-
-
While it's always good to have comfortable and well-fitting shoes, it's more important for walking shoes, as you will wear them for a longer period of time and put more stress on them. Wearing walking shoes that do not fit your feet can not only cause tired feet, but a variety of other problems such as back and leg pain. This page provides a guide on how to choose the best walking shoe.
-
-
While it's always good to have comfortable and well-fitting shoes, it's more important for walking shoes, as you will wear them for a longer period of time and put more stress on them. Wearing walking shoes that do not fit your feet can not only cause tired feet, but a variety of other problems such as back and leg pain. This page provides a guide on how to choose the best walking shoe.
-
Introduction
- If you want to avoid sore feet, tired legs, back pain and other problems, be careful when choosing your walking shoes. Although paying a higher price can often mean better quality, the pricier shoes are not necessarily the best option for your feet. The best way to choose walking shoes is to chose a pair that works for your specific feet.
Step 1: Know Your Feet
- You can't make a good choice for walking shoes if you don't know your feet. You can consult a salesperson in the shoe store for advice, but they might not always know as much as they should. You can also study your footprint to determine what foot type you are. You might want to look at examples to evaluate the result.
- Dip your feet into water and step on a paper. Study your footprint.
- Try the test a few times, as results will vary if your foot gets too wet or not wet enough.
- A footprint with a half circled shape of space around the arch indicates a normal foot.
- A footprint with no space, or white area, around the arch indicated a flat foot.
- A footprint with excessive space around the arch indicates a high arch, resulting in underpronation.
- You can also evaluate your foot type by study shoes that you have worn for some time. If the wear is on the inner side of the bottom of the shoe you probably have flat feet, while wear on the outer side indicates feet with high arches.
Step 2: Know Your Shoe Needs
- The type of shoes you need will vary depending on your foot type.
- Normal feet need neutral or stability shoes with medium support/stability.
- Flat feet need firm and stable shoes such as stability shoes or motion control shoes.
- Feet with high arches need cushioned shoes to provide shock absorption.
Step 3: General Guidelines
- Regardless of what type of feet you have, there are some general things to consider when shoe shopping.
- When visiting a shoe store, make sure to ask for walking shoes, as both hiking boots and running shoes are built differently than walking shoes.
- Try on shoes in the afternoon or evening, as feet usually swollen up later in the day.
- Press your thumb into the top of the shoe. There should be a space approximately equal to the width of your thumb between the big toe and the front of the shoe.
- The heel, on the other hand, should be in contact with the back of the shoe.
- You should be able to move your toes around when wearing the shoe.
- Walk around in the store while wearing the shoes and try to walk normally.
Step 4: What to Look For
- There are several other things to look for when buying walking shoes. Compare to other shoes in the store for best results.
- Hold a shoe with one end in each hand and twist it. The shoe should twist a little, but too much twisting indicates a lack of stability.
- Bend the shoe. The shoe should bend at the location of the ball of the foot.
Featured Pages
