eVENT boots

[Colin Thomas]

I have been looking at/for eVENT lined boots for a while now and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them yet. It is hard for me to find footwear that feels good due to a high arch, D wide foot, and a bump in my heel. Also I need to see a doctor because of a mild case of planter fasciitis.

The only companies that I know make them are:

http://www.kayland.com/inglese/kayland_ing.htm (I tried some non eVENT ones on and there were great)

http://www.spyderfootwear.com/ (this is a nice looking boot, I wonder if it would fit my feet)

http://www.hi-tec.com/indexfl.html (I hear they are only an average boot but these new eVENT products should be better or so I have heard)

[Kevin Lane]

Before seeing a doctor, who seem to want to operate or shoot in steroids, have you been aggressive and cosnstent with calf stretching? It has worked wonders for me. I had no more problems after perhaps three weeks at most

[Neil Bender]

I have had good luck self-treating plantar fasciitus with a “night splint” (sort of). I use an item called a Strasburg sock which holds my toes/foot back at 90 degree angle during sleep. This allows the fascia to heel in the stretched position, reducing the chance of re-injury. I haven’t seen Strasburg socks for sale on the web in several years, so they may be unavailable, but a search for Night splint will turn up the hardware version of the concept.

On backpacks I’ve improvised with 3 webbing straps. One warps arond the balls of my feet, one anchors to my calf just below the knee, and the other is the hypotenuse, tensioned to hold my foot at 90- degrees while sleeping. It takes some adjustment to get the right support so foot or leg doesn’t get restricted circulation.

This also helps achilles tendon injuries heal. This is just my experience, but is something you can try by degrees to see if it helps.

[Don Wilson]

Stretch, stretch, stretch. I’ve had two bouts with PF. Both resolved successfully by carefully and regularly stretching. For me, it works best to stretch both the calf muscles and the feet. There are many different stretches that do this, so search the web and try a few. But do it slowly. And be patient, PF can take weeks or months to heal completely.

[Colin Thomas]

Are custom made orthopedic insoles worth the money ($400CAD) to have made? Are they going to be guarantied better than say the CustomFit 3 piece Superfeet insloes($130CAD)?

http://www.superfeet.com/content/custom-green.html#.html

Does anyone with experience in expensive custom insoles know how long they will last compared to the custom Superfeet insoles?

[Jim Wood]

This summer, for the first time in my long backpacking career, I suffered an acute bout of plantar faciitis. The pain in my heels was so bad, I could barely hobble out the Cranberry Wilderness (in West VA). I had been experimenting with different insoles in my New Balance running shoes (no problems for many years prior) when the problem surfaced.

After much research, I am now convinced that the PF was caused by over-cushioned insoles. Too much cushioning, I believe, allowed my feet to severely over-pronate, causing extreme stretching in the plantar facia (a condition that is apparently thought to cause many cases of PF).

To try to correct the problem, I reverted back to tried-and-true shoe inserts, including my custom-molded SuperFeet, but for several months, nothing seemed to help. Even extensive calf-stretching prior to walking didn’t solve my problem. Finally, I found a combination of running shoes that included a stiffener at the rear of the shoe (NB 892’s – no longer made), a semi-rigid orthotic, and a gel under-cushion pad, that seems to work.

Even without calf-stretching now, I can backpack all day without heel pain. One thing I did discover during this process is that the root cause of any particular case of PF can be difficult to diagnose, so you may need to experiment quite a bit before you find the right combination for you. Another thing I found is that there are a lot of “snake-oil” solutions being offered out there on the ‘Net, so buyer beware.

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