Awhile back, my feet were giving me trouble, a lot of pain, especially dead center in the ball of each foot. So I went to see a medical specialist, who looked and suggested maybe an orthotic, a kind of custom insole -- but then asked, "Are you completely sure you're wearing the right size shoes?"
I'd been that shoe size since High School. so I assured him I was.
Orthotics are expensive and take time; I kept putting it off. My feet kept hurting. One fine day, I asked myself, "Am I entirely sure this is the right shoe size?"
It doesn't cost anything to find out, so I did. Then I bought a new pair of shoes.
My feet are half a size bigger than they were when I graduated High School! Well, that was an easy fix.
When I told my Mom this amazing, remarkable news, she just smiled and remarked that she found her feet got a half-size larger after every child. Oh
.
It's nice when one gets an easy fix. You deserved one.
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ReplyDeleteRight...
I went from a 7 1/2 in high school to a 9.
After suffereing with work boots that didn't fit, I gor re-measured. What a difference!
Article in LA Times gives some reasons:
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/01/health/la-he-agingfoot1jan01
I went half my life wearing the wrong sized shoes. A military style 'Stand here and don't move' finally gave me the right numbers. That, and going from work to tac boots made all the difference in the world. No pain!
ReplyDeleteMy feet haven't gotten longer, but they have gotten wider as I have aged. (went from an A as a young woman to a B/C now, though my heel is still way too narrow for some styles).
ReplyDeleteNo, never had children; I blame it as all the standing on cement floors (or thin tile over cement) that I have to do at work.
Most people have feet that spread out as they age.
ReplyDeleteRelated fact is that feet spread out incrementally during the day, especially if you stand a lot for work or other reasons.
Which means if possible shop for shoes towards the end of the day. That way if a shoe feels tight, you'll know in the store, not the first time you wear it.
And always try on shoes, even in a style you've worn before. Just because the factory says it's a size 9, doesn't mean it really is a size 9. Among other reasons, making thousands of shoes off a single last results in wearing down the last over time. Which means a shoe made at the end of a manufacturing run will be slightly smaller that one made at the start. That won't change the size, but does mean that of two supposedly identical shoes, one might actually fit a bit tighter than the other. Most shoe factories try to minimize this by replacing old lasts on a regular basis, but its a fact of shoe life.
(I sell shoes for a living.)
Fillyjonk: I don't think I have bought more than two pairs of shoes in my life that were available in more than two widths, "wide" and "medium." OTOH, it wouldn't do me much good, as I have a narrow heel and wide toes. Back when I dressed like a grown-up and wore (low) heels on a regular basis (I was Management!), I had to use those stick-on heel liners.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Smith: Thank you! It's always good to get advice from a subject-matter expert. Your trade seems to be on the wane, which is a damned pity -- someone with a measuring device and the wit to use it could have solved my problem in a trice.
The rest of yez: So, I'm not the only one, hey? It sneaks up on you, doesn't it?
I have to buy "people with bad feet shoes" because I have slightly screwy bone structure but yeah, most kinds come in "narrow," "normal," and "wide." I've gone from "narrow" to "normal" (and sometimes even taken a "wide" in some).
ReplyDeleteI find that SAS is the only brand of dress shoes I can comfortably wear, and they're not SO very dressy.
When I was a kid they did letters; I always took a whatever-A. But I remember lots of frustration over finding shoes that fit me, and lots of times I got blisters on my heels from new shoes that moved around too much, or having to have the shoe store guys stick pads in the heels so they wouldn't flop around.
(Also, not just shoes should be tried on. I had to return a pair of jeans I bought even though they were marked my size and I had tried on another pair - the second, untried-on pair wound up being too big)
You're not the only one, and no kids here to blame it on! I went from normal width feet to "have to have wide" width (if I try to just size up to match the width I have to jump up 2 full sizes!), and if I can find "x-wide" in a good shoe I hold on for dear life! Though I also have to have prescription orthotics (but not custom, not yet anyway) due to the sort of damage that spending your life on your feet on concrete does to your feet.
ReplyDeleteFeet spreadin' out so far and wide. Last time I was at the New Balance store, they measured me out as 14 EEEEEE. That's six freaking E's.
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