surgical tape best for preventing blisters

+1 on Leuko tape, especially if you are going to leave it on for more than a day. I could never get that surgical tape to stick on well enough for more than part of a day.

my heel bones have protrusions that cause me all manner of headaches (well, foot aches) and putting tyvek tape over the protrusions seems to work very well.  the insides of my shoes get holes and this usually leads to blisters.  an application of an about 2 inch square of tyvek tape over the protrusions does the trick. no more blisters.

i use tyvek tape for everything.  i keep about 3 feet on a hiking pole.

Leuko tape rocks. Don’t leave home without it.

Another vote for leuokotape. When I read the article, I was reminded that I already had the solution. I unroll some and put it on wax paper for trips instead of taking the whole roll.

I like micro pore and kinesio tape, with tincture of benzoin to keep it stuck.

I found leukotape too sticky and difficult to handle, but it does stay in place.

I just bought some surgical tape after reading the paper …

I actually agree that the surgical tape looks like it’s going to be super awesome and effective.  It’s super thin.  It also has fibers running perpendicular at about 50mm throughout the tape.

It’s kind of like reptile skin in a way.  Anyway.. I figure that having this in my pack is going to go a LONG way to helping guests when I take them in the woods.  There seems to always be a 95% chance that they will get blisters and screw up the trip.

“but it does stay in place.”

Hence we love it.

I have done this with an already formed blister: a piece of second skin, either the gel stuff or the very thin solid sheet that comes with it, followed by leukotape. I’ve even added a center diamond cut thin moleskin with leukotape  over the top. (Or some combination of this. I’ve pretty much given up on the second skin gel.) Because the Leukotape  stays put, this works. No sliding around to make things worse.

I do like 3M micropore surgical tape in my FAK.

HOWEVER

I also find that most cases of blisters in shoes are due to the shoe being the wrong size – usually too narrow. Very often this is due to two factors: most shoe companies only make one ‘average’ or D width shoe, and many walkers have no idea what width shoe they should be wearing.

A lot of this comes from shoe recommendations made (often here on BPL) in total ignorance of the other persons foot size. Sigh. Ah well – at least I know what width shoes fit me, and I never get blisters.

cheers

This may be old news or pure PR. I don’t have much trouble with blisters and don’t have much experience with tape. Others do and there appears to be much written about it.

http://www.fixingyourfeet.com/The-Two-Tape-Test.html

If you are prone to blisters, I think that taping before you get one is best. It appears that thin tape with a slick outer surface is more likely to reduce friction and prevent blisters.