scitex104

Thanks guys. I had a long day of "work" yesterday. We'll be doing a lot more work so I'll have more pics to post. Hopefully with something a little higher next time.

A friend of mine is revamping her HH website and I'm fortunate enough to be the photographer/videographer. I thought I would share a couple of my favorite ones so far.

Are there any shoe companies besides archenemys that make shoes with stronger arches? It seems that no matter what pair of shoes I buy there is a gap between the insole of the shoe and the arch of my foot. I made some inserts for an old pair of Pleaser heels and the difference in comfort was amazing. The only downside was that they stuck waaay out of the shoe and looked pretty ugly. I'd like to find a standard pump around 4" that has more of the shape of an archenemys "superarch" heel. Anyone have any suggestions?

http://www.foamdistributing.com/products/memoryfoam5.html

The stuff I got today was from a local foam store, but this is similar stuff. I'm still experimenting with how best to use it, but it seems promising. Another thing I did one time was to make a plaster copy of my feet totally on my tip toes. I used them as forms for some fiberglass arch supports. They made the pair of 4" heels I had into something like the "super arch" ones that Dior had a few years ago or what arch enemys sells. They made the heels super comfortable but my heels kept slipping out. I wrapped an ace bandage around each shoe and that solved the problem. Not practical for going out but I only wore them around the house anyway. They were so comfortable that I would dare to say it was like wearing flats. No pain after hours and totally stable.

scitex104

Memory foam?

The kind of stuff that they make tempurpedic beds out of. To me it's more comfortable to have the area under the arch of the foot filled with something. It seems to provide a little extra support but also will squash down to nothing under the ball of the foot so that my foot still fits in the shoe.

So does that extra width extend into the toe box or is it more on the sides of the foot? Or both?

Yeah, I just bought a pair of nine west leather pumps that I'm going to stretch. I bought a small sheet of memory foam today that I'm going to play with for arch support too.

Here's my dilema. According to the length of my foot I should be wearing something around a women's size 11, and for sandals and sneakers that seems to work just fine. However, it seems like every pair of pumps and boots squash my little toes. That goes for pointy as well as clasically styled pumps. I've tried a couple size 12 shoes but the same thing seems to happen and my heel has flopped out on a few occasions. Should I be looking more at size 12 shoes with a heel pad and maybe something to keep my foot from sliding foreward or would an 11 wide be more what I need? My big toe seems to be just fine so it makes me think that the length isn't so much the problem and I have size 11 sneakers the fit perfectly.

Here are a few more pics of the second set. There's a flat spot where the toes are so I can still walk around, just on my tip toes. I can feel them putting a little stretch on my arches.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1046/1074321535_73f560dd5c.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1212/1075189218_32caa6370f.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/1074332383_544475fa6c.jpg

I've been interested for a while in making a pair of foot trainers. Not necessarily for any kind of permenant mod, but just because I enjoy the idea. I took a bit of a different approach than the usual metal frame that you attach to your feet. I made a negative mold of my foot completely extended out of modeling clay and then cast a plaster replica. After smoothing that out with a rasp and sand paper I made a few small modifications. Then I covered the sole of the casting in fiberglass. The cured fiberglass fit the bottom of my foot pretty well. I wrapped it with an ace bandage, which held my foot in position. There were a few places where the dimensions were a little off so I'm waiting for the glass to cure on the second version. For fun I cut the arch out of the old one and used it as an arch support for a pair of heels I have. For the second version I removed some of the material under the arch to make it a little bit more extreme than my natural arch and added some material right behind the ball of the foot. Below are some pics of the first try, and I'll post some of the second as soon as it finishes curing.