My Granddaughter Bought Me Sandals for My 63rd Birthday. I Expected "Comfortable." I Got "Anti-Granny."
A note from a 63-year-old reader who almost cried at her birthday lunch - and the unexpected gift from a 35-year-old that changed how she thinks about getting older.
For my 63rd birthday, my granddaughter Sophia gave me a shoebox wrapped in brown paper, tied with twine, with a little card that said: "Grandma. I love you. But we are NOT doing the orthopedic Birkenstocks this summer."
She is 35. She works in fashion in New York. She is the kind of person who refers to everything as "iconic" and means it. And for the last three birthdays she has watched me unwrap something practical - a kettle, a heated blanket, a pair of compression socks - and try to look grateful.
I opened the box on the porch with my sister, who is sixty-five and was already laughing before I had the lid off. Inside was a pair of sandals. Soft woven straps. Featherlight. Open and breathable. The kind of shoe you would actually want to walk in - and that, I would learn, was entirely the point.
"Grandma. They're Anti-Granny."
That was the message Sophia texted me the night before the birthday lunch. I had asked her what she had gotten me. I was bracing for the usual disappointment of a thoughtful but practical gift.
No more medical-equipment sandals.
You're 63, not 93. 💅
I had to ask my sister what "anti-granny" meant. She looked at me over her glasses and said: "It means they look like something you'd actually want to wear, Jess. Not something the podiatrist prescribed."
And that, somehow, hit something in me I had not realized was there.
The Sandals Are Called the Sanarita
Sophia had ordered them from a small coastal label called Claire & June Malibu - a place I had never heard of, which makes orthopedic sandals that do not look orthopedic. Breathable interwoven straps that stretch and move with your foot. A soft cushioned footbed inside that absorbs the shock of every step. Featherlight - so light Sophia kept emphasizing it on the phone.
"Grandma, they're built for actual walking - not standing in line at the pharmacy. They breathe. They're light. They're cushioned. They look like something I'd wear myself. You can wear them with linen pants. You can wear them with a sundress. You can wear them and look like the woman you actually are."
Vionic charges $130. Orthofeet charges $179. The Sanarita, Sophia told me, she got on sale for $55.95. I made her show me the receipt because I did not believe her.
→ See the Sanarita for yourself
What Happened at the Farmers' Market
I wore the beige pair the next morning. I had errands to run - the farmers' market, the post office, a coffee with my sister - and I was halfway through choosing tomatoes when a woman in her thirties stopped beside me at the produce stand and said, "Excuse me. Where did you get those sandals?"
She had on a linen dress and worn-in Birkenstocks. She did not look like someone who would compliment a 63-year-old's footwear out of politeness.
By the time I got home, my sister had photographed mine and texted them to her daughter-in-law. One of my friends had already pulled out her phone and was on the Claire & June Malibu website ordering a pair in black.
That night I called Sophia. I told her what had happened. She did the loud kind of laugh that 35-year-olds do when they are right and an older person has finally caught up.
"I told you Grandma. Anti-granny. You're welcome."
What I Have Learned, Three Weeks Later
I have worn the Sanarita almost every day since. Three things have stayed with me, and I have written them down because they are the kind of thing you forget when you stop paying attention.
1. My feet do not hurt at the end of the day. The cushioned footbed is a real thing - not foam, not a marketing word. After ten years of foot pain quietly dictating where I could walk and for how long, I had forgotten what it felt like to come home from a full day of errands without limping the last twenty steps.
2. Younger women stop me. Not older women - although they do too. The compliments come from women in their thirties and forties, which is the part I keep telling Sophia about and she keeps laughing at me.
3. My feet do not overheat anymore. The woven straps actually breathe. On the warm afternoons that used to leave my feet swollen and damp by three o'clock, these stay cool and open. And the whole sandal is so light I forget I am wearing them.
About the Price
I want to talk briefly about the price, because it was the part of Sophia's gift that I assumed had to be wrong. $55.95 for an orthopedic sandal with a cushioned footbed and breathable woven straps sounded suspicious.
I sat down at my kitchen table and wrote out what I had paid, or seen, for similar sandals in the last five years:
- Sanarita, $55.95 $140.00
- Vionic, $130
- Orthofeet, $179
- Birkenstock (Arizona), $200+
I emailed the boutique. I figured if it was a scam, the email would bounce. The reply came the next morning from Claire herself.
"We're quietly small. We'd rather the sandals go to women who will actually wear them than sit in a back room. The next time you'll see this price is next May - if we're lucky."
What I'd Tell You If We Were Friends
If you and I were sitting on my front porch right now with a glass of iced tea, this is what I would say.
Somewhere around fifty-five, I started accepting that "comfortable" and "modern" were two different sandal aisles. I had quietly stopped trying. The Birkenstocks lived in the front of the closet. The cute sandals lived in a box on the top shelf, waiting for the rare occasion that I would put up with the pain for an afternoon.
My granddaughter, who is 35 and possibly knows me better than I know myself, refused to let me keep doing that. She did not buy me a comfortable shoe. She bought me a beautiful shoe that happens to also be comfortable. There is a difference. The difference matters when you are 63 and the world has spent ten years quietly telling you to pick.
I would tell you that I have worn the Sanarita five times in two weeks. That my niece, who is 44, has already ordered a pair for herself. That my sister at sixty-five has stopped wearing anything else. That the beach season sale is the lowest the price goes all year, and the popular colors are already thin in the larger sizes.
I would tell you that the woman you are at 63 deserves a sandal that looks like her, not a sandal that looks like she gave up.
While the sizes are still in stock.
- Jessica
- Breathable interwoven straps - airflow that keeps feet cool
- Soft cushioned footbed - absorbs shock with every step
- Featherlight sole - all-day walking comfort
- Free U.S. shipping & 30-day money-back guarantee
About the writer. Jessica Bennett is 63, a freelance editor and grandmother of three based in Charleston, South Carolina. Her granddaughter Sophia is 35, works in fashion in New York, and is "an unfortunate authority on what I should and should not be wearing."
This is a personal account from a customer of Claire & June Malibu. Jessica was not paid to write it. She did receive the sandals she ordered (or rather, that Sophia ordered for her).