Shoe fitting is also about protection from foot problems.

Fashion is cool and for many people a very important part of their lives, but wrongly fitted shoes are a serious long term danger.

In the previous articles “Why my shoes don’t fit? (Shoe Insole)”, we have concluded, that for a perfect shoe fitting, the shoe last has to correspond to certain points with our foot skeleton.

I like to mention here, that other measurement points on your foot, like the instep, waist or short-heel, are also very important, but we have no way to detect them on finished shoes, that’s why we’re leaving them here at this point.

We have discussed about shoes and shoe lasts, now it’s time to have a closer look  at our foot.

Let’s put some important facts together:

1. Everybody walks an average of about 70 million steps in his life

2. The foot has the most complex bone structure in our body.

3. The feet skeleton is arranged by 26 bones alone

4. With about 70% adults, the left and right foot skeleton are showing major differences

5. With approximately 30% of all adults , the second toe is longer than the big toe

6. And the most growing business of the shoe industry is the orthopedic sector

You can find thousands of shoe care tips on the Internet, but almost nobody cares about shoe fitting and the consequences could be disastrous foot problems.

Just have a look at some pictures

The skeleton on top shows a normal shaped foot. Below you see the position for a week-flattened foot.

One main reason for such foot problems are too short and narrow shoes.

In this dramatic case, a surgery would be unavoidable.

In the next picture you can see a footprint of a flat- and a normal foot:

Another common foot problem is the “Morton-Toe”. A weakening transverse arch could displace the joints:

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This could have happened, because of excessive wearing of high heels, I mean daily walking (not sitting) on high heels for more than 2-3 hours.

Because all weight is been put on the front of the foot, the muscular structure on the longitudinal arch is getting weaker and the inside joint is getting misplaced.

Also too narrow and short footwear could cause this kind of foot problems.

Attention Ladies! Here you see a x-ray from a foot in a sexy-high heel.

I think, it speaks for itself.

For a good shoe fitting, it’s absolutely essential, that everybody starts to observe their feet. What is the actual length of my foot?  Are they having the same width? What type of foot do I have? I will explain later more about some simple methods how to measure and observe our foot.

There is some bad news for you, even if you’re aware of all critical aspects of your foot – you know now your length, the width etc., still there is no way that you can find out, if these measurements are corresponding  with your shoe. On a finished shoe you can’t check these measurements – no way! Now the good news is, that the shoe industry is of course aware of this problem and they are giving us some information’s about the shoe. How we can use these information’s, I will explain to you in the next article about shoe sizes.

If you have any questions or doubts, please leave a comment or download the free shoe guide with measurements instructions.

Andre Gerdes ( the healthy foot lover )