Go to a specialty store, not a big box department store
Go to a specialist, such as InStep Running and Walking Center, located in Franklin, Mequon, Delafield, and Milwaukee’s Third Ward. InStep opened in 2003, when physical therapists, Tom Labisch and Bob Corby, and with athletic trainer, John Ochsenwald, wanted to create a place for athletes and non-athletes to go for physical therapy, along with a place for runners and walkers to be properly outfitted for correct footwear. The type of shoe, whether it’s soft or rigid, will guide your foot. So it’s crucial for runners to find a shoe that fits well to reduce the possibility of injury.
“The more flexible the foot, the more rigid the shoe should be,” explains Tom Labisch, PT, D.PT, LAT, CSCS, co-owner of InStep. “The more rigid the foot, the softer, or more cushy, the shoe should be. The shoes are divided into categories of neutral cushion, stability, and motion control. There’s a new category called ‘support’ that’s in between neutral and stability for someone that has more flexible arch and needs a little more support.”
Determining your foot type
The specialist is going to look at three things: the wear on your current running shoes, how your arch reacts dynamically, and the mobility of your foot.
The wear on the bottom of your shoe, shows where your foot is hitting the ground. This indicates whether your foot is neutral, straight up and down; overpronated, rolls inward; or supinated, sometimes refereed to as underpronated, where the foot doesn’t roll inward enough. The sole will wear along the inside of the ball of the foot during overpronation, and will wear along the outer edges during supination.
Arch height is one indicator, but how it reacts is another. To examine how your arch reacts dynamically, the specialist will perform three separate functional tests. The first test is performed by simply standing and balancing. If your arch maintains its height, that’s an indication of a normal foot. If your arch collapses, that’s an indication of a more flexible foot.
The next step is to stand on one foot and squat. The specialist will pay attention to the movement of your arch and the direction your knee bends. When you add weight to your foot, your arch will either stay as is, or will collapse. If your arch maintains its height, that’s considered a normal foot. If your arch collapses, that’s an indicator of a soft, or flexible foot, and will require a more rigid shoe.
In the third test, the specialist will watch your arch performance as you walk and run across the room, or on a treadmill, where he can see, while dynamically functioning, what your foot is doing.
To test the mobility of your foot, the specialist will perform a manual assessment of mobility. While cradling one foot by the heel and ankle, and simply lifting the front of the foot and letting it drop, you can determine whether your foot is soft or rigid. If it wobbles, you have a soft foot. If it doesn’t move, you have a rigid foot. If it’s moves in a simple forward motion, you have normal foot mobility.
More elaborate testing, such as conducting a biomechanical shoe assessment, can be done for an extra fee. This involves videotaping the runner or walker while on a treadmill, and then playing it back frame by frame.
“We also have a comprehensive program in which we evaluate the full person,” says Labisch. “We would specifically design a corrective exercise strategy to correct any structural issues or imbalances. Sometimes the issue is anatomical and you can’t change it, you just have to accept it and work around it.”
By performing these simple tests, you can get an idea of what your foot is doing and in which category it fits. Then within the category, you can pick the shoe that works best for you individually. Even within the brands, some shoes perform better than others for each individual. It’s recommended to try on several shoes within the category and within the brand. “That has to do with what’s in the shoe, the shape of the shoe and how it meshes with your foot,” explains Labisch. “If you have a shoe that’s kind of curved and your foot isn’t, or if your foot is curved and the shoe is straight, it won’t feel right. Some shoes, like Brooks make three different shapes. Some companies make only one shape, and if you fit it, you fit it, and if you don’t, you don’t. That’s just the way it is. The goal is to find a shoe that meshes with your foot—that fits like a glove.”
How can you tell a soft or rigid shoe by looking at it?
All of the shoes that have more stability have dual density materials that make up the sole. These types of shoes are not sold in department stores, only in specialty stores. If you look at the side of various shoes, you can see on some, half the sole is white and half is gray, there may be gray section only in the middle, or the whole sole is white. If you poke at the different materials, you can feel that each one is softer or firmer than the next. This combination of material creates a more rigid structure in certain areas, while leaving certain areas softer.
Along with the materials that make up the sole, there are various fillers creating different levels of stiffness, making up the arch support. Hold the shoe by the toe in one hand, and the heel in the other hand, and twist it. The more the shoe turns, the less arch support, for the more rigid foot type. The less the shoe turns, the more arch support the shoe has, for the softer foot type. “That’s the beauty of the running shoe,” says Labisch. “There are so many different kinds that you can match what the person needs to find that perfect fit.”
Anatomy plays a huge role in finding the perfect shoe. “There are a lot of flat footed people that can run in a neutral shoe, because that’s their structure,” explains Labisch. “If the person has a floppy, flat, foot, but he runs more neutrally, that person would be most comfortable in a neutral shoe.”
“Then there are the people that have a high arch, and a really flexible foot,” says Labisch. “This combination would be perfect for a neutral shoe, but because of the high arch, she may be swayed into thinking she needs a cushion neutral shoe. They don’t challenge the foot dynamically enough, and when she starts running the arch will collapse because the foot isn’t getting the stability she needs from the shoe. These are the people that are most likely going to end up with problems down the road.”
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