Not long ago, I essentially ruined my favorite shoes by walking too close to a fast-advancing tide: While I was gawking at some rich guy’s ocean-front property, a salty wave soaked soles I shouldn’t have worn on the beach to begin with. If only I’d been wearing Mion’s Flood Tide Shoe (about $107 at Zappo’s), I could have kept walking nonchalantly. Made for places too grubby for real shoes and too slick for flip-flops or bare feet — an algae-covered boat dock, for instance — the Flood Tide boasts a sole with plenty of traction and a peculiar rubber composition that, as the company puts it, “literally cannot absorb or retain water.” Inside the rubber shell is a mesh “bootie” that’s removable so the parts closest to your feet — namely the foam bed that adjusts to the shape of your foot — can be aired out thoroughly. The whole shoe slips on and is secured by a strange single-lace design that takes some getting used to but ensures you won’t lose the togs when (maybe this never happens to you?) your kayak capsizes.