Useful tips while choosing footwear

No doubt, we people are careless about our feet. We give extra care to our face and body while neglect our legs, which support our whole body. Do you know feet are of different types and if sandals not chosen according to that, it can lead to pain and many other health issues? Before we procedure further, let us learn different types of feet. Different sport companies have developed vast range of footwear that well suits each foot type.

Wet test to find which type of feet you own

Is it flat or high arches? Or is it simply normal? This simple test can help you to determine which foot type you own. Wet your feet and stand on a brown paper or any dry surface for a few seconds. Now remove the feet and examine your footprint.

If your foot impression looks like the whole sole of the foot, you own flat foot (Over Pronator). For this group of people, their footwear starts tearing from the heal side. If only heels and finger tips appear on the brown paper or flat surface, you are a person with high arch feet (Under Pronator / Supinator). Their footwear start tearing from both heals and front side (as extra pressure is given to heel and tips of sandals or shoes). If your foot impression has straight lines drawn between heels and fingers (almost like shape of feet) you have almost perfect feet – Neutral Pronator. It’s the most common foot type which supports body weight and your shoes tear from all sides equally. So it’s a better choice to buy insoles quite fitting your feet shape.

So, how to choose sandals and shoes?

‘Footwear should be beautiful and stylist, and if chosen as per latest trend nothing else is needed. When you get some offers, you may buy two or three. Otherwise purchase footwear only when it’s needed. For special occasions, sandals matching the costumes and makeup are preferable. One pair for rough use, one pair for monsoon and one pair for office’ – These are the most common criteria to buy sandals for most of us, isn’t it? But do you think it’s the right and healthy way to purchase footwear?

There is an easy method to know if the chapel has correct pressure distribution. In the inner side of the sandal, place a coin and press it for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, remove the coin to see if it still forms a coin shape. If the sole has not restored its original shape very soon, it implies that pressure distribution of the sandal is not correct. Once the coin is removed, if the sandal restores its shape, its pressure is equally distributed and absolutely perfect for use. Here are a few tips to note while choosing and wearing footwear.   

High heels can harm you a lot – Some people regularly use high heels. For such persons, their fingers are affected most. Since the pressure of whole feet falls on the finger tips at front end, tendons connecting tissues of feet with bones may be permanently affected and shrink forever. After that even if you walk without footwear or use a normal pair of sandals, you may feel severe pain in your heels. Once you get out of your bed after a long sleep, if you feel like pricking pain inside your feet, it may be due to the excess use of high heels.

Never use sandal which doesn’t fit your feet – If you make a habit to wear footwear that doesn’t suit your feet at all, on regular use, it reduces the strength of your sole significantly. You may also feel pain similar to cramp. If front end of sandals are tight, it affects the fingers and they may slightly bend. As your fingers are always in ‘high pressure’ mode, your nails will also be affected. They may lose their natural colour, show colour differences and even break. Natural growth of nails may also be interrupted.

Perfect flat sole chapels are also not good – Similar to high heels, flat footwear can also adversely affect you. Feet have natural arch shape, and flat sole footwear is enough to destroy them. The arch shape of feet may be altered by flat shoes if used on a regular basis. If you really want to use flat shoes or sandals, place a heal insole inside the footwear.

One inch heel is sufficient for those who stand for prolonged hours – It’s better to use sandals with one inch height if you need to stand for long hours. Front end of the sandal should also be spacious to give comfort to fingers. For jogging & exercise, office or bathrooms – it’s a wise decision to keep separate sandals for different purposes. For jogging & exercises, it’s better to use branded shoes which give better grip and comfort.

Throw off sandals once they start tear and wear – On regular use, one side of sandals may tear, and it’s not a good procedure to use such defective sandals later. It may lead to many health issues, and the better choice is to change them.

Wrong choice of footwear may lead to foot warts – Thick dead cells in between the fingers and bones may also occur due to the regular use of wrong or damaged footwear. Warts are formed when extra pressure is given to certain points of feet always. It may occur due to wrong measurements of footwear used. If you use sandals bigger than your feet, your skin will be rubbed and scrapped very often resulting in the formation of warts.

Swellings beneath the toes – If you choose sandals not according to the shape of your feet, swellings may appear beneath toes. In this case, toe gives extra pressure to the nearby finger and results in swellings of the folding in between.

Hammer Toe, yet another issue – It appears in between the second and third fingers of your feet. It resembles the shape of a hammer and hence the name. If you use tight sandals or high heels with narrow front end, it can lead to hammer toe.

Image source: Pixabay

Read a few more articles on foot care & beauty treatments. Here is the page link. Click on the images in the gallery to read.