Hiking boots are designed to resist side-to-side motion. This is typically accomplished by using a stiff upper and reinforcing the shoe both laterally and medially. Although this is great for support, it can make the shoe feel like a vice grip for those hikers having bunions or needing extra forefoot width. If you have bunions, then you will want to make sure your shoe doesn’t have additional trim over the bony prominence.
Hiker with Tailor’s Bunion with hiking boot trim removed over painful area.
If it does, then removing the trim can mean the difference between comfort and pain. The following image is a hiker having a Tailor’s bunion. As the image above shows, it was easy to remove the trim, making the boot more forgiving in those otherwise tight areas.
You can also modify the lacing as the last tutorial in the following video shows.
Dr. Jenny Sanders Shoe Blog 