Thru hike foot growth; how much and how fast? (Altra sizing)

unfortunately there is no good answer to your question.  There is always going to be a limit as to how big your feet can get, since the growth comes from a) flattening of your arch during stance (which it is SUPPOSED to do, by the way); and b) splaying of the foot bones as the connective tissue loses elasticity, spreads out for more force absorption, etc.

If you’ve already been spending a lot of time hiking and running in a shoe like Altra, then you may be close to your “ideal” foot size for hiking anyway and you may not grow any more.  But….everybody’s different!

And the other problem with Altra, as I’ve seen, is that they aren’t the greatest at making sizes uniform…meaning i have one pair of Lone Peak 2.0s in a size 10 and another in a size 10 and one is obviously much bigger than the other – yet they both says W10 inside.  I’ve looked.  Dozens of times.  I did some research and found that is a common complaint with Altra….

To start your hike, just get the shoe size that is the most comfortable for you to wear and hike in.  That’s pretty much it.

Not sure that helps you???  but basically it’s guesswork on your part.  As

How do I know my feet got bigger?

I’ve been backpacking 500 miles a year for 10 years and I noticed the nails on my two smallest toes of my left foot got dis-colored and mis-shapen.

I switched from size 12 to size 13 the last year and it seems like over about that one year period my toe nails are no longer dis-colored and not as mis-shapen.  Maybe that’s because of the increased shoe size?  Otherwise, only an occasional blister on my little toe or heel.

I didn’t have any perceivable change in foot size when I hiked the PCT, although there were a few days in the desert where my feet seemed a bit puffed up.

The PCT isn’t exactly technical footwork, so I’d go with a moderately generous shoe size (about .5 or 1 size above normal).

Thanks for the feedback guys, sounds about what I was thinking – I’ll go the 13s and see how they are… worst case I’ll be swapping out shoes before they are worn out… not a lot of money in the scheme of the whole trip :)

My experience with Lone Peaks (mens, 2nd version) and Superiors (mens, 2.0) is that the Superiors are wider in the toe-box. And for all of them the women’s are too narrow for this woman’s feet.

“And for all of them the women’s are too narrow for this woman’s feet.”

Holy crap, woman!  how wide are those flippers?????!!!!!!

“And for all of them the women’s are too narrow for this woman’s feet.”

same here.  Have tried on hundreds of shoes, and never found one that was comfortable in store.

Go up a size and carry some spare wool socks.

Yes, feet DO grow with lots of walking. Ours grew from 8 to 10. Width is extremely important too: never go ‘narrow’. You will pay for it.

Cheers

Not to hijack the thread, but I just happened to try on some Altra 2,5s today and really liked them and came on here looking for some reviews on Altras. Anybody worn the 2,5s? Thanks  in advance.

If you mean Altra Lone Peak 2.5, I love them , Bought them first of year and have couple of hundred on them I guess. Solve all my metatarsal pain I was having with shoes I had hiked in for ever (merrells) Much lighter .. water goes straight thru to socks though but is to be expected… When it s cold you can feel it thru top of shoe (also to be expected) feet move a round a bit but it is actually a nice feeling . Good on rocks as you dont feel them thru the sole . Hope they last till JMT this august but imagine Ill be well into pair # 2 (or 3) by them ……..

Mike

Holy crap, woman!  how wide are those flippers?????!!!!!!

It’s always my little toes that stick out and cause the width to be too narrow.

The Lone Peaks are sort of rectangular and you’d think with all the hype that would make them wide enough, but the added width seems to be in the middle of the foot and not by the little toes. The result is my pinky toes are turned to hamburger.

Here’s my feet standing on the Lone Peak insoles. I have to buy them a little too long just to fit my pinky toes, and even then there’s not enough room.

Hi Piper

Yeah, wide feet! At a guess, you should be looking at a 4E or even 6E fitting. Not too many mfrs have those, but I am sure New Balance have a number of shoes of that width. Just don’t buy the womens style.

Cheers

I’m exactly the same as Piper, so I use the men’s Altras. But I have to be careful about different models some make side hilling downright uncomfortable cause their too loose on the uppers. And yes the women’s sizes are narrow and getting narrower it seems…like everything made in China or Japan tends to go “Asian” in size after a few years. I tried the 2E to 4E in New Balance shoes and they still were too narrow even in men’s. I also use Chacos, but very few are offered in wide and I have to dremmel out a small section on the outer edge as my bones there need a smidge more room.

To answer the original question, go with what fits now. I know at least two people on the PCT in 2014 that sized up with Altra prematurely and had serious problems. You can order shoes as you go from Zappos, they will ship anywhere you want, I did that all along the PCT and had no problems even with an exchange due to a flaw in the inside of a pair that I could not tolerate.

You take a dremmel to your shoes? What part do you dremmel?

I have not had much success with NB widths at times, too. Depends on the shoe. Some wide shoes are actually fat guy shoes. They are big everywhere, not really wide. I have wide width Chacos that are like fat girl Chacos. I had to sew sheepskin to the straps because they were so loose. But without the wide base, the heel portion is too narrow.

All this is why I wear silly Luna Sandals more and more. Even those are too narrow so I have actually made my own.

Thanks for the responses guys, reinforcing the comments above, and happy for the bit of a hijack as I’m also keen to hear people experience with the 2.5s more broadly, and any comparison to the Superior 2.0s which would be a lighter and slightly cheaper alternative…

Yep I dremmel the area on the footbed just forward and inside of the outside heel strap connection. Metal cone shaped rotary rasp. Works great. My bones need just a bit more room there or it rubs me raw. The arch on Chacos is about perfect for me for carrying loads. If I could handle all the skin cracking I’d wear nothing but Chacos but I’m not that tough.

sorry about the thread drift…..

I’m probably in a pretty similar boat (or I was last year). I was a size 11 since I was 14, but after my first year of serious backpacking (2013, age 27ish, maybe 4-500 miles or so in aggregate), I went up to a 12 because my foot had grown to the point where the 11s were tight enough to cause severe foot pain. The next year, I did similar amounts of hiking, but also started walking everywhere no matter what (live in the city), and I went up another size. When I did my PCT attempt in 2015, I was wearing size 13 Lone Peaks (not super snug, but not super loose either) and didn’t see any appreciable foot growth. I had to bow out near Tahoe due to a back injury, but I’d have been very surprised if I outgrew those shoes even with another 1,500 miles of hiking.

TL/DR version: Foot expansion is definitely a thing, but I think in my case, my history of putting decent miles on my feet for the years preceding the hike (~4-500 backpacking, ~1,000 city miles) got most of it out of the way beforehand. It sounds like you might be in a similar boat.

Yeah good feedback, that does sound like my case – I’d be doing 8km a day walking to work and back + around the city for meetings… don’t own a car and rarely ride my bike or catch public transport these days.. and most of those kms are done in zero drop wide shoes – hopefully most of my growing is done :)

Oh, you dremmel your chacos! I get it. I took a utility knife to my own chacos. I thought maybe you dremmeled your Altras.

And back on topic, I know my feet did change hiking the PCT. I used to not have space between my toes. Now I have lots of space between my toes. I got to where I just couldn’t stand any kind of tightness at all in my shoes, so in Cabazon I got off trail and went to an outlet mall and bought a pair of men’s size 10 trail running shoes. I would probably measure a men’s size 6 or so and I think those shoes were in the outlet mall for being possibly mis-sized. My foot never slipped around inside but there were a good 3 or 4 inches beyond my big toe. This let the wider toe area of my foot fall right at the widest part of the shoe. I kept my feet from slipping with a foam insert and wool socks. The foam was sort of “sticky” and the wool socks didn’t slide against it like polyester socks would have. I didn’t have any more pain or chafing. It was GREAT! But now my feet are a lot wider than they used to be because there’s no space between my toes anymore. There also aren’t hard horny callouses on folded-under pinky toes anymore either.

I still do the huge floppy shoe with the foam and wool socks trick to this day.

Quick update, 13 LPs have arrived. I think the fit is roomy enough, but I just think they’re too much shoe for me, I feel very elevated and worry about rolled ankles. I believe my feet are strong enough to go the distance in something more minimal so I’m gonna send them back and swap for some Superiors. Also will save a couple of ounces on the feet which is always good.

Apparently in the very latest colours they’ve made them fit a little bigger to come in line with the LPs – not sure why this didn’t bump them to Superior 2.5 but who can understand Altra naming?? Anyway, same size but being able to pull out the rock plate for a little more room should be the best all round :)

That’s good. I’ve found Altra sizing to not be consistent from model to model, which is a common complaint…and the womens’ models seem small to me. I should be a womens’ 9.5 or 10 but only 11’s fit me now. It’s crazy…..

I decided to buy a pair of the Altra Lone Peaks after trying on every hiking shoe/trail runner in town, I have had foot pain since June when I hiked about 700 miles of the AT and just could not seem to get over what the doctor called a “soft tissue ” injury to the outside/top of my foot. The Altras feel like a hiking slipper- very comfy. The first day I wore them my foot still hurt, probably more than before. The second day a little less. After the third day- no foot pain, a first in 8 months. I only wore them about an hour or less for the first few days. I’m sold on them.