These Boots are Made for Walkin'

Photo Essay: Hiking the Andes with Mountain Lodges of Peru

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Once the examination and measurement of the feet are complete the fitter should make suggestions as to what is needed to get the right fit. In my case Phil told me my feet needed stabilizing with special footbeds to counteract elongation, plus thick socks and volume adjusters and tongue depressors to fill out the volume. He also said my boots would need modifying to take pressure off the raised and callused areas at the sides of my forefeet.

Footbeds

Virtually all boots come with removable footbeds. Supposedly these cushion your feet and keep them smelling sweet. That may be so, but what no standard issue footbed will do is adequately support your feet. Check to see if your footbed is up to the task by taking it out of the boot and holding it down with a finger in the middle of the heel area. Push against the inner side of the heel with another finger. If the footbed flattens there then it's a fair bet it won't do much to support your foot under a 40-pound backpack. I've tested footbeds in dozens of boots and every one flattened under the lightest pressure. This means that they can't stabilize the foot and prevent elongation, which makes boot fitting impossible for anyone whose feet vary by a size or more between the neutral and pronated positions.

What you need is a footbed with a firm heel that doesn't deform under pressure. Footbeds are available at most outdoor stores, and come in either trim-to-fit or custom-fit form. Both styles have a semi-rigid cradle around the heel that holds it in place and keeps the foot in the desired neutral position when weighted. A bonus is that a sturdy footbed will prevent the fatty pads under your heel from spreading sideways, which means they work better as shock absorbers.

Trim-to-fit footbeds come in a range of sizes and can be cut down to fit your boots. They won't give a precise fit of course, but Phil Oren reckons they can stabilize your feet -- that is, stop them from sliding forward -- by 40% to 75%, depending on how good your boot's fit is in the first place. If, like me, you have severe fitting problems (my two-size difference between weighted and unweighted heel-to-ball lengths, plus low-volume feet and narrow ankles put me in this category), then custom fit footbeds are a better choice. Because the fit is so exact, these can stabilize your feet by as much as 96%. Achieving that custom fit involves clamping a heated footbed to your feet then tucking them inside plastic bags from which all of the air is sucked out.

Volume Adjusters and Tongue Depressors

Need help filling out your boot? Then you'll want to retrofit your boots with volume adjusters like flat, non-compressible neoprene rubber insoles that fit under the footbeds. Or you can try tongue depressors made of soft foam that go under the laces and force the tongue down on the foot. Both reduce the volume of an oversize boot, but finding a better fit in the first place is a far better way to go.