Footwear guide
Different types of shoes
There are 24 hours in a day, you can’t always be expected to wear the same shoe, it’s not possible. Certainly wearing a trainer or wider fitting shoe may well be the most comfy shoe, however wearing this in a meeting or a formal social event is not going to look right or be acceptable. But, if they do give you relief; in what situations would they be OK to wear? (e.g. walking to work, pottering around the house or going out doing odd-jobs or grocery shopping). Do they help?
The more you can wear a roomier/supportive shoe, you are storing up Brownie points for when you wear a tighter fitting/less supportive shoe. It may allow you to wear them for longer. Also, you will know that after wearing them that you have something that will give you some ease.
Fashion shoes
Going back to the point about 90% of the population wearing 1 size too small, this means the widest part of the foot does not sit in the widest part of the shoe. The style/shape of the shoe can further ease or exacerbate the problem. There are some fashionable shoes that do lend themselves to giving you a bit more room to accommodate your forefoot and conditions like bunions. It is not a total solution, but it may make an evening out more tolerable and your next day less uncomfortable. Some styles hold their width longer, that way they leave a bit more room to accommodate bunions and hammer toes; add to that the type of material and stitch work and some will have more give than others.
Some styles of shoes taper in more than others, so certain fashion styles can be more uncomfortable than others. If you can go for a style that is square or holds the widest part for longer you might find these styles/shoes more tolerable to wear. It’s not ideal, but if its delays the pain for a while it might make your night out or special occasion more tolerable (from a foot pain perspective).
Sandals (open toes)
Sandals (open toes) offer more give / no pressure over bunions and hammer toes. Often bunions/hammer toes are seasonal with people being OK in the summer, but in winter they have fitting problems – enclosed shoes have less give in them.
Extra width and depth fitting shoes
Having gone through your current shoes if you are still having accommodation problems, then you may benefit from a shoe with more width/depth. Initially try the High Street; go get your feet measured and see if you can find a shoe that will fit your whole foot and accommodate your forefoot. However, some people will need more width and depth than the High Street stockists can provide. Now, before you go down a surgical shoe route there are a number of extra width and depth shoes available. However, these are specialist and will only be found on mail order/Internet.
The following companies have a range of extra width/depth shoes and have self measurement systems that will help you find the right size: