GROUNDIES UNIVERSE Review: City style and comfort without compromise

GROUNDIES UNIVERSE Review: City style and comfort without compromise GROUNDIES UNIVERSE Review: City style and comfort without compromise

Selecting and Maintaining Barefoot Shoes Stories and Brands Reviews

We tested the white GROUNDIES UNIVERSE barefoot trainers for you. Read on to see how they performed during all-day city walking and in spring rain.

Tested model

 GROUNDIES UNIVERSE White
Best for city wear, barefoot beginners
Upper material smooth leather
Sole TrueSense® GS1 sole with a 3mm base and 3,9 mm tread 
Lining breathable microfibre
Fit roomy toe box, suitable for narrower feet
Colour options white, black, beige
Available sizes  36–47
Price 3 299 Kč
Testing conditions city, trips, all-day wear
Manufacturer German brand Groundies

Spring is in full swing, and it’s finally time – after months of cold days – to peel off winter layers and heavy insulated shoes. Everything feels lighter again. For my first footwear choice this spring, I went for classic white trainers: GROUNDIES UNIVERSE White.

Main pros:

  • They’re genuinely very comfortable
  • Even after a full day walking on smooth tarmac, your feet don’t ache
  • They don’t cause blisters or pressure points
  • With a waterproofing spray, you can wear them even in light rain
  • Simple, timeless design
  • They don’t look like typical barefoot footwear, which often has a very wide-looking sole. That makes them a great option even for women who previously avoided barefoot shoes for that reason

Main cons:

  • The white colour and lower-cut design are more prone to getting dirty
  • Laces that are too long

Key features and overall impression

The Universe model is a great example of how simplicity and style can go hand in hand. These barefoot trainers are not only lovely to look at, but above all incredibly comfortable – mainly thanks to the flexible sole and a shape that respects the natural form of your foot. And the quality leather upper? It doesn’t just look great – it’s built to last, too.

They’re very easy to put on and take off. If you don’t feel like loosening the laces too much, a shoehorn makes slipping them on easy – but you can still get them on quickly in the morning rush without one. The laces are a bit too long for my taste, and I’m considering swapping them for a shorter pair so I don’t have to double-knot them. At their current length, I occasionally step on them by accident, which means I end up washing them more often. But that’s where my list of complaints ends. In every other respect, I can’t praise them enough.

You can get them in several colours (white, black, beige); I went for the classic white. I’d struggle to find a more versatile spring shoe than white trainers – you can wear them with jeans, a skirt, or even a smarter dress. These days, this kind of footwear is welcome almost anywhere, and it’s no problem to slip into the theatre in them just as easily as heading to a work meeting. But we spent the most time together travelling and exploring the beauty of European cities. The first stop was Budapest. 

Real-world testing

City miles

I picked the shoes up the day before leaving for the city on the Danube and hoped they’d make all-day walking on hard surfaces easier – especially as I was dealing with significant heel pain at the time. That pain was caused by poorly chosen winter footwear. Heavy boots, which I’d worn for dozens of kilometres around Venice in February, left me paying for it for months afterwards and finally pushed me to overhaul my winter shoe collection and switch it over to barefoot shoes once and for all. 

But back to early spring and my three days of clocking up miles around Budapest. Thanks to GROUNDIES UNIVERSE White, it was an absolute breeze. When I travel, I can easily walk 30 km a day, so I need truly reliable shoes that don’t cause blisters, pressure points, or that unpleasant “tired feet” feeling after a full day on the go. And that’s exactly the kind of comfort I got from these Groundies trainers. Even my heel pain didn’t get worse – it actually eased to a manageable level, and at times I stopped noticing it altogether. Even though it was my first day wearing them and I put them through hours of walking straight away, there wasn’t a single uncomfortable moment – quite the opposite. It felt like I’d been wearing them for years. And it didn’t matter whether I was walking on smooth tarmac, paving stones, cobbles, or loose ground. Whether I was cutting across grass or running up and down stairs – every movement around the city felt completely natural and effortless. 

On the second day of our trip, there was a sharp drop in temperature and rain was forecast. Luckily, I’d managed to waterproof them at home in time, and they handled the rain without the slightest hint of soaking through. The only thing that was less comfortable was the sudden cold. GROUNDIES UNIVERSE White are, of course, spring shoes, so once temperatures dropped below 10 degrees, they weren’t exactly the best choice for that kind of weather. But that’s travel for you – especially in spring. One day you’re basking in sunshine that already feels almost summer-strong, and the next it turns chilly, as if autumn has decided to make a comeback. Since I didn’t have any spare shoes with me, I wore the trainers through the cold, rainy day as well. As I mentioned, they didn’t soak through, which was a big plus – but I certainly wasn’t toasty warm. 😊 My mistake.

All-day wear

I’m not someone who puts shoes on, sits in the car, drives to the office, and then only walks a few steps across the carpet to the desk and back. I spend a large part of my day on my feet, and the environments I move through can change several times a day. I wear shoes to the office, out into the field for photography teaching, and on jobs where the setting can be very different each time. I take these trainers on trips, run around Prague in them… I spend at least 12 hours a day in them, non-stop. And in all that time, I haven’t experienced even the slightest hint of discomfort. The only downside of white trainers is, of course, that they show dirt more easily than other colours, where small marks or dust are less noticeable. But that’s simply a trait of white shoes in general – it’s not something specific to this particular model. 

Final verdict

They’re comfortable, timeless, and go with any outfit – and with waterproofing spray, you can even wear them in the rain. Right now, they’re probably the most versatile pair in my shoe collection. Every morning I think about choosing a different model just to rotate them a bit and help them last longer… and every time it ends the same way: I leave the flat in these white trainers. And until the sun decides it’s time for sandals, they’ll probably remain my go-to choice for spring. 

GROUNDIES UNIVERSE White are the second pair I’ve owned from this brand, and just like the first time, I’m completely satisfied. So I’m confident it’ll be third time lucky as well – I’ve already added another model for summer and expanded my Groundies family even more. 😊

Jana Kupčáková, originally from České Budějovice, is a graduate of – and since 2013 also an instructor at – the School of Creative Photography in Prague. She has been more actively involved in photography since 2008. Over the years, she has taken part in several group and solo exhibitions at home and abroad, and her photographs have been published in a number of photography books. In 2012, she received the FotoVideo magazine award Photographer of the Year; her work has appeared in the prestigious Nikon calendar, and she is an active member of the global photography community WOMEN STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS.

She was drawn to photography through her second great passion – travelling. And she actively tries to connect these two biggest interests. Although people around her tend to see her as a versatile photographer, her work focuses primarily on humanist photography and scenes from everyday life.

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