If the Shoe Fits, You’re in Fine Shape

Podiatrists make a fortune off people who misfit their feet, says Anthony Adams of Cypress Footwear, a Buena Park company that has been making In Touch women’s casual shoes for 10 years.

Ill-fitting shoes affect your posture, balance and coordination, he says. “Your feet are the starting point of your whole body, and when you misalign your feet, you’re misaligning your whole body.”

Finding the right fit in this help-yourself retail environment can be difficult, says Adams, whose company specializes in hard-to-fit feet. They have Sizes 2 to 15, and widths from AA to extra wide.

This is another in a series of first-person columns that allow people connected to the fashion industry to talk about their encounters.

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In this time of self-service, the consumer is sometimes left out in the cold on how to fit her feet. Salespeople no longer measure your feet or show you the proper way to fit your feet. They usually just ask a customer her shoe size, but most people really don’t know. You should be measured each time, because your feet change throughout your whole life, just like your waist size.

To ensure a proper fit, your toes must be free to wiggle inside your shoes while you’re standing. They should never feel crowded. If you can’t wiggle your toes, the shoe is too tight and you’ll develop hammer toes, corns, calluses and bunions.

The shape of your foot should match the shape of your shoes. If it doesn’t, your arches, heels and toes aren’t being supported.

Find the widest part of your foot, which is the distance between the inner ball of your foot (that bone that sticks out near your big toe) and the outer ball (the bone below your little toe).

Then find the widest part of the shoe. To do this, take your shoe and flex it. It bends at the widest part of the shoe (where the wrinkles from the leather go straight across). When you walk, your foot also flexes at its widest part.

People who don’t fit the widest part of their foot with the widest part of the shoe are crowding their feet. This is the reason why so many people have corns on the outside of their little toes.

A woman with a wide foot may buy shoes that are three sizes too long to compensate for the width, but then the widest part of the shoe is not at the widest part of her foot. She’s not getting proper support through her arch and she’ll have fallen arches.

There’s nothing wrong with a high-heel shoe if you have support. A completely flat shoe gives no support, and thongs are the worst thing to wear because your toes spread out and your arches break down. Always find a shoe with an inch of height.

To also ensure a good fit, shop for shoes in the midafternoon, when your feet are neither at their smallest nor largest; never shop when your feet hurt, and always try on both shoes. Your feet are probably slightly different from each other. The shoe for the smaller foot can be built up with padding to take up additional space.

When trying on shoes, walk, walk, walk. Do it on a hard surface to avoid that old lament “They felt good in the store, but once I got them home and wore them . . . .”

Finally, most stores have a return policy once the shoes have been worn. Check before you buy to find out what that is.