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'I wear glasses but would not let the optician choose my frames, so why should people let a podiatrist or orthotist dictate their footwear?’
-Maybe not but I'm pretty sure you would want them to choose the lenses!
On an aside from this, how much input does a podiatrist generally have on the shoe choice? Are they expected to be able to choose a specific shoe for the customer or is it sufficient to create them an orthotic device and refer them to a specialist shoe store?
Pardon my ignorance but this is my first post on here and I am intrigued to learn from the vast expanse of minds on here. I am a recent graduate of Biomechanics and work within the footwear industry and regularly prescribe shoes for customers with various pathologies. Rarely have I been unable to fit a foot to something comfortable and pain relieving and create a custom footbed to fit into that specific shoe. Perhaps I should start making them for wellies and expand my business!
Why do prescription shoes all "look ugly"? Because they look like feet, that's why.
Until the shoe-buying public understands the concept that shoes should be chosen to fit the natural contours of the foot, rather than deforming the foot to fit into a certain preferred style and shape of shoe, shoes that have the same shape as a foot will always be considered as being "ugly" to a large number of individuals in our Western Society.
See attached photo of two pairs of shoes that were being worn by the same pair of feet...... and she wondered why her feet hurt in her dress shoes but not in her "ugly" running shoes. Amazing.
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Sincerely,
Kevin
**************************************************
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
Perhaps I should start making them for wellies and expand my business!
I did a three pair repeat prescription for a farmer about a month ago. One pair for his "best" Wellies; one pair for his day to day wellies; one pair for his dog walking Wellies. It's not too uncommon here in the west country.
Why do prescription shoes all "look ugly"? Because they look like feet, that's why.
Until the shoe-buying public understands the concept that shoes should be chosen to fit the natural contours of the foot, rather than deforming the foot to fit into a certain preferred style and shape of shoe, shoes that have the same shape as a foot will always be considered as being "ugly" to a large number of individuals in our Western Society.
See attached photo of two pairs of shoes that were being worn by the same pair of feet...... and she wondered why her feet hurt in her dress shoes but not in her "ugly" running shoes. Amazing.
I did a three pair repeat prescription for a farmer about a month ago. One pair for his "best" Wellies; one pair for his day to day wellies; one pair for his dog walking Wellies. It's not too uncommon here in the west country.
Haha I love it , I am a county Cork man so I can totally understand his predicament, however where I'm from the three would be amalgamated and there would be no such notion of having pain alleviated that would give him less to complain about down the pub!
About 30 years ago, I actually saw a guy walking across Castro Street in San Francisco (main gay district in SF) in the middle of the afternoon dressed in a pair of chaps just like this but with nothing else on under the chaps (i.e. his bare posterior was hanging out the back of the chaps). This was the pre-AIDS era of SF and my wife's sister, who we were giving a SF tour to in our car at the time (she was only 15 years old) could not get her jaw to close after it dropped toward the floor when she saw this sight.
San Francisco....there's no other place like it in the world.
__________________
Sincerely,
Kevin
**************************************************
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
Castro Street in San Francisco (main gay district in SF)
Yep. Been there. I had an ice-cream, stopped at a crossing and a guy said something like "that looks nice", took a lick of my ice-cream and crossed the road. No euphemism here. I didn't cross the road nor finish the ice-cream. Seriously, no euphemism here.
You have to laugh when you read this statement and question her IQ...
"...often in the form of prescription shoes. But these are so ugly and uncomfortable that many people can’t bring themselves to wear them"
They must have done a sh*t job with the orthosis and shoe fitting if they are uncomfortable...dont wear them, take them back, the whole lot!
From what you can see of her shoe fit and the Arthritis l would suggest a great looking pair shoes, "Epic" or even boots, "Commander" by Ziera, these will take a full length orthosis as she holds in her hand, with a mild rocker sole and they are far from ugly.
From what you can see of her shoe fit and the Arthritis l would suggest a great looking pair shoes, "Epic" or even boots, "Commander" by Ziera, these will take a full length orthosis as she holds in her hand, with a mild rocker sole and they are far from ugly.
"Great looking", hmmm. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder and whether or not you are employed as a social worker. My mom would probably wear these, but she's 79 years old.
Careful what you say now Simon, there are three Podiatrists that frequent here that have bought a pair of these boots, each, you could be walking a very fine line indeed
Careful what you say now Simon, there are three Podiatrists that frequent here that have bought a pair of these boots, each, you could be walking a very fine line indeed
Now what would you like Simon?
The girl in the picture is pretty, the boots are still ugly ducklings. A sale of 3 pairs to podiatrists doesn't make them "the must have this season" for the majority of females in the 20-50 age range.
I wear similar, well kinda, biker boots with leathers 'n jeans but you wouldn't catch me in the shoes, epic or not, even tho I have arthritic changes in my feet. Guess It's a 'female issue'. Tell you what, I'll take photos of what women pods wear to the summer school next week and, with their permission, will post some here.
I wear similar, well kinda, biker boots with leathers 'n jeans but you wouldn't catch me in the shoes, epic or not, even tho I have arthritic changes in my feet. Guess It's a 'female issue'. Tell you what, I'll take photos of what women pods wear to the summer school next week and, with their permission, will post some here.
Do that, then go to a conference in Portugal and see what women pods wear there. I think you'll see a stark contrast.
at last you have achieved the highest of bad taste.
If this had been in the break room Ok, but.
Clearly none of you have ever ridden a horse or you would recognize that the leather garments are not 'chaps' look closely the zip is on the inside try rubbing that against a saddle western or English and feel the results.
As for the rest of the thread it is blatantly sexist and homophobic, shame on you all.
at last you have achieved the highest of bad taste.
If this had been in the break room Ok, but.
Clearly none of you have ever ridden a horse or you would recognize that the leather garments are not 'chaps' look closely the zip is on the inside try rubbing that against a saddle western or English and feel the results.
As for the rest of the thread it is blatantly sexist and homophobic, shame on you all.
Joe:
Homophobic? Not at all, many of my friends/colleagues in San Francisco and since that time were/are gay and we get along very nicely together. Simon and I were reporting true stories from the past. Since when has reporting true events that occurred in the past been considered "homophobic". If you can't handle reporting true stories, then I suggest quit reading this thread. You can get off your politically correct pedestal now, Joe. I'm tired of it already.
__________________
Sincerely,
Kevin
**************************************************
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
see the other half will not go shoe shopping with me any more, she is a medic spends 14hours (sorry that is a typo 12 hour, docotrs in the UK do not work more than 12 hours :) ) she wears shoes like black ones Kevin posted up to work, comes home and complains her knees and ankle hurt, she wears some trainers or sensible shoes pain goes away magic.
I think Kevin should take a trip to brighton when he is over next week, will see plenty of chaps there.
Bringing things back a little more on track perhaps ...
With 25 years of experience fitting walking boots before I became a Podiatrist, I saw boots evolve from leather and vulcanised rubber outsoles with steel shanks to multi-density plastic soles with nylon shanks. This progressively halved the weight of walking boots, but one constant every year would be the female customer who would pick the new lighter-than-last-year boot up and say,
"Oooh, this is heavy".
Patients, like customers, reserve the right to believe mutually contradictory things, unsupported by evidence . I quickly learned that measuring my patients' feet with a Brannock gauge in clinic only upset them, and a gentler, more persuasive approach sometimes yielded better results .....sometimes .
I would challenge journalists and the fashion industry to reflect upon their relentless conditioning of customers to believe that a pointy-toed little torture machine for feet is somehow "attractive", and a foot-shaped shoe is somehow "clumpy" and "ugly". Men gave up high heels in the 17th century and are happier for it (please start a separate thread if you want to pursue this thought )
I guess we have to work with where we are now, but I believe we should try to move the debate to more productive ground rather than allow the belief to take root that we are somehow not producing an attractive orthopaedic shoe because we are not trying, or don't care about our patients.
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I like to use the analogy of cars. If I take a BMW Z4 convertible and add 2 extra seats because I need a little more space for the kids friends doing the school run. Then I add a solid roof because it p!sses down in the Isle of Man most of the time. Then I put in extra large tyres with big suspension because of the rutted roads that I need to drive down occasionally. I then add child seat compatible seats, I go from a nice sporty car to a landrover defender. I have no problem with how a landrover defender looks. IN fact, I really like them, but I also like brogue shoes and tweed jackets.
Take a Pretty little ballet pump and add space for a hammer toe, extra depth throughout because of oedema, add extra depth to accommodate an insole that has to be minumum 6mm thick because there is a metatrsal that is at least that much more prominant than any of the others. Add some extra width for a bunion and a thick sole unit with a rocker as the patient has hallux rigidus(all things that might arise in the typical RA patient) and you end up with something like an orthopaedic shoe
One would think that we make a distinct effort to make shoes look especially ugly for some very peculiar reason. Can they not see that our life would be easier if we could just just give them nice looking, rubbish fitting shoes.
The reality is that no one would use orthopaedic footwear unless they had to and the reason they have to is because normal shoes that one can buy in a shop do not fit because their feet are NOT SHAPED LIKE A FASHION SHOE. If they were, they could wear a fashionable shoe
Can you tell this topic gets my goat?
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I see you girls checkin' out my trunks
I see you girls checkin' out the front of my trunks
I see you girls lookin' at my junk, then checkin' out my rump, then back to my sugarlumps
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Homophobic? Not at all, many of my friends/colleagues in San Francisco and since that time were/are gay and we get along very nicely together. Simon and I were reporting true stories from the past. Since when has reporting true events that occurred in the past been considered "homophobic". If you can't handle reporting true stories, then I suggest quit reading this thread. You can get off your politically correct pedestal now, Joe. I'm tired of it already.
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Kevin just because many of your friends are gay and you get along nicely does not mean your and Simonds's posts were not homophobic. The image posted was not of wrangling gear but of stereotypical gay clothing. As I pointed out chaps would not have an internal zip.
As far as reporting true stories I have no problem, but what relevance did they have to the tread?
I'm sorry my observations tire you or is it just that you are not used to being criticized and do not like it?
Orthotics that don't fit in shoes
, I am a county Cork man so I can totally understand his predicament, however where I'm from the three would be amalgamated and there would be no such notion of having pain alleviated that would give him less to complain about down the pub!
, take them back, the whole lot!
. I quickly learned that measuring my patients' feet with a Brannock gauge in clinic only upset them, and a gentler, more persuasive approach sometimes yielded better results .....sometimes 
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