I Tried 7 Comfort Shoes. Only One Actually Worked

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ORTHO-INSIDER

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I Tried 7 Different “Comfort” Shoes. Only One Actually Worked.

Let me save you the money I wasted on six pairs that only got me halfway there.

I’ve been on my feet my whole working life, and I’ve spent years and a fair bit of money chasing shoes that promised comfort. A pair of Merrells I wear in the yard. New Balance 608s in wide. Rockports. Brooks, because a fellow at the running store swore by them. A pair of Hokas that ran me $170. Two more I won’t bother naming. Dr. Scholl’s inserts stuffed in all of them. And $400 on custom orthotics on top.

Not one of them got me all the way there. A couple did help my feet, and I wouldn’t be seen in them. Beige, square-toed, velcro straps. My wife would be dressed for dinner and I’d be standing there in something out of a hospital supply catalog. The ones I did like wearing felt fine in the store and were flat inside two months.

Then I found a pair that got both parts right. Wore them from the yard straight to the restaurant and never gave it a thought. First day I had them on I got to the evening and realized I hadn’t thought about my feet once.

Note: Read this BEFORE you buy your next pair.

Dale W.

Retired Electrician & Orthopedic Shoe Enthusiast

1. Finally, a Comfort Shoe That Doesn’t Look Like One

I had two kinds of shoes in my closet. The ones that were kind to my feet were beige, square-toed and covered in velcro. The ones I actually liked wearing hurt by lunchtime.

So for years I picked the good-looking ones and paid for it that night. Every man I know has had to pick one or the other.

These were the first pair I didn’t have to choose. They just look like normal sneakers.

2. Two Months In, They'd Stop Working and I Didn't Know Why

For a while I figured my feet were just getting worse. A few pairs in, I worked out it was the shoes. Soft isn't the same as supported.

The cushion feels great in the store, then a couple hundred miles crush it flat and it stays that way. The shoe still looks fine. There's just nothing left inside it.

Then the rest goes. I've had a pair where the soles came off in clumps, and another where the heel pad tore out inside three months.

These have a shaped footbed that holds up under my weight. Six months on it still comes back. I've paid twice this for shoes that gave out in half the time.

3. I’d Been Buying the Wrong Size for Twenty Years

This is the one that got me. They measured 172 men aged 60 to 90, and 69% were wearing shoes longer than their feet. Only one man in the whole study was in something too short.

That was me exactly. My feet got wider, the shoes started pinching, so I bought longer ones to get the room. I’d been solving the wrong problem for twenty years.

I wasn’t bad at buying shoes. I was buying the wrong shape.

4. Nothing Presses on the Sides of My Feet Anymore

I get gout. If you do, you know a stiff narrow shoe during a flare is out of the question. Some days even a sock is too much.

My little toe was getting crushed on the other side, and I’ve got calluses under the ball of my foot where all the pressure was going.

These are wide and rounded on both sides, so nothing sits down on the joint. First shoes in years I can wear through a flare.

5. I Feel Steadier on Wet Tile Now

My foot slid on wet tile at the grocery store last winter and I caught myself on the cart. Nothing came of it. But I know a man it went badly for, and it took his independence.

Nobody is telling you a shoe fixes that, and I wouldn't believe them if they did. But women fall more often and men die from it more often. That's the CDC, not the shoe company.

My old ones were worn down on one side, and a sole like that rolls when you put your weight on it. These sit flat with real tread under them. I don't think about it anymore.

6. My Knees and My Back Felt Better Too

I’d been blaming my knees for two years. It never crossed my mind the problem started three feet lower.

But whatever your shoes don’t absorb, your joints absorb instead. I was walking on a dead flat insole on concrete all day and every step went straight up through me.

Once my feet had something under them doing the work, I wasn’t as wrung out by evening.

SUMMER Sale

Title

SPECIAL OFFER , FREE SHIPPING

Title

50% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

I'd already wasted a thousand dollars, so I wasn't in a hurry to spend more. But they pay the shipping and you get thirty days to send them back. Worst case I'm out nothing but the trip to the post office.

TRY THEM RISK-FREE

Sell-Out Risk: High

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FREE shipping

Try it today with a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee!

7. My Heels Don't Bother Me by the End of the Day

Mine came on about four years ago. Not sharp, more like I'd been walking on two bruises. Worse on tile and concrete, and worse in the evening.

Some mornings it was bad enough that I'd stand by the bed a second before I trusted it. The back of one heel got rubbed raw from a stiff shoe and I was putting a bandaid on it before church. That's not something a grown man should be doing.

What I found out is the padding under your heel wears down as you get older, so you end up feeling the floor through what's left. Doesn't help if there's nothing holding your arch up either.

These have real cushion under the heel and something shaped under the arch. I haven't thought about my heels in months.

8. They Still Fit When My Feet Swell Up

By the afternoon my feet swell, and a shoe that fit at breakfast is a clamp by three o’clock. My socks used to leave marks.

Then I found out the blood pressure tablets I take are a known cause of it. So it wasn’t going away on its own.

There’s enough room across the front and the mesh gives. I’m not desperate to get them off the second I sit down.

9. I Stopped Changing Shoes Before We Go Out

This is the part I didn't expect. I used to come home and change before we went anywhere. Walking shoes for the walk, proper shoes for the restaurant, and my feet paid for the second pair every time.

Now I wear the same ones all day. Jeans, chinos, slacks. Out to dinner with my wife straight from the yard.

I haven't changed shoes before going out in months.

10. Nine Hours on Hard Floors and I Didn't Sit Down Once

Workbench in the morning. Mow the yard, walk the dog, then the grocery store and the lumber yard in the same run.

My feet used to start going around hour four. After that I was looking for a reason to sit down, and the concrete at the lumber yard was the worst of it.

Most comfort shoes are made for a man who spends his day sitting. I'm on my feet all day and doing the same thing tomorrow.

I hadn't slowed down. My shoes had.

11. The Best Money I've Spent on My Feet

Let me add up what comfort cost me. Custom orthotics, $400, still went flat. Hokas, $170, still went flat. Brooks, $140, still went flat. Then Merrells, Rockports, New Balance 608s, and $50 of Dr. Scholl's inserts stuffed in all of them.

Well over a thousand dollars, and not one pair I got both things out of.

These cost a fraction of that. More than 700,000 men in the USA have switched over, and I only wish I'd found them five years ago.

12. I Checked Them Against What Podiatrists Actually Recommend

I wasn’t taking the company’s word for it. I’ve been sold to before.

So I looked up what foot doctors tell men to look for in a walking shoe after 60. Same three things every time. Room in the toe box. Structured arch support instead of soft foam, because foam packs down and stops holding anything up. A stable sole with real tread.

That’s the whole list. These tick all three, and I took a pair to my own appointment anyway.

SUMMER SALE

Title

SPECIAL OFFER , FREE SHIPPING

Title

50% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

I'd already wasted a thousand dollars, so I wasn't in a hurry to spend more. But they pay the shipping and you get thirty days to send them back. Worst case I'm out nothing but the trip to the post office.

TRY THEM RISK-FREE

Sell-Out Risk: High

|

FREE shipping

Try it today with a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee!

YES, I WILL TRY A PAIR

Dale W.

& 700,000 MEN WHO SWITCHED