These shoes are made for walking….a foot aid kit

Most women are passionate about shoes and experience sheer excitement when buying a new pair (even if they already have 100’s of other pairs in their wardrobe).

No Excuses on the other hand; buys shoes, takes them home and is really worried if she has bought the correct pair, if they are going to be suitable or perhaps she may have even wasted her money.

Shoe shopping requires a whole day of planning, which includes travelling to the city and to exclusive orthotic friendly footwear stores. 

These stores are not easily available; so far I have found 3 places where I can purchase orthotic friendly shoes eg. Ziera, Bared & Peter Sheppard.  All are located in Melbourne CBD which is a good hour drive away for me.

When I do finally arrive at the store, it literally takes hours of trying on MANY pairs of shoes.  My left foot is the problem; shoes must be firm, tight and high around the heel otherwise my ankle slips out of the back of the shoe. Lace up shoes are best, buckles (not Velcro) also work well as these can be tightened to ‘hold’ the foot in place.

None of these are suitable for my feet (the lace up too flimsy).

Orthotics wearers have another problem; the inner sole that comes with shoes must be removed in order to fit our custom made orthotics.  This of course leaves the base or sole of the shoe hard and uncomfortable and extra foot inserts need to be fitted when trying on shoes (as seen above).

When purchasing new shoes, they need to be of good quality, supportive and of course look good too!  Most Orthotic friendly shoes are not exactly pretty and most are designed for the older generation.

Fortunately; after a year since posting about shoe shopping dilemma (see my shoe collection here); someone noticed and graciously took pity on my poor feet.

What a wonderful surprise to receive a “foot aid kit” in the post from FRANKiE 4.  

I finally had that moment of ‘sheer excitement’ when the parcel arrived (I had to photograph them too)!

ELLiE II

Frankie4Of course I put them on the moment they arrived (while waiting in the school car park before collecting the children ~ this is inside my van) and test driving them while walking to pick up my children.

They fit like a glove too; I didn’t need to try them on before hand, as the lovely staff at FRANKiE 4 told me to photograph my feet while standing on a ruler (I could never have done this years ago without today’s technology). Wink 

my feet

I continued to wear them all afternoon (another foot shot)!

And guess what NO blisters or sore feet!  The only thing I wanted to do was try and fix the base and sole inserts the shoes came with.  Because I had to take these out to fit my custom made orthotics, the soles of the shoes were quite hard.

So with a some slight alterations, I will be over time testing the comfort situation inside the sole.

Inside the box I did get the following inserts:

My orthotics are rather thick and hard, so I decided to try a few more options, as the narrow forefoot fillers (the middle soles above) are a little too thin.  

After a week of wearing them (every day – because I need too for support), they have been great, very comfortable, lightweight and trendy too!

I ended up just using the tan (round shaped above) inner soles as the ones I cut were still a little too thick under my orthotics.

 Here is some information of the shoes I am wearing:

ELLiE II

Features:

  • Custom Fit: Components included to perfect your fit. Supporting narrow to wide feet in style and comfort.
  • Includes  Podiatrist & Physiotherapist designed Comfort Footbeds; designed to help improve foot and lower limb biomechanics
  • Split leather footbed lining for improved breathability.
  • Uppers are made from soft leather
  • Soft F4 foam lining in forefoot area to alleviate pressure on skin.
  • Anatomical shape to accommodate the natural movement of the foot.
  • Soft polyurethane sole; the shock resistant base and stable design counteracts the negative impacts of walking and standing on hard surfaces.
  • Orthotic Friendly.
  • Laces to further enable a great fit.

So please take a look at their website; head over to the FRANKiE 4 Facebook page as they have a number of shoes to assist those with problem feet.   But without a doubt ~ the best part is; they are also comfortable, trendy and I now have a fourth place to add to my list of orothoic friendly footwear!

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