Putting Comfort First
Weddings. Birthday parties. A meal out. The theatre. However different the occasion, my outfit is nearly always the same: trousers and a top. Not because it’s what I want to wear, but because it’s what my feet allow. I don’t think anyone talks about this enough, so I’m going to. Ankle Boots Are My Friend, … Read more
Everyone got verrucas when I was young. It felt like a rite of passage, really — you went to the swimming baths, and sooner or later, a verruca followed you home. It wasn’t unusual or embarrassing the way it might feel now; it was just something that happened to nearly everyone eventually. Affiliate disclosure: This … Read more
Every piece of shoe advice you’ll find says roughly the same thing: buy a pair that’s slightly firm, wear them gradually, give them a few weeks to soften and mould to your feet. It’s sensible advice — for a normal foot. If you have arthritis in your feet, it’s advice that can genuinely do you … Read more
Everyone talks about which shoes to wear during recovery. Almost nobody talks about how you actually get them on in the first place, when bending, reaching and gripping are all things your body suddenly can’t quite manage the way it used to. Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you buy something through one … Read more
Nobody really prepares you for this bit. You spend weeks, sometimes months, in a medical boot after ankle surgery, and everyone talks about that phase — how heavy it is, how awkward it feels, how strange it is to sleep in it. What nobody really warns you about is the phase that comes after: the … Read more
Here’s something that took me a surprisingly long time to realise: buying wide fit shoes doesn’t automatically mean everything inside them is wide too. The insole — the bit your foot actually sits on — is usually still cut to a standard shape, even inside a wide shoe. I came across this properly while looking … Read more
If you’ve ever picked up a pair of Waldläufer or another German-made shoe and seen a letter like G, H, K or M on the box instead of the E, EE, EEE you’re used to, you’re not imagining things — it’s a genuinely different system, and nobody explains it particularly well.The same width letter system … Read more
My own feet are wide right through — forefoot, heel, the lot — so for years I assumed “wide fit” was a simple, one-size-fits-all fix. It took hearing from readers with a very different problem to realise it isn’t. If you’ve got a genuinely wide forefoot but a narrower, well-defined heel, a “wide fit” shoe … Read more
I get asked this more than almost anything else, usually by someone who’s just been told by a shop assistant that they “need a wide fit” and has absolutely no idea what that actually means. So let’s clear it up properly. “Wide fit” simply means a shoe that’s made roomier across the ball of your … Read more
How annoying is it when you’re trying to buy shoes and the length is right, the width seems fine, yet the shoe still feels painfully tight across the top of your foot. If that sounds familiar, the problem may not be your shoe width at all. You may have a high instep and simply need … Read more