Shopping for feet with supination (under-pronation)

May 8, 2019 3:53 PM

My mother (early 70s) has had problems in her feet her whole life (small-sized shoes, standing for long hours for years on end, ... etc.). She also has very high arches, and I am trying to buy her some decent sandals (slippers, sliders) that would offer her supination some comfort.

So I did some reading on the subject, and I called some stores to understand the issue further. Another thing that further complicated things is that she needs sandals that are waterproof, so they have to be molded rubber. After seeing some online recommendations about a Birkenstock, I called the local store and was told that their whole line has the same footbed, and that the little molded hill under the arch is necessary (I thought that the support had to go under the outer edge of the foot instead of the arch, because of the supination). I just bought the Birkenstock rubber Arizona, but when she tried it out she said the arch support felt weird and she just took them off. My question is, is her discomfort due to years of getting used to te wrong footwear, or is she right about this?

posted by omar.a to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I also supinate (life-long problem) and have high arches. After a bout of tendinitis which took forever to heal, and some gentle scolding from the podiatrist, I tried to be more deliberate about trying shoes with arch support and metatarsal support (the little bump in the middle.) I also thought the shoes felt very odd at first BUT I stuck with it and actually got used to the support very quickly. I have to say, I have found it to be much more comfortable in the long run wearing shoes with the support. I can walk around for a lot longer without getting fatigued than I could before. And now, if I wear shoes without the support my feet feel almost immediately tired.

So I would encourage your mom to just stick with them for a little while. In my own experience they make a huge difference.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 4:19 PM on May 8, 2019

I have this problem, and I highly recommend the Spenco brand (inserts as well as slippers/sandals/etc). I found them a bit weird at first, because they were the first time I'd ever actually had adeuqate arch support, but they have been lifesavers.
posted by TwoStride at 4:29 PM on May 8, 2019

Most people with very high arches are not used to the sensation of arch support at all, and Birkenstocks have a very unusual footbed, which does take some getting used to. When I sold Birkenstocks, we used to advise people to ease into wearing them--start with an hour or two a day and then work up to wearing them full time, so your feet can adjust. Once you start wearing them full time, they are extremely comfortable, but I'm sure they do feel weird to her.

Depending on the particular variety of waterproof you need, other water-friendly sandals with very good arch support include Keens and Chacos, though the aesthetics are quite different.
posted by dizziest at 5:49 PM on May 8, 2019

Thank you all for your wonderful advice. She is reading them and already feels more at ease--although I will exchange it for the cork/suede version because it molds a bit after the feet, and I am sure that even though they are not completely waterproof, they won't be completely ruined if the feet were slightly wet every once in a while.
posted by omar.a at 6:04 PM on May 8, 2019

I’ve been comfortably wearing Birkenstocks for 30 years and I have a lot of the same feet problems as your mother. And I hate those rubber ones. I like the softbed Arizona’s and the version with the back strap too. They have a lot of straps, but I like Chacos for waterproof shoes. Vionic makes a waterproof high arch flip flop that’s great.
posted by gryphonlover at 8:18 PM on May 8, 2019

I have those sandals in the cork footbed and wore them around in on-and-off downpours for a month of travel. They won’t fall apart but they will look decidedly broken in if you get them wet frequently. The cork footbed took me a week or three to break in to really comfortable levels and now they’re one of my most comfortable and longest lasting pairs of shoes.
posted by asphericalcow at 10:33 PM on May 8, 2019

Agreed with above. I have super high arches (one of which is starting to collapse, which then twists my whole leg around) and it really did take a little while to get used to the arch supports in my orthotics. They feel super weird, but they work.
posted by gaspode at 6:28 AM on May 9, 2019