What are tabi shoes?

Tabi have been worn in Japan since at least the 15th century, first as socks made to go with thonged sandals like zōri and geta. The strap of those sandals runs between the big toe and the second toe, so the sock has to split there too.

Traditional tabi are cotton, reach just above the ankle, and close at the back with small metal clasps called kohaze. White tabi are still worn with kimono today.

In the early twentieth century the sock got a rubber sole and became a shoe of its own: jika-tabi, roughly "tabi that touch the ground". It was cheap, flexible and grippy, and it became everyday footwear for builders, farmers, gardeners and the people who carry the shrines at festivals.

You still see jika-tabi on Japanese building sites, where they are worn for the same reason the shape survived at all: with the big toe free, you can feel what you are standing on, and grip it.

Outside Japan, most people met the tabi through fashion. Martin Margiela put a split-toe boot in his first collection in Paris in 1988, and the shape has been part of fashion ever since — loved by some, found strange by others, rarely ignored.

Since then tabi have come in almost every form: flats, loafers, sneakers, sandals, boots. The common thread is the split.

The big toe does much of the work when you walk. In an ordinary shoe it is pressed together with the others; in a tabi it moves on its own. Many people find that gives a steadier step and more feel for the ground, which is exactly why workers kept the shape for a century.

It also simply looks different. A tabi reads as a choice rather than a default, which is part of why people who start wearing them tend to keep going.

Start with your usual size. The big toe should sit snugly in its compartment without pressing into the seam, and the split should fall in the natural gap between your toes rather than on top of one. It feels unfamiliar for the first few wears, and then it stops feeling like anything at all.

Between sizes, go up. Measuring your foot, what is normal while breaking them in and what isn't — it's all in the fit guide.

Socks. Ordinary socks work, and most people wear them. Split-toe tabi socks sit cleaner against the shape and are worth trying if you wear yours often.

Trousers. Tabi look best when the split shows: cropped or cuffed trousers, straight jeans with a short break, wide trousers that end just above the shoe. Trousers that pool over the toe hide the one thing that makes them tabi.

Up or down. A black leather tabi is plain enough for jeans and a T-shirt and sharp enough for tailoring. It works with skirts and dresses for the same reason a plain black loafer does.

Leather tabi are cared for like any good leather shoe, with a little extra attention at the split, where the leather flexes most. Brush off dust after wear, work in a neutral conditioner when the leather looks pale, dry wet shoes slowly at room temperature, and store them with their shape. The whole routine is in the care manual.

ARTOIS makes one thing: leather tabi shoes. A full-grain leather upper, a leather lining and a stitched leather sole, cut and sewn by hand in small, numbered releases. The sole is stitched rather than glued, so it can be resoled years from now.

Every pair so far is on the tabi shoes page. Releases are small and have no fixed date, so the list gets an access link 24 hours before each one opens to everyone else. How it all started — in Japan — is here.