Having long been a fan of Dr Marten's orthapedic / air-cushioned sole boots and shoes, I was delighted when a few years I found that the company is making summer shoes - namely, flip-flops - of a type that I personally, would consider wearing.

Yes I'm aware that since the 1980s there have been a range of godawful stacked-looking clumpy foot-enclosing Dr Marten sandals available - but they've never really been my cup of tea.

So a while ago I got a pair of the Dr Marten brand 'Bella' flip-flops from amazon.co.uk - these had the traditional DM air-cusioned sole, with suede footbed and brightly coloured leather upper - and was absolutely delighted by them.

After quite a bit of constant wear the insoles on the Bella sandals were starting to 'go' a bit and I began looking for a replacement. 'Arwen' - the name should've acted as an immediate warning to me - was what the company appeared to be selling at the time, and as the sandals looked very much like the 'Bella' flip-flops that had preceeded them, and were made out of similar materials I gave these a go. They cost me about £30 - somewhat down from the RRP of £45.

Big mistake. Dr Marten's, with these shoes have very inadvisedly gone for a 'girly' type leather upper - by which I mean 'stupidly flimsy'; the leather that's been used to make them is thin nubuck and is pretty but surpringly insubstantial - completely not up to the job of supporting that super chunky, clunky DM's sole. The shoes are very well made as usual with this brand, but the materials they're made from isn't up to scratch. There is embroidery / decoration on the sides of the flip-flops (a weird hexagonaly / cells in a beehive kind of abbreviated design) and I wonder if the need for using thin leather so that this completely unnecessary embilishment can be added on has top-trumped the traditional Dr Marten's selling point of production of a robust and hard-wearing shoe.

With the weight of the sole coupled with the thinness of the leather upper that holds it onto your foot, these flip-flops feel like they're going to fall apart the moment you start walking in them. I'm scared to wear mine out of the house.

They might be OK for indoor use but who in their right mind wants to wear Dr Marten's flip-flops indoors?

They're really, really bad.