If you are on your feet all day you need to take good care of your little tootsies. If you work in a kitchen, or garden, or teach, or nurse, or work in a lab, or do a lot of walking but need to look smart or in fact do pretty much anything, then you should check out Birkenstock chef shoes and Dansko professional clogs as your footwear of choice. Uber practical and yet uber cool also.

Get your Birkis or your Danskos on and your feet will love you and you will walk the walk and talk the talk all day without having to sit down with a grimace and curse your poor choice of footwear.

What's even better is that not only are Birkenstocks and Danskos fab shoes, they last and last and last, so even if you think they cost more than you are used to spending on a pair of shoes, you will love them so much that you will wear them non stop and they won't wear out or fall to pieces.

I first discovered Super Birkis when I was looking for a gardening shoe.  Enclosed, practical, waterproof, and in my case super duper green. As go-anywhere as wellies, but less bootish.

Only, who knew they would turn out to be so fabulous as well as all the other sensible stuff.  Girls are lucky, because Birkenstock Chefs Shoes are available in lots of lovely colours, a little bit like Crocs. For chaps the story is less colourful - only blue and black are available for men.  However, since girls and boys Birkis are the same, they are effectively unisex, so if you are a fella with small feet the world is your colourful oyster.

Ahhhhh, Dansko clogs. A while ago a friend of mine had surgery on her foot and needed a comfy pair of shoes.  She was told she had to wear sneakers all day every day.  Well this was no good at all for her, because she is a legal eagle power woman of the first order who sweeps in and out of rooms with a swishy long coat and sweeps off to court looking intimidating (she's very nice really!).  However, was she downhearted?  No! Because she discovered Dansko clogs and found an oh so cute pair of patent leather ones that she wore with her suit.

They looked so smart and so quirkily fun that we all wanted a pair and lovely old Dansko do such a beautiful range of finishes that we could all get them without looking too Stepford Wives if we walked down the road together to get a sandwich.

If you have never worn Dansko before then try them with an open mind.   They feel very different in fit to the shoes you will have worn before - that's becaused these ones are COMFORTABLE.

The fit has changed a little recently and the newer ones run a little smaller than the old ones.  My EU 39s are now a 40, but still have happy toes nestled inside.  Bear that in mind and you will not be disappointed.

 So which do you choose?  The Danskos or the Birkis?

Well, for smart and cute quirky clogs for working on your feet I go Dansko; for fun colours and waterproof protection for wet, mess and outdoor fun I go Birkis.

But hey - I love both, so get a pair of each and wear one to work in the rain, and then pop the others on for the rest of the day!