Airplane Slippers That Don’t Suck

September 5, 2025

THERE’S A LOT going on in the airline world: air traffic control shortages, I.T. meltdowns, maybe a merger or two on the way? Allow me to ignore these stories and talk about something more exciting: airplane slippers.

You know how it goes. You’re on a long-haul trip in first or business, and they give you a pair of those slippers. They’re flimsy and flat on the bottom; you can feel the cardboard insert that forms the sole. After ten minutes one of them falls off. A few minutes later the other one goes. Later you find them on the floor, lodged somewhere in the footwell. Sometimes you’re on the way to the lav and the damn things slip off in mid-stride.

We don’t expect carriers to spend much on single-use amenities, but the sad design of the typical inflight slipper makes a cheap and wasteful product only more cheap and wasteful.

One airline has, at last, addressed this. Imagine my delight when I slipped on these new first class Emirates slippers and discovered they include an elastic band that attaches around the heel. A simple, elegant, and (I would guess) inexpensive fix…

How much fun.

Now you can jog your way to the bathroom without a slip; kick your legs around as you toss and turn in your suite; wiggle your toes and shake your ankles. These things stay on.

I swear, this is the smartest thing to happen to premium class air travel in years.

Best of all, you can bring them home and reuse them. They’re still cheap slippers, but they’re good enough to wear into the basement when I have to switch the clothes from the washer to the dryer, or out to the porch for my Amazon packages.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

And here are a couple of people who could use a pair…

Photos by the author.