Heel blister protection, alternative to Engo strips?

You might ask the question about why your heels are moving. If the shoe fit is correct, there should not be much movement.

–B.G.–

I have extremely narrow heels (and wide toes! – so fitting my feet has always been a challenge).

Switching to New Balance MT 100's and Inov-8 268's has considerably reduced heel slippage.

Nevertheless, my left heel in particular still moves a bit even in very narrow-heeled shoes.

The Engo strips (and taping my heels) have rounded out my blister-prevention strategies such that I never get blisters anymore.

– Elizabeth

Elizabeth, it sounds like your feet are statistically out of the norm, so it is understood why you have difficulty getting proper fit. Now, with that in mind, which way is it that your left heel moves? Up and down, or left to right, or front to back?

It seems like there are two obvious ways of padding the problem, and those are by padding the shoe or by padding the foot. You are doing both, I guess. Does a super thick sock help? If that fouls up the fit in front too much, then make yourself some custom socks by sewing together the back of thick socks with the front of thin socks.

If you get the right thickness of padding into the shoes, you ought to be able to sew it into place in order to get it to be somewhat more permanent. I don't know those particular shoes, but the other Inov-8 shoes seem adaptable to that.

Once you get as close on that as you can, then you might be able to toughen the foot skin so that it doesn't blister easily. There are several ways of doing that.

–B.G.–

Left foot moves up and down – even in narrow-heeled shoes.

Lacing them up tighter helps, but also results in the shoe feeling a little too tight in my midfoot.

Engo patches have helped tremendously. Presumably, because when my heel moves up and down along the heel of the foot, it is now moving along a smoother surface that does not create friction.

But, custom padding: Sure, that would be a curious thing to try, as well.

– Elizabeth

Have you been to a podiatrist or physical therapist? Perhaps you need a single custom orthotic (soft type) that can be fitted into the problem shoe…

Check the lacing of your shoes. When I switched to the loop-lock method that inov-8 suggests I solved a lot of fitting issues. While I've never gotten blisters (good wicking socks, softer upper material, and fore foot walking so I'm "lighter" on my feet seem to work) I dislike my foot shifting in my shoes. I also have a higher arch so lacing tight would make shoes fit tight in the midfoot too.

By using a loop-lock and sizing up a half size I now have plenty of space for my feet and toes to spread out but the loop-lock keeps my heel/ankle secure.

http://www.inov-8.co.nz/lacing-systems.html

Elizabeth, I have the same problem as you – narrow ankles. Probably not as bad as your left foot seems to be but a bit more troublesome because so few men's boots come in a width smaller than D or E. Orthotics have helped, blister patches such as Engo help, and I wear heavy socks when hiking with a backpack. Also I always double-lace my boots to keep the tie as tight as possible. The only other thing I can suggest is to try out as many boots as possible until you find the closest fit for your feet (in my case, Oboz), then tweak with an orthotic. There used to be a brand of inserts that came with small circles of rubber of different sizes, so for example you could raise your left heel a bit more than your right heel. Good luck – no fun to hike with blisters.

Richard