Sandals that go against the grain

Yet another project I've been meaning to post for some time now... this time a natural extension of my interest in using materials for unconventional purposes.  If you've ever skateboarded, you've experienced the strength and flexibility of sandwiched hardwood veneer.  It's a great material, and versatile since you can shape it in so many ways.  For some reason or another, I got fixated on this idea as it applies to sandals... could you make wooden sandals?  Would they be even remotely usable or comfortable?

I was pretty sure the answer to the second question was "no", but curiosity got the best of me.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the process, but step-by-step it went something like this:

1. Mold my feet - for this, I stood in plaster of Paris for about 45 minutes, then used a paper pulp molding compound to make a model
2. Modify the mold - I didn't want the wood to hug my feet too closely, so modified the mold to have smoother curves and to have a gentle slope at the edges
3. Cut hardwood veneer blanks - these followed the general shape of the sandals, making sure to alternate the direction of the wood grain to add some strength
4. Sandwich the veneer blanks with wood glue, then vacuum-press them onto the mold
5. Once glue is set, remove the sandal beds, trim them to size, and finish them
6. Cut leather soles from sole blanks; glue onto the wooden beds, again with the vacuum press
7. Sew and attach leatherette thongs

I'm actually really happy with the results - not exactly the most usable footwear though.  Nonetheless, they spark conversation and are really fun to wear around.  At some point I'll return to these, as a few design tweaks would make them much more wearable (notably some sort of articulation at the mid-foot to make them less "slappy").  Let me know what you think!