Ah winter, season of freezing temperatures and numb toes, woolly hats indoors and a constant cup of tea! I do love winter and winter fashions – especially jumpers – and have been meaning to purchase some essential winter-proof boots for a while. My DMs can withstand pretty much anything up to a nuclear blast, but they’re not the most flattering of items. In some sort of psychic serendipity, as I was mulling over the winter boot conundrum, the shoe and clothing website Zalando approached me and asked if I’d like to do a product review.
‘What luck!’ I thought, in a terribly posh English accent. Zalando kindly provided me with a voucher for their site and I plumped for some caramel-coloured, fur-lined, slightly-impractical-due-to-the-heel-but-who-cares Marco Tozzi boots.
I haven’t really done a product review before, and definitely not anything that I’ve bought online. But if I’m reading a product/website review, I want to know:
What’s the site like? Is it easy to use or a user-nightmare? Is it clear, or complicated?
What’s the delivery like? Cheap, expensive, or free? What delivery company is used?
How did the product arrive? Was it quick? What’s the product like - really?
Here’s my Proper Product Review (PPR).
Product:
As you can see from the photos, these boots are a fantastic colour with lots of great textures. I really like these boots, despite originally thinking they weren’t going to be ‘my style’. The outer textile gives the impression of a high quality leather and while at first I thought the vertical lines of fluffy fur were a bit ‘lone winter cowboy’, they’ve grown on me – especially in the contrast with the smartly sculpted lines of the bottom section of the boot. The interior is fully lined in the fluffy fur all the way into the toes, making them incredibly warm. A good, chunky heel – despite the height – makes them comfortable to wear and the construction is good. In the sale, these were £49.99, which I think is a good price for them. I’m a size 5/4 and they’re bang on too. Luvverly.
Website:
The Zalando site is clear, simple, and basically a monkey could work it (hi!). As well as standard options on price and colour selection, multiple sub-categories and ‘deep’ search options give you useful tools for whittling out all the unwanted stuff. I wanted boots to wear in colder weather, and there it was as a sub-category: ‘snow boots‘ (although not sure how practical these boots would be in snow. Rocking, but not necessarily incredibly practical. Just how I like it). They also give detailed product, er, details alongside shots of the product from every angle. For someone who is a little wary of online shopping, it’s great, as every conceivable question is covered.
Delivery:
With free shipping and returns, you can’t really go wrong. However, the company that Zalando uses to deliver in the UK is Yodel, who I (and many others) have had bad experiences with. Their delivery time is estimated at 3 – 5 working days; they were delivered within the deadline (5th day) in minimal packaging. The Yodel website was rubbish for tracking my parcel, but they did deliver within the estimate, and Zalando did dispatch swiftly.
All very well and good, but what did they look like on?
Navy blue tee/New Look
Beige stretch skirt/charity shop
Belt/charity shop
Fur coat/my grandmother’s
Italian silk mix scarf/made
Boots/Zalando
The boots were really warm to wear and I loved them with the fur coat; I also wore them a couple of days later with skinny indigo jeans and a teal tshirt for a more relaxed style. Overall, these are a practical and cute winter boot that was bought online and dispatched with very little fuss, and I know I’m going to be wearing them all through winter! Maybe I could be an online shopping convert after all…
What about you – are you happy to buy shoes online or is it your worst nightmare? Oh, and do you like the boots?
As mentioned, these boots were purchased with a gift voucher from Zalando; however, my thoughts remains honest and critical as with any product or service that I review.
nice concise review here, like the fact you added in the details about the website and delivery. i know for sure that a crumby website will put me off within 10 seconds, also same with delivery and returns policy. there’s no need for us to be paying £5 twice. ASOS know the score and it goes to show that you can do it for free. their packaging is always decent.
zalando seem cool, i did get some trainers from there earlier this year and everything was ok. good on you for a outfit post, getting your wears out there to the world!
Thanks Mat, glad you like it. I need to try and do more outfit posts but, like you said, I tend to do more detail shots – often because they’re more interesting!
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