It is made for walking long distances through the city and getting home without thinking about your feet. The blue of OCEAN is a deep navy, almost black under the artificial light of a street at seven in the evening, and unmistakably blue when the low winter sun hits it. The upper brings together leather panels with different finishes: matt suede at the toe and heel, smoother leather along the sides, and the stitched spiral in a shade barely darker than the rest, so it reads up close and disappears from three metres away. Underneath, the caramel rubber rises a few millimetres around the whole perimeter and cuts the block of blue off sharply. It works with a dark padded coat and winter chinos, and holds up just as well with a heavy sweatshirt.

Who is OROEL N5435 in OCEAN for?
For anyone clocking up pavement kilometres every day who prefers navy to black as a winter base colour. It is a unisex trainer, sizes 36 to 46, built the same way across the whole size run. It works if you have already tried thin soles and want one for daily wear, and equally as a first serious step towards barefoot if you are coming from cushioned trainers. Anyone looking for a shoe that supports and corrects on your behalf will not find it here.

Minimalist footwear
The first few weeks are felt in the calves and the sole of the foot: it moves muscles that footwear with drop and cushioning kept at rest. The sensible approach is to start with short journeys and extend them as your body asks for it. On metal grating or polished concrete a great deal of information comes up from the ground, and that information is what gradually sharpens your balance and the way you land. UMANA, an accredited laboratory, places it in the minimalist footwear category with 8.5 out of 10 — an 85% minimalist index — after measuring drop, flex, torsion and weight.