How Should Running Shoes Fit? | Beginner (Length) to Advanced (Matching with Pathology)

Getting a running shoe that fits right can be a challenge, especially when so much of our shopping is done online. In this episode, Matt Klein helps you figure out how to find the best fitting shoe for you. Shoe length in particular is critical, not just in finding a comfortable shoe, but one that lines up with your mechanics. He also gives some advice on finding shoes when dealing with specific pathologies from bunions to plantar fasciitis. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned running veteran, this show will help you find the right shoe (or shoes) for you!

Chapters
0:00 – Intro
1:23 – How long should running shoes fit on your feet?
3:38 – Challenges to finding shoes that fit well
6:47 – How length can impact the way a shoe feels on the run
9:12 – Matching a shoe’s length and geometry with your biomechanics
10:54 – Problems caused by a shoe that’s too short
16:22 – How a shoe is supposed to fit
18:34 – Matching insoles and shoe fit
19:42 – Considerations for trail running shoes
24:13 – Shoe fit for those with specific pathologies
30:11 – Wrap-up

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We are a group of physical therapists and runners interested in the art and science of running shoes. Learn more by visiting doctorsofrunning.com

Hey everyone welcome to the doctors running podcast where we a group of doctors of physical therapy talk about the art and the science of the things that we’re putting on our feet today we’re going to do a little recap just of some things that I’ve thought about and

Learned throughout this last year and experienced with a couple different shoes that I want to talk about and that thing that I want to talk about is length so I’ve done a podcast before talking about fit as part of the runat which if you haven’t listened to that I

Would really encourage you to try to go hey when you’re looking for shoes how do you really decide what works for you what might not in terms of all the different factors that some of the research has found tends to be the most significant and believe it or not a lot

Of the biomechanical factors don’t always relate so definitely go check out that episode but what I want to talk about is length is one of the most common questions that we get is hey how much room should I have at the end of the shoe how much room should I have

Between my toes and the end of the shoe what does fit play anything into any certain types of pathologies what do I need to think about in terms of fit and the arch so I want to talk about all of those things today and give you kind of

What I’ve learned and what I’ve thought about over the last couple years especially this last year as we’ve gotten a couple of shoes that have actually fit long and realize some of the B mechanical implications some of the injury implications just give you some stuff to think about so what is

Length length really refers to how long the shoe is right so you have you you put your foot in there and there should be at least a little bit of room between your toes and the end of the shoe if there isn’t any room your toes are going

To be hitting the the very very end of the shoe there’s a risk for a various number of things obviously Comfort is the first thing if your feet are pressing up against the end of the shoe it might not be comfortable you’re very much at risk for things like blisters or

Pressure type injuries if you’re kind of moving and sliding and there’s excessive pressure from like say a toe guard which is what this thing is right where that gives a little bit more structure to the front of the shoe you can get pressure injuries blisters all kinds of stuff the

Other thing that can sometimes you can compensate with and you’ll see this in certain people is you can actually get toe curling so if a shoe is too short people will curl or Flex their toes to try to make the shoe a better length and we’ll talk about how that might impact a

Couple pathologies that’s not really the best thing you want you really want a shoe that allows your feet to stay in a neutral position right so your toes don’t have to be curled they don’t have to be excessively extended they can handle in a neutral position and be somewhat comfortable without way too

Much room or too little room okay there’s some pathologies we’ll talk about but again you really want to Sho that actually matches your Fe one of the biggest things that I’ve noticed over time is I’ve worked with patients and kind of just looked at hey how how’s this shoe working for you and

People don’t even come to me for that they’re usually coming in for some injury I’ve noticed a lot of people that will wear shoes that are not fitting them lengthwise appropriately frequently the most common reason is they have a shoe that’s way too narrow for them so

They went up multiple sizes to try to get somewhat of a width and their feet are still hanging off the side of the shoe that really means that shoe is not working for you your feet shouldn’t be hanging off the side I know we’re not talking about width but you’re all all

These factors so width how wide the shoe is the length how long it is and the volume how much room you have up and down height-wise should all match together to match your foot type and sometimes that can be really hard because we’re all trying to find shoes

That fit our feet and none of these companies are designing shoes for any of us I mean they’re based on a couple people or some a couple averages but they’re not based on us as unique people our feet are different and some of the challenges that you’re going to

Experience here is what I’m going to list so our feet are all different they’re even different side to side I don’t know if you’ve noticed that people don’t have are not symmetrical at all it’s actually very normal to have feet that are two different sizes how big

Those sizes very much depends on the person I can tell you my left foot is longer than my right foot my left foot based on using a branic device which I’ll be very surprised if you know what that is I’m probably dating myself a little bit for working in running stores

Many years ago but those are those like metal things that you put your foot on it tells you what your true size is um I don’t know how many stores actually have those anymore somebody comment below and let me know if if those actually exist anymore they still sell them on Amazon

They’re really expensive um for what I think they’re worth but so my left side is technically a size 10 my right side is technically a nine and a half I always accommodate to my left foot and deal with the consequences on my right so I’ve just gotten used to that over

The years sometimes it’s more pronounced for certain people unfortunately nobody really sells shoes at least in major running brands that are that that don’t nobody sells shoes that are different sizes on left and right Brooks actually did that briefly I believe they do not do that anymore but that used to be a

Thing so generally we have to find the foot that’s the longest length and there’s going to be some variability that is normal don’t freak out about that is totally normal it’s more abnormal to have feet that are truly the same size so don’t freak out so you got

Feet that are different size length you’ve got feet that will change throughout the day the length width and volume of your feet are going to change depending on what time of day it is so if it’s early morning your feet are generally going to be the smallest and

Shortest are going to be throughout the day as you go throughout the day you’ve been standing you’ve been walking it is very normal for blood to start pooling in your feet to a degree if you have massive pooling that’s not normal and you should go see a medical professional

For that but some degree of swelling and change in length of your foot is totally normal as you go throughout the day it’s just gravity right as you’ve been supine or like laying flat or whatever position supine prone sideline whatever when you’ve been lying down gravity doesn’t

Influence blood flow as much when you’ve been upright standing most of the day gravity is naturally going to cause a little bit of pulling in your feet okay the more you move sometimes that can offset that but it’s natural your feet are going to change sizes throughout the

Day that’s why generally it suggested if you’re going to try a shoe on it might be best to do that later in the day or at least midday because that’s going to give you the best average of what your feet are truly going to be and that’s

Also why it’s very common you’ll try a shoe on at the end of the day and then try it in the morning and go wait this feels long or you try a shoe on in the morning and then you run it in the evening you’re like wait why does it

Feel short that’s that’s why okay that’s normal that happens okay okay the other thing that can also happen is people have different shapes of feet so even though we’re talking about length here where the arch of the shoe is where all this stuff that can vary depending on

Like how the shoe is designed and your foot can vary so you might have a shoe where you actually have to go up or half down a half size just to get something like the arch to fit okay you can modify that unfortunately a lot of shoes don’t

Have high arches so this usually isn’t as big of a problem I’m also someone who’s not really sensitive to that so I don’t use usually think about it I’ve been trying to think about it more but people are going to have different size sh feet and different shape feet so

Length is one piece but let’s talk about how length can actually impact that and one of the things I really want to encourage you is I know I mentioned this earlier if you are having to go like two sizes up in a shoe just to get adequate

Width that is not an appropriate shoe for you okay you are wearing a shoe that’s way too long and that’s going to cause its own problems one of the biggest things you need to think about is that a shoe is an extension of your foot and one of the shoes that made me

Think the most about this was the Salamon SB fantasm 2 this year which was a super shoe that I bought I was really interested in it and uh I bought it and it went it’s totally out I don’t know when they’re going to restock them but

They’re not available at the moment so I can’t send this back for resize and I found this shoe fits truly a half siiz long so when I was running in it when I you know I was like why is there so much extra width and what I found is again

Shoes should match the biome mechanics of your feet so especially with carbon plated shoes The Rocker the plate needs to line up with your first toe we’ve talked about this before it needs to line up with the mechanics of your first metatarsal joints because that’s where

You normally pivot from if you are not lining up with that you’re going to be pivoting early or late depending on where you are later is usually a little bit better so that’s why I usually encourage a longer heel a longer 4-foot rocker but if the apex of the rocker a

The major point that it comes from is is too late it’s going to make the shoe feel really stiff a shoe that I was really apparent this became apparent with is the Adidas adios Pro one which it has super late rocker and the shoe just felt so stiff because where I was

Towing off was too early so I was hitting an area of the shoe that wasn’t really moving and I was trying to push off and so what ends up happening is your calves have to work a lot harder your toe flexors have to work a lot

Harder and it just puts a lot of stress through a lot of different structures to help you push off because you’re trying to push off through an areaa that doesn’t normally Flex so this became apparent with this shoe where I found that doing easy runs and Tempo runs did

Not feel good in it I’m like this shoe costs like 275 bucks that that should feel good for all of that it’s because the the length wasn’t matching when I started running really fast the additional stiffness actually started to feel really good so I did a mild time

Tra against my students in this shoe and when I was running really fast although the kind of fit was a little off it I could really push through because that’s when that stiffness actually came in handy so that’s it was a great example to me going with a length is super duper

Important it’s an extension of your foot and if you have a shoe that’s not fitting you the right length you’re going to be pivoting and the mechanics of the shoe may not match your foot so it’s it might feel stiffer it might feel a little bit normal it might Flex in a

Weird place it might be flexing for example instead of flexing and I’m holding a model of foot instead of flexing right where your first metatarsal joints are metatarsal Fingal joints it might be flexing over your toe joint joints with like your your your distal inter fandal joints your approximate flal joints these joints

Aren’t supposed to extend right which is what you’re doing is you tow off they’re supposed to flex so if you’re excessively extending through an area that’s not supposed to do that it might cause you some issues okay so that’s why again length is really really important

And if a shoe is too long for you it’s going to make your calves and your toe flexors and all the it’s going to it could potentially put more stress through structures like your plan or fascia because it’s too long and you’re pushing through through a stiffer shoe

That’s just how it works doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get injured I’m saying it’s going to put more stress there it doesn’t necessar mean you’re going to get hurt it just means it might make the shoe feel a little bit stiffer that’s normal unless of course you have a shoe like zero

Shoes which I’m holding up now which there’s no stiffness of the midsole so no matter where you tow off it’s going to flex with your foot so that’s not really an issue for a more minimal shoe although you might because they’re usually so wide you might get some

Additional sliding and that’s the other issue with having a shoe that’s long is you are going to need to really lock down the shoe or else you’re going to be sliding back and forth and that can cause blisters on the bottom of your feet so again a shoe that’s too long can

Be a little bit problematic but we’ll talk about how why that might be a benefit for some people a shoe that’s too short is probably is even worse because a shoe that’s too short is going to cause you to do things like curl your toes you’re going to be slamming into

The end of the shoe you can get bruising on your distal toe joints which actually is very very common right so if you’re sliding back and forth and slamming into the end of the shoe you can get blisters you can get um trauma to the end end of

The toes it does happen so I think a shoe that’s too short not great the other really common thing that I mentioned is people will often Flex their toes to shorten the shoe up okay which yes technically does accommodate that but you’re asking the muscles that

Flex your toes so there’s two ones or two major ones your long toe flexors with start up like behind your calves and then your short toe flexors so if those are contracted constantly over the entire time that you’re wearing the shoe let’s say you’re going for an hour run

Or let’s say you’re wearing these all day long for 8 to 10 to 12 hours a day you are keeping these muscles in an isometric contraction for that long I don’t know if you know this but muscles usually don’t like to contract for that long a lot of muscles like to contract

And then relax okay contract relax turn on when they need to turn off when they don’t there are some muscle groups in our body that can do this all day long like your neck muscles your back muscles your core those are muscles that can contract all day long some of these more

Smaller intrinsic muscles don’t always want to do that because they don’t have the size and capacity to handle that so you’re asking for these muscles to get stiff painful and uncom uncomfortable unless you have trained them to be able to tolerate that so that’s probably not the best position you really want your

Toes to be in a more neutral position in the middle not flexed or excessively extended all the time so the muscles can be at what’s called a neutral length which is where they’re usually the most comfortable and the most efficient so that can cause a lot of toe Flex issues

A lot of times people will start getting pain in the bottom of their foot or arches and that usually be diagnosed with planer fasciitis which purely make sure if anybody diagnoses you with that make sure they’ve actually examined you and actually make sure that’s coming from

The planer fascia because you have a ton of stuff on the bottom of your foot that is not your planer fascia so a lot of those small toe flexors that I mentioned earlier those muscle bellies are all on the bottom of your foot and also get irritated so it’s very common for those

To be painful in this situation where the shoe is too short now to be fair you’re lner fascia actually does get put on a lot of stretch when you flex your toes because it starts at your heel and goes all the way to the very very

Beginnings of your toe joints so if you flex your toe joints up it technically puts tension on the plan of fascia which is great for a short period of time like when you’re running when you need to tow off and you need to create a stiff foot

That’s a great time to create tension there but you don’t want that there all the time because that tissue like anything else can get irritated the planet FAS is kind of like a tendon it doesn’t get as good a blood flow and it takes a lot longer to heal when things

Get irritated which is why when you have pler fetus it seems to take forever to heal guess what that’s normal it doesn’t get the normal blood flow that other things do so if your toes are very very flexed all the time you are technically put putting the pler flesia on stretch

And you’re holding it and yanking on it every time you tow off so that might it might not everybody’s different everybody has different tolerances and things like that to influences that might also influence your risk for planer fasciitis that is not confirmed there’s not a lot of shoe up that’s

Confirmed with that this is just clinical and anecdotal stuff so just be aware it’s anecdotal I admitting that to you but that is why you want to find a shoe that fits really the be the true to size to you that’s why we talk about the fact that you know I’ll always reference

Does this shoe fit true to size for me and I’m going to encourage you if you’re reading our reviews or anybody else’s reviews find someone whose feet seem to fit similar to you that might take one or two pairs of shoes to test out not everyone’s going to have the same size

Feet as me or the same re the like relevant fit so if let’s say I’m a size 10 that’s typically what I go for in the majority of shoes out there you might fit a size nine or a size 11 or size eight seven whatever just you have to

Figure out is your are your feet matching to kind of what mine are in like as a reference okay you might not you might be a quarter size down for me or like and that might your fit might not be simar mine so again as always try

To find someone who has a similar fit to you that you can relate to that might may or may not be one of us I hope it is it might not so find somebody that is so that’s why we always comment on how long this shoe is because that we want to

Give you an idea of hey should you think about a half size down should you think about a half size up the salon slab fasm and also the oncloud Boco or two shoes where I go you know what I might really consider a half size down you might have

A different experience but I actually modified the salon s laab fantasm by putting some extra um an arch pad back in the heel to shorten the sh up and all of a sudden the transition was way better the heel was a little awkward because now my heels sitting a little

Further forward but it the toe off was a lot better so I was like yep a half size better would probably be fine although please don’t quote me on that because I can almost bet you money that Salomon probably might fix that with the newest with the next round of these shoes and

That’s the challenge with certain companies that don’t put out as good of volume you don’t know how H batch is going to show up and there is variability with that um my first experience with that was with the Adidas audios Tempo series like way back with like version three or four when I

Realized shoes could be totally different lengths depending on market and and factory settings so just beware that’s throwing a never mind so you’re probably as asking at this point hey he’s been talking for 16 minutes how do I know how a shoe is supposed to fit me so for normal running

For Road running normal running actually shouldn’t say Road running for normal distance running short stuff moderate distance stuff a SHO should fit at least what I was told the kind of key thing is a half to full thumbs width between the end of your longest toe and the end of

The shoe I know that’s not the most scientific thing because everybody has different thumb sizes and different thumb widths so again it’s not this it’s this if you can see me okay that’s just a general rule of thumb ha I made that joke before I know it’s terrible uh

Every time I make it but that’s a general rule to go hey just to make sure you have enough room there when you put the shoe on it shouldn’t feel like it’s way too long and you can test that by actually like walking and running in the

Shoe if you feel like you’re kind of sliding back and forth or just feels like there’s too much room that’s maybe a shoe that’s too long if you feel like your feet are hitting the end of the shoe that’s definitely Too Short your toes should not be hitting the end of

The shoe because if they are when you’re just standing walking during running you’re going to get more translation that’s going to bug you so the half to full thumbs width is actually works pretty well I’ve yet to have that fail on me again it’s anecdotal nobody’s ever

Done research on that but it’s just a good way to go hey is this a good test shoes are going to fit different though toe boxes are a great thing again so you can have a I’ve just discovered this with the Muna wave Rebellion Pro Series

Where you can have a shoe that has a wide forfoot but the toebox tapers and the difference between that is the forfoot is where your metatarsal joints are or metatarsal FAL joints are the toe box is where your actual toes sit so those can actually be two different

Things so sometimes when things taper really quick again if there’s a quick taper the distance between your longest toe could be your it could be your big toe your HX it could be your second toe that might be hitting end the shoes you might go hey I might need something a

Little bit longer so you should have a little bit of room between your toes and the end of the shoe it shouldn’t be too much it shouldn’t be too M too little it should be right in a certain amount and that’s where the thumb rule kind of

Comes into play um just to throw in some additional stuff for you if you are wearing insoles that’s also going to take up more length and room so there are specific shoes meant for insoles this is answering the first question people ask is hey how do I do length

Withd insoles so there’s two really great shoes out there that I really really are my go-to for recommending if you need insoles the Brooks ghost masks and the S Echelon 9 are two phenomenal shoes that are actually designed to take insoles and the reason they’re designed

To take that is that when you take the the factory insole out it’s actually really thick it’s really that they prepared this so that when you took that thing out there’d be a little extra room and volume in there so that when you put an orthotic in there there’s already

Space for that a lot of other shoes don’t do that the insoles are a little bit thin or as I’ve learned the insoles are actually designed to go with the shoe so if you just yank the insul out in a lot of shoes you’re taking away something that the shoe was designed

With so just be aware of that but if you want a shoe that can take Orthotics you’re going to want a shoe that is designed specifically for them so that’s why the ghost Max sock and Echelon 9 are going to be two really really really good ones outside of that you might need

To go a half size up especially if you want a racing shoe especially the size might get modified if you put something like an orthotic in there you might need a half size up because it’s often times Orthotics are naturally going to take up a little bit more room and that includes

Lengthwise another group that are gonna have to think about this and this was a great question because somebody asked do Road shoes and trail shoes do they fit do you need to get the same size are they should they fit different the answer is very commonly those two will

Fit differently and the reason why they frequently fit differently is because trail shoes will often have much thicker uppers this is actually not the best example I was grabbing the socy one of the S endorphin trail series um trail shoes were often have much thicker uppers and that’s because when you’re

Running on trail there’s a lot more dur there’s a lot more hazards and you need additional protection here okay a road shoe will often have a thinner upper because you really don’t need protection up top you just need something that holds you on the platform now that’s

Changing because a lot of the trail uppers are Getting Thinner but there’s something you need to be aware of because often times when people are talking about Trail they’re also talking about being on their feet for a lot longer an eight mile run on technical Trail is a very different thing than an

Eight mile run on road the technical one is going to take a lot longer it sometimes take double the amount of time if you remember what I talked about earlier is that the amount of time on your feet and the amount of like the amount of like throughout the day can

Affect things running can also make an impact so if you’re doing a short run your feet may not change that length that much okay cuz they’re not going to swell that much if you’re out there for 1 two 3 4 hours you may have noticed hey

My shoes don’t fit the same as when I first started and because just like going throughout the day when you run you’re pounding on your feet it is very normal to get a little bit of capillary rupture that’s just normal don’t freak out but a little bit of swelling in your

Feet and so your feet are going to chase shy throughout the run so when you’re on your feet for longer a trail shoe you actually might need a little bit more room and often try times trail shoes can fit just a little bit short because upper is a little bit thicker the the

Sizing can be different so just be make sure you test that the other group that needs to be aware of this is ultramarathoners so there’s a lot of most ultramarathoners tend to be on road there’s a couple on sorry on trail there’s a couple on road which I

Totally get but when you’re on your feet for hours sometimes days at a time your feet are definitely going to change length so your feet are definitely going to change length and size as you’re doing a Long Long Trailer run or an ultramarathon because you’re pounding pounding pounding your feet are going to

Swell swell swell swell so a lot of ultramarathoners will intentionally get a shoe that’s a half or full size up it makes total sense because they know their feet are going to swell throughout the length of the run the things you need to be aware of is that when you do

That okay you’re going to be Towing off through a different spot that might mean the first part of your ultramarathon the shoe actually might feel a little bit stiffer because you may not be hitting the right rocker but as that goes on all of a sudden you’re go oh all of a sudden

The shoes got smoother it’s not the shoe is that your foot finally swelled enough and changed enough that it’s actually starting to match where the mechanics are so ultramarathoners are kind of in a challenging boat because your feet are going to change they’re going to change width size and width volume and size

Length so trail shoes can be a really hard thing and so yes often times trail shoes may need to fit a little bit different because the uppers are thicker and based on how long you’re going to be out there that also can impact you might need a half size up because the last

Thing you want is your toes suddenly getting smashed because they’re swelling and getting a ton of those bruises and and stuff and things there so that does happen so trail shoes often can fit different the other challenge with trail shoes is that yes you need a little EXT

You sometimes need a little extra length but you still need to have good security so the thicker uppers can help with this but you’re on uneven terrain and this goes into width and other things that were not necessar the focus of this but trail shoes need to fit different

Because you need more Security in a trail shoe than you just need a road shoe unless you’re doing some crazy technical Road Route which there’s variation in that but a lot of road is going to be fair straight and flat there’s not going to be a lot of things

That are jostling you back and forth Trail will definitely do that where you need to have a shoe that stays locked in on your foot all the time which can be really challenging to get that optimal fit and you’re not going to know that in

A store I’m be totally honest with you a lot of trail shoes you’re going to need to go test them and go hey can they handle this what happens to my toes unless the store has like different training things you can test on you’re not going to know until you’ll get out

There because and trail shoes I’ve had more trouble getting an optimal fit than have Road shoes so yes they fit different yes length becomes more important if you get a longer shoe because you know you Fe going to swell there are some biomechanical things that can happen that us think except that the

Shoe might be stiffer that’s just how it goes the other group that needs to think about this is those with pathology so we’ve had a lot of questions hey what size do I need for bunions what size do I need for Hammer toast for planter fasciitis for for helex like valgus for

Stuff like that just know that the shoe that you pick not only needs to have enough length it needs to have enough width so a lot of those issues so bunions for sure uh Alex vgas which is where your toe is adduct your big toe is adducting inwards or going outwards uh

Sorry it’s actually technically going lateral is the correct term it’s going out a lot of this comes into having shoes that are pushing your toes inwards because they’re not wide enough many people will get shoes extra long to try to compensate for that but then the challenge is like I mentioned earlier

You’re towing off in an area that’s not necessar it doesn’t necessarily have the right stiffness so oftentimes what you’ll compensate by doing is collapsing in to get around where that sifus is and you’ll pivot off the medial side of the shoe which ends up actually putting more

Pressure on the inner side of your toe which can create more pressure there which is something that can cause an influence bunions over many many years okay that is why having a shoe that’s not only long enough but also wide enough is really important because you

Should be able to have be able to spread your toes out a little bit unless you’re running a track spike and then it’s short enough hopefully that you don’t have to do this for too long you should be able to spread your toes a little bit

With any shoe if you feel like you get the right length with the shoe is too narrow that might not be the right shoe for you that might be something you have to consider so a lot of the things that I talked about have to do with with

Width and if you are trying having to go exercises up to get the right width you might not have enough room there are a lot of good options that have wider toe boxes out there now fortunately um some two really go-to standards has been Ultra and toppo who have done a

Phenomenal job obviously more minimal companies like like zero can certainly come to mind but if you want a more normal shoe with cushioning Ultra and toppo have done a really really good job with this because not only they shoes make shoes that are true to size but

They also have really wide toe boxes so you don’t have to necessarily go up a size and a half to get enough room because there’s already enough width in there both companies make really great shoes not just for running but also for walking I will say the Topo the toppo

Sorry I can barely pronounce company’s names in English as it is the toppo atmos and the ultra via Olympus 2 are two really awesome shoes that have a little bit more cushioning and really wide toe boxes for those that stand all day and want a shoe that actually fits

Them true to size those can be really good options they obviously have full lines you can take a look at that match what your feet need but for a lot of those things you want to make sure that you have enough room in the shoe for hammer toes which another question you

Really need to make sure you have enough length hammer toes often happen because of excessive tightening of the toe flexors just happen because of some pathology or they can happen because your shoes too short and you’re shortening your toes just to be able to deal with this and when I say Too Short

There’s two variations of this as I’ve discovered recently there can be a too short because the actual length is too short there can also be a too short because the toes spring or the upward curve at the front of the shoe can be too aggressive and your toes are

Actually getting extended more than they want and you’ll short they’ll shorten to try to basically create a true to size fit so watch out for shoes with excessive toes spring and the toes spring is different than a four foot rocker toes spring is how much your toes

Are held in ition 4ot rocker is the actual curve at the bottom of the shoe so if a shoe is too short or has too much toes spring you might still curl your toes and that might create some additional pressure or create put you at risk for things like hammer toes rear

Toes either get stuck in that position from a joint perspective or the toe flexors get shortened the last thing is planner fasciitis and I mentioned this earlier that the shoe is too short where you shorten your toes up and you put more stress and tighten that thing up

All the time or should it’s too long where you have to push off harder and the planet fascia is part of your gast stru Solus in your calf complex to help transfer Force as you push off if you’re trying to tow off through something that’s too stiff that actually can

Increase the amount of symptoms through your uh the amount of strain through your planner fascia so things like oftentimes we give people Orthotics as titing agents for planer fascia PL fasciitis which can be helpful from an arch perspective if it’s if you’re not Towing off in the right place it can

Actually put more stress there so stiff shoes in some cases stiff and hard shoes can actually be a risk factor for development of planer fascia doesn’t mean super soft shoes are any better for it it’s finding that best amount for you but again you want to make sure things

Are just right and that really goes back to making sure your your shoes fit just right and that’s going to mean you probably need to try them on you find out use that half to full thumbs with from the longest your longest toe not somebody else’s and you need to go hey

Where it it does it feel like I’m towing off in the right area so you can’t just stand there and go how’s it feel you actually need to walk run in and go am I actually Towing off does it feel smooth as I go over the forefoot does it feel

Like my toes are hit in the end or if they’re sliding around that’s going to help you get a better fit if you do need to get a longer shoe like if you’re doing an ultramarathon and you know your feet are going to swell or if you’re somebody whose feet naturally swell

Throughout the day you just need to know that the shoe is going to feel a little bit stiff initially that is normal you have to figure out if you can tolerate that first of all and if it’s worth it in the long run and that’s just

Something you need to do if you are doing this with a shoe and you find you don’t have enough width you might want a shoe that fits wider right ultra um zero toppo all these other companies have shoes that are whiters you can you have the stuff out there if you’re wearing an

Orthotic please get a shoe that’s actually meant for Orthotics we’ve talked about this extensively but the ghost Max and the S Echelon are two great ones please avoid stability shoes and we mentioned this before because stability shoes are not M made are not made to be used with Orthotics because

They already have stabilizing elements in them so how that’s going to interact with their ethotic we don’t know so unless if you’re trying this for the first time typically try to get a neutral shoe with that or try to get something that has enough length and

Room to begin with so those are just some of my thoughts some of the things I thought about with some of the shoes over the last year in 2023 I know we’re releasing this in 2024 but I hope that helps give you an answer and I know it’s

Not the most technical thing is that half to full thumbs with but that’s why this is really important and these kind of things can contribute to pathology in certain people although we don’t have lot of evidence for this it’s mostly anecdotal but it also can be a tool that

You can mess with you can create a shoe that’s longer for you if you know your feet are going to swell you can try to get a shoe that fits true to size or modify things for you and that’s kind of the the end of this is that you need to

Find something that works for you as an individual nobody likes that that answer but you have to find what your feet like you have to find how wide they are how long they are and that’s going to vary a little bit with every company that’s why

We try to do this and go hey we’re going to test these shoes out sometimes we’re lucky enough the companies will send stuff some sometimes get to buy it and we’re going to be the ones to tell you hey if you if one of us has a a foot

That’s similar to yours hopefully you can learn from our uh how do I say this our successes and our failures when we find issue that doesn’t or doesn’t work and that’s why we do this so if we can help you with that that’s great but we

Also help you learn what’s best for you so you can start making those decisions as always we hope this helps we’re trying to put out as much great stuff as possible there’s a lot of really great things that are coming in 24 that 2024 that we’ll hope you’ll stick around for

But in the meantime hope that was helpful and hope you have a great New Year