У новых сандалий мягкий ремешок, поэтому в них удобно ходить по городу.

The new sandals have a soft strap, so they are comfortable to walk around the city in.

Breakdown of У новых сандалий мягкий ремешок, поэтому в них удобно ходить по городу.

• в: in
• город: the city
• новый: new
• ходить: to walk

Questions & Answers about У новых сандалий мягкий ремешок, поэтому в них удобно ходить по городу.

Why does у новых сандалий mean the new sandals have?

Russian often expresses possession with у + genitive rather than with a verb like to have.

So:

У новых сандалий мягкий ремешок

literally looks more like:

At the new sandals, there is a soft strap

but the natural English meaning is:

The new sandals have a soft strap

Using иметь for ordinary possession is possible, but it often sounds more formal or less natural here. For everyday descriptions of what someone or something has, у + genitive is very common.

Why are новых and сандалий in the genitive plural?

Because у requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• новые сандалии = new sandals

After у, it becomes:

• у новых сандалий

The adjective has to agree with the noun, so both change together:

• новые → новых
• сандалии → сандалий

So this is simply normal case agreement after у.

Does сандалий here mean several pairs of sandals, or just one pair?