Monthly Archives: January 2008

I’m usually not a fan of slip on shoes for anyone (male or female) having a wide foot and a high arch.

Clark’s Un.Seal is an exception. The vamp is long and the elastic insets are minimal. The toe-box is wide but not so deep that you can pinch excess leather in the toe-box area. This person is also wearing men’s 3/4 Superfeet insoles for added support and comfort.

This shoe would not work for someone having a narrow foot with a high arch, or a narrow foot with a flat arch. Those foot types would swim in this shoe.

However, if your foot looks like the foot above, then this a perfect leather, casual shoe for you. You can dress up jeans or Khaki’s with this shoe and you’ll always look great.

This person has a bunion and brought in a perfectly fitting wedge sandal today.

Notice how the straps near the bunion partially cross but don’t strangulate the bump? If you have a bunion and want to wear a heeled shoe, strappy sandals are a great choice. Anytime a shoe is forgiving over the big toe bump, the bunion wearers foot will be much happier, even in a high heeled shoe.

Also notice how perfectly matched this person’s arch is to the arch of the shoe. The single most common reason for ball of the foot pain is an arch that doesn’t match yours. This is an example of what to look for.

My practice sees a lot of sports medicine injuries: shin splints, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, chronic ankle sprains and patellofemoral syndrome to name a few. Custom orthotics are a treatment staple in many of these cases.

Fortunately custom orthotics fit easily into most athletic shoes, but what do you do if you are wearing shoes that your custom orthotics won’t fit into?

Superfeet 3/4 High Heels devices will work when most bulky orthotics, even lower profile dress styles, won’t work.

Superfeet dress devices work incredibly well in high and low heels and occasionally even in flats. They’re narrow, paper thin, and will give your arches the support they need.

You can order them directly from Superfeet, or if you have Nordstrom store close by, you can purchase there as well. Costing less than $25 dollars, your high heeled feet will never feel the same… and that’s a good thing.

If you wear flip flops or thong style sandals, you need to pay attention to the depth of the straps. These two pair of sandals were brought in today – for the same foot, even though they are complete opposites in terms of design.

Notice how the sandal staps on the left are high and the ones on the right aren’t? Even with a casual flip-flop, you need to match the volume of the shoe to the volume of your foot. In this case, the flip-flop on the right was a perfect fit for a shallow (flat) foot, whereas the left style was much too deep.

If the shoe doesn’t fit snug, you’ll wind up gripping you toes to keep the shoe on, which may cause hammertoes and that’s not good for your toes or feet.

This method of lacing is called straight lacing. For many oxford style shoes, this form of lacing doesn’t allow sufficient tightening in the set of eyelets, furthest away from the lace ends. Without a snug fit here, heel slippage will occur.

A better way to lace your heel slipping oxfords, is the good old fashioned criss-cross way. A little less fashionable, but much more secure at the toe end, which is where you need it.