WIDE FEET, SORE FEET ANYONE?!

[Mtnmilsurp]

While zero drop and barefoot style boots may be a small market segment, it is definitely big enough to support launching a quality product. The only options available are either poor quality and not made to hold up long term, or they are not designed for use in rugged mountain terrain.

I could almost guarantee that the majority of biomechanical issues are due to people being out of shape, unhealthy , and/or a lifetime of wearing foot casts which causes poor alignment, weak lower leg/foot muscles, as and poor mechanics.

Years of sitting in chairs and wearing thick-heeled footwear shrink our hams, glutes, calves, and all the connective tissue. Deep squats to stretch out and strengthen plus barefoot style footwear are the fix

 

[currdog]

I have wide feet.Meindl works best for me and ive tried others.Crispi are a dissapointment.Crispi made the front of my feet hurt,feels like theres not enough boot between my foot and the ground and thats with expensive insoles.Kenetrek fall apart.Lowas are good but the wides arent quite wide enough but i can wear with a light sock.Ill only buy Meindl from now on.Comfort Extreme hunters.I dont have to replace their insoles.

 

[rodney482]

I just ordered the 3d mapping kit from LAS. Look forward to a full custom boot.

Ive got narrow heels, med arch and tailor bunion requiring a wide toe box.

In the past ive got buy w cheap hikers, higher end boots never worked out.

 

[fngTony]

Why isn’t anyone making a rugged boot with a natural foot shape? We’re not rock climbers needing to get our foot into the smallest cracks. Simply making a wide version of the standard shape doesn’t completely fit a foot properly. I’ve put about 75 trail miles on my Altra shoes and my feet are way less fatigued, going back to a standard shape feels awkward and uncomfortable now.

 

[jpmulk]

Why isn’t anyone making a rugged boot with a natural foot shape? We’re not rock climbers needing to get our foot into the smallest cracks. Simply making a wide version of the standard shape doesn’t completely fit a foot properly. I’ve put about 75 trail miles on my Altra shoes and my feet are way less fatigued, going back to a standard shape feels awkward and uncomfortable now.
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Same. Best I’ve found so far is the Lems Summit Boot.

 

[ALhunter425]

There is a lot of opinions out there on this subject. My story is that I never had foot problems when I ran minimalist and flexible footwear for years. This included all my time in the military rucking on and off pavement and elk hunting in mountains. Fast forward to two years ago and I decided I’d try out a modern stiff shanked hunting boot. I bought two different pairs. Took me a year to recover from the plantar fasciitis. I initially tried following all of the professional advice of use this insole or that shoe. But nothing worked until I did the opposite of what the pros were telling me and I switched back to a zero drop flexible boot/shoe. I know this story is similar for many others.

Not saying your opinion or experience is wrong. It’s definitely not a one size fits all issue. Just saying this is still a needed niche to be filled for many like me!

what boot are you running?

 

[jpmulk]

what boot are you running?

Currently the Lems Summit boot for most of the year. Haven’t found a real cold weather boot yet that I’m stoked on. But the summits have been great. I’d like to find something similar that is synthetic.

 

[nphunter]

Why isn’t anyone making a rugged boot with a natural foot shape? We’re not rock climbers needing to get our foot into the smallest cracks. Simply making a wide version of the standard shape doesn’t completely fit a foot properly. I’ve put about 75 trail miles on my Altra shoes and my feet are way less fatigued, going back to a standard shape feels awkward and uncomfortable now.
View attachment 894367

I love my lone peaks! I wore out 2 pairs of their shoes, one pair of midweight hikers and a it 50% of a pair of all weather mids last year. I would love to see a more durable sole on a similar boot. The new ones I got seem much better, at least they don’t have visible foam on the bottoms.

My feet thank me everytime I wear them. I backpacked all over OR and NV last fall and packed out 3 bulls a lot of miles in nasty terrain and my feet had never felt better at the end of the season.

 

[uncastan]

I just ordered the 3d mapping kit from LAS. Look forward to a full custom boot.

Ive got narrow heels, med arch and tailor bunion requiring a wide toe box.

In the past ive got buy w cheap hikers, higher end boots never worked out.

How are the custom Lathrop boots doing for you? Sounds like we have similar feet. I had bunions developing and switched to altras and that's helped a ton for daily wear. I still need to pick up a good solid hunting boot but haven't found one that feels right on my feet yet.

 

[Winterlover]

My issues, small very wide feet. Nothing really fits except the Softstar Primal boots. And they are not very high quality. I am on the waiting list at Peter Limmer and meanwhile just making do with the Softstars. Altra makes a running shoe in wide, but unfortunately not a hiking boot. I’m also a fan of zero drop. Fixed my low back pain.

 

[tops911]

small wide foot equals limited availability or flat unavailability, I wear a 6 1/2-7 EE in combat boots. typically the smallest civilian boots I can find start at 8EE. I get utterly disgusted at shoe/boot shopping. I am on my 4th pair of Bellville combat boots since retiring in 2017. I told myself I did not want to be one of those old Vets that wore "Army stuff" but after waisting money on 3-4 pair of boots I went back to what I know fits.

 

[RockAndSage]

small wide foot equals limited availability or flat unavailability, I wear a 6 1/2-7 EE in combat boots. typically the smallest civilian boots I can find start at 8EE. I get utterly disgusted at shoe/boot shopping. I am on my 4th pair of Bellville combat boots since retiring in 2017. I told myself I did not want to be one of those old Vets that wore "Army stuff" but after waisting money on 3-4 pair of boots I went back to what I know fits.

There are a few boot companies catering to the hunting, wildland firefighting, and logging fields that make custom-made boots for guys, to their individual feet. More expensive that a normal pair of boots at that quality, and a bunch of them are what you might genuinely describe as investment quality or even heirloom grade boots - they'll last decades if properly cared for.

Nick's and Whites in the logging/wildland worlds come to mind, Lathrop & Sons in the hunting. There has got to be a few more out there, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

Something I learned at a different part of my life, when I was wearing tailored and sometimes handmade, custom business suits to work everyday, around people who had pretty high (and competitive) clothing standards, is that after a certain level the costs start to directly equate to long-term durability, in extremely fine ways. They last longer, especially if properly cared for. One $600 pair of dress shoes from the right maker will outlast 5 pairs of $200 dress shoes worn back-to-back, or more. There's a whole world of people who collect hand-made shoes that are sometimes 100 years old at this point, that were luxury when made and maintain a big part of their value - and they wear them. There's a bit of a crossover with watch guys - if you don't know what you're looking at, you'd have no idea what's going on.

I'm very hard on my footwear, so all that was quite a revelation to me, and a useful thing to learn and benefit from. There's cheap stuff that you replace regularly, mid-level "expensive" stuff that is often more about brand status than actual quality, and then at some point above that, the quality shoots far higher and you start getting into the genuinely expensive stuff, but stuff that is actually elite in construction, materials, craftsmanship, etc.

If someone genuinely had difficult-to-fit feet, and put a lot of hard miles on them, taking the time to properly invest in a good pair of custom-made boots is definitely a worthwhile investment. Just to feel comfortable, let alone the health and endurance benefits that come from it. Just take some time to also learn proper care and maintenance of them, and you'll be good to go for a very long time.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My buddy always called my feet "super wide extra canoe". Don't know how he ever came up with that.