feet and asking, “Are those red or orange?”
Perhaps that’s part of their appeal. They’re cheerful. I think sometimes we underestimate the value of surrounding ourselves with small things that bring us pleasure. Not everything has to be practical or useful. Sometimes it’s enough that a thing makes you feel good.
For me, that’s what these shoes have become. They’re comfortable, beautifully made and add a small flash of colour to even the most ordinary day. Whether that colour is red or orange remains open to debate. Either way, I’m firmly on the side of choosing the bright shoes.
I was sent these shoes for the purposes of the review. All opinions my own.