More on Shoes...

One commenter below caught my attention. He mentions a brand name that can sometimes be very expensive, and that's the point of this post. It is easy to spend the extra money when we know the quality will be worth it.

For men, Florsheims would be my choice--If anyone were asking--for a mens shoe that is good for the foot.

When we lived in the DC area, Husband RJ was nearly crippled by his cheap shoes--eveything including the bloody socks. We walked into a good shoe store and explained the situation. He was properly fitted for Florsheims. These are now very, very hard to find, but David Taylor is another good brand that's less costly.

The trick is to go to a very long established shoe store with a very old, old employee, from back in the day when they knew how to fit shoes. They measure six ways to Christmas and feel the shoe with their hands when it is on the foot of the customer, who must be standing up.

This works for women too. I learned it when my kids were little and Panosians was the place for that sort of service in Elmira, NY. The ladies taught me a lot over the childhoods of my girls.

Fit is everything. The shoe must fit exactly, so the available sizes must include all the letters (A to E), not just narrow, medium and wide. And all the sizes, including the half sizes. When the shoe properly fits, then we don't need to wonder if our feet are being damaged.

The employee will also use a shoe stretcher for the trouble spots that are customer specific, although you can do this yourself at home. I don't want to say "saleperson" when talking about the fitting professional. The difference is huge. A real fitter will not sell you a shoe if you aren't properly fitted.

The cost needn't be horrifying, either. I'd say $70 to $90 would be a fair price for either mens or womens shoes. Not too bad for a shoe you will wear until the whole world is sick of looking at them, including yourself.

A properly fitted shoe ought also be good for dyeing. For that you need a leatherworker or a cobbler (a shoe repair place). You can dye the vinyl shoes yourself, but leather dye comes only in neutrals now, and needs to be mixed.

I have shoes that feel really wrong, but that's dysaethesia. At the end of the day, I remove the shoes, and if there is no redness or hot spots (that I can feel with my hands) then the shoes have done no damage. Feelings are not facts, although it pays to make sure the foot is okay. Like anything else with MS we have to be good observers.

Too much work? Not for a shoe bug.

pb
Little Pond