Shoes – 2 big issues

[Gregory Petliski]

#1 Heel fit. It always feels as though my heel is slipping up and down, no matter what shoes I try on, no matter what lacing style I try, no matter how many dr. scholls heel lifts I try.

#2 durability. It seems as though virtually every trail shoe and even mid hiker has absurdly thin outsoles, like they would wear in less than 200 miles of use.

So does any company make a trail shoe or mid hiker that wont come undone, wont wear out in a month, etc? As to the heel fit, I have no idea what to try next. I keep getting blisters on the back of the heel, so its very frustrating. I bought superfeet blues, we'll see how they do but Im not holding my breath. Makes me wonder if I should just give up and go barefoot.

[drowning in spam]

Have you tried heat molding your heel cup?

I've been using Inov-8 shoes and they've been lasting me more than long enough. I've put around 500 miles on a pair of Roclite 370's which are very similar to the Roclite 315, and I should have around 400 miles on my Terroc 330's within the next month or two. I'm a heavy guy too.

[Roger Caffin]

Try looking at the New Balance shopping web site http://www.nbwebexpress.com/

Pick a shoe, then when the shoe comes up, look on the right hand side of the page and find a clickable link for 'shoe lasts'. Read the descriptions of the many different shoe lasts NB offer, and pick one that sounds right for you. Then search for shoes with that last – from the home page. They probably have the widest range of lasts and shoe widths on the market.

Cheers

[tommy d]

"Makes me wonder if I should just give up and go barefoot."

Maybe that's not such a bad idea.

[Jaakko Heikka]

After some try and error I'm settling with La Sportiva Wildcats.

#1 Heel fit.

The main reason why I like these shoes is the heel fit. It's about perfect but requires quite tight lacing (as all shoes for me). I think that the great heel fit is because of the plastic structure on the outside, somewhat visible in this picture: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416TuqeqPyL._AA300_.jpg

But of course the shoe should be a good fit overall to provide heel fit.

#2 durability.

My Wildcats have lasted now about 300 kilometers when Ino8 315s selfdestroyd between 200-300 km use. Wildcats seems decently durable, especially if you do off trail which saves the outsoles. I expect to get over 500km out of them.

[Nick Gatel]

If you are getting blisters, the shoe does not fit (no pun intended). IMO lifts and after-market insoles are just methods to try and overcome a poor fitting shoe. As Roger pointed out, the lasts are important, and every company uses their own last sizes.

A good brand name trail runner should last you at least 400 miles.

Try and find a large running shoe specialty store. They will have a large inventory of brands and you can try on many different ones. If you are lucky, they will have knowledgeable sales people to help you get the right fit.

I have found that Salomons fit me the best, and when I went shopping for trail runners the first time, they were not even on my shopping list.

[Aaron Reichow]

Regarding #1:

Heel lifts and insoles will make heel lift/slip *worse*, not better. A moldable heel cup may help if the problem is your heel moving around in the heel rather than your heel slipping up and down as you describe.

Something that helps a lot with heel fit is to get a shoe that has two eyelets at the top. This allows you to use a lock lacing. This helps a lot, depending on the shoe. I especially like it as it keeps me from having to lace the whole shoe really tightly- on well-designed shoes, the rest of the lacing can be pretty loose, with the heel collar snugged up around my heel.

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