Fitting your Feet with Footwear for Fall

Did you know that 20-30 percent of Canadians are wearing the wrong sized footwear? Learning what to look for in a quality well fitting shoe should become a common practice for every individual.
Oct. 28, 2010 | By: Lisa Walters

For those with hard to fit feet, or with a medical condition such as bunions, arthritis or diabetes, or if you have issues with blistering, excessive callusing or corns, you may want to be professionally fit for a shoe. Seeing a pedorthist, who is a specialist in fitting footwear, is a great way to know you are in the right shoe for you. With a proper assessment and gait analysis you will learn what type of shoe is best for your foot. Some simple test can be done the moment you pick the shoe off the shelf to see if it is a quality piece of footwear.

1. Squeeze the heel – the shoe should have a strong heel counter. It should not easily be squished.

2.Torque the sole – the shoe should be solid through the mid-sole. If you can make the shoe look like a pretzel, you are not going to get much support when your walking

3.Fold the shoe – the shoe should bend only through the toe box (where your toes bend), not through the middle of the shoe

4.Removable sock-liner – If you wear an orthotic this is especially important as it will give room for your orthotic to be inserted into the piece of footwear correctly.

Did you also know that improper fitting footwear is a common cause of falls for elderly people? Proper fitting and appropriate footwear could be the difference between years of independent living and devastating injury. Loose fitting slippers and sandals can be disastrous around the house. A non-skid well fitting shoe could be a much better option in giving stability when walking around the house and outdoors. There are several keys to finding the appropriate piece of footwear for your foot.

1.Go shopping towards the end of the day. Feet have the tendency to swell so a shoe that fits in the morning may not fit that well by evening

2.When the shoe is on there should be a thumb widths worth of space from the end of your longest toe and the end of the shoe. Note that your longest toe may not be your big toe

3.Check the width by watching the sides of the shoe when you put your weight on that foot. If you see the shoe expand past the sole you need a wider shoe.

4.Take the shoes for a walk on hard and soft surfaces, you walk on different surfaces during the day so give the shoes a workout and make sure they feel right on all types of ground.

5.Make sure your heel isn’t slipping, the stitching isn’t digging and the shoe feels comfortable after more than 30seconds of wear.

If you have any pain, numbness or discomfort in your feet, you should have them checked by a professional. The answer may be a simple as changing your footwear.