[pct-l] hot spot

[verber at gmail.com (Mark Verber)]

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:15:11 -0400, Samuel Roth wrote:
> Just bought another pair of hiking shoes (Lowa)-----have a hot spot on both
> feet in the same areas (under the metatarsils)--wearing light weight wool
> socks---

Hmm.  In general, I think a good fitting pair of shoes will have no
(or very small) hot spots.  My Lowa Tempest Low have exactly one hot
spot, the bottom left of my right foot's big toe.  That's it.  I
normally I suggest duct tape for small hot spots,and new shoes if a
larger portion of the foot is involved.  Sounds like the area effected
is too big for duct tape.

Changing sock might help.  I have been very happy using WrightSock
Coolmesh socks which are double layer socks, though these aren't the
world's most durable socks.  So people swear by wearing to pair of
synthetic dress socks.  Conventional wisdom is to wear a heavy wool
sock, with an very light weight inner sock made of CoolMax or
polypro.. which is well backed up by data collected by Dr. Murray
Hamlet of the Army Cold Weather Research Center.  A thin liner sock
made of CoolMax, and a thicker sock made of wool&polypro (fuzzy side
out) reduced the likelihood of blisters by a factor of three! 
TechSpun sells the socks designed by Hamlet.

--Mark