How is a slash interpreted by search engines? SEO Best Practice

I would like to know your opinions on the following URL structure. Is the following SEO best practice and why?

If targeting search term "blue suede shoes"...

Would "example.com/blue/suede-shoes/" be read appropriately by search engines for SEO benefit?

I have a rather large site with many product/service offerings and require the collective's expertise.

My concern is that targeting many services with structure "example.com/blue-suede-shoes" would not only become a web management issue but not be best practice for user experience. However, strictly SEO speaking, which is best?