Footwear advice

What kind of footwear causes foot problems?

Poor fitting, old, worn out, slippery or high heeled footwear can cause pain to your feet and lead to slips, trips, falls and injury.
Wearing shoes that are too large for example, means your feet have to work harder to keep the shoe on, increasing your risk of tripping or falling.
Flip flop style shoes and strappy sandals without a heel cup or a strap around the back of your heel mean the shoe is not held on your foot and your toes claw to keep the shoe on.
A slip-on shoe is necessarily too tight for your foot, otherwise you would step out of the shoe when stepping forwards.
Narrow toed or pointed shoes squeeze the toes together irritating the delicate skin between and on top of toes causing corns to form. Deformity can occur over a long period of time. This style of shoe is often found in combination with high heels.
High heels throw your weight forwards onto the ball of your foot, cramping your toes, placing strain on your joints and ligaments, and affecting the shock absorbency of your foot. If you have worn high heeled shoes for several years reducing heel height may pull on your calves at first, as over time the muscle at the back of your calf will have shortened, this will soon go as the muscle lengthens again – gentle stretching exercises may help.

What kind of footwear supports foot health?

Choose shoes which have:

a rounded or square toe to allow room for your toes
a heel no more than 1.5 cm is a comfortable height
a heel cup to hold the shoe correctly on your foot
Velcro, elastic strap fastenings or laces mean so you can adjust the width of the front of the shoe
a cushioned sole to allow for shock absorption and support.

If you spend a lot of time indoors, then your slippers are your most important pair of shoes and the same rules apply.

How to measure your feet for shoes

Take measurements in the afternoon or evening, when the foot is at its largest size. Wear the socks you usually wear and measure both feet, use the larger of the two when checking footwear size.

To measure your feet:

Lay a sheet of paper on the floor and ask for assistance if you need it as you’ll need to stand rather than sit to get an accurate measurement for length and width.
Stand on the piece of paper and draw around the outline of both of your feet on the paper using a pencil.
Cut the outline of your feet out of the paper.
Slide the foot shaped piece of paper into the shoe, if the paper curls in length or width this indicates that the shoe may be too small.

Shoe sizes vary from make to make so if you get your feet measured at a shop then use that as only a guide to the shoe size in a different shop.

Fitting shoes

Try new shoes on in the afternoon or early evening, when your feet are at their biggest.
Wear the socks or tights that will be worn with the shoes.
Fit the larger foot – you may need an insole for the smaller foot if there is a half-size or more of difference between the feet (such a difference is normal).
Allow wiggle room for your toes in the front of your shoes. It may seem like a lot of room in the toe but if the shoe is fastened securely on your foot there will be no walking out of the shoe or tripping.
Check that the shoe is wide enough and not too loose or tight, by feeling across the top of the ball of the foot.
Stick your little finger inside the shoe along the instep; the shoe should be snug and not too loose around your finger.
Take a walk to check if the shoe stays on at the heel and there’s not too much room in the toe. Seeing a gap at the back of the shoe, around the ankle, is all right, the shoe holds below there, around the heel.