[pct-l] shoe sizing - questions thereof

[Tortoise]

As to shoe fitting, I second Eric's comments.

I recently went to a supposedly good shoe store to look for new shoes. They 
wanted to fit and sell me a pair of shoes which were too short by my 
standards because I had a little room between my big toe and the end of the 
shoe. But my feet are much more comfortable in a bigger looser shoe -- too 
big and loose by shoe store standards.

I use two pair of shoelaces for my hiking shoes. One short pair for the 
first three eyelets (from the toes) kept loos3.  A second longer pair for 
the rest of the eyelets which I generally keep loose but tighten for 
extended down hills.

There are many, many variations on lacing one's shoes and there is at least 
one website devoted to just this. search the list archives or just do a web 
search.

Tortoise

<> Because truth matters! <>

On 07/25/10 01:02, Eric Lee wrote:
> TheDuck wrote:
>>
> In reading Yogi's PCT handbook, it seems the suggested shoe size (for
> running shoes) is 1/2 to a full size over one's day-in-day-out shoe size. My
> question is: is that for people that wear confining shoes on a daily basis,
> and it's with all the trail pounding their feet broaden out to their more
> normal dimensions; or is that for everyone?
>>
>
> Long-distance hiking can do strange things to your body.  It's really like
> nothing else and it's hard to say how your body will react until you
> actually do it.  Especially in the area of feet, everyone is different.
>
> That said, I think the phenomenon of feet spreading out and gaining shoe
> sizes happens most noticeably to people who haven't already spent a lot of
> time abusing their feet.  People who have already spent years doing
> long-distance hikes or runs tend not to notice shoe size changes as much on
> a thru-hike as do people who have done just the occasional overnighter here
> and there.
>
> I haven't done a thru-hike yet but I've been doing annual section hikes of
> 100 to 140 miles at a time for eight or nine years now (plus all the
> training that leads up to them) and my shoe size gradually and permanently
> increased from 10.5 to 11.5.  I've been stable at 11.5 for a few years now.
>
> Part of that was probably my feet physically spreading and part of it was
> probably me realizing that the nice snug stable-feeling fit that I used to
> look for while shopping for shoes/boots was actually not healthy for my
> feet.  My feet are actually much happier with a looser-fitting boot that
> give them room to move around a bit (within reason).  Contrary to popular
> wisdom I actually have far fewer blister problems with a looser fit than I
> did with a snug fit.  Again, everyone's different, but I'm of the opinion
> that many people wear their shoes a little too tight in the first place.
>
> Eric
>
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