Broken-in Feet

[Wesley Milton Dagwell III]

I just wore some new shoes out, they chafed a bit. I took them off to see that the back of my socks were wet! A brief amount of walking and my feet have been rubbed red, raw and weepy. I don't think I'll be putting any kind of shoe on my feet for days.

How do you gents like to prepare your footwear? Have you ever been silly enough to find yourself in a similar predicament?

 

[Feraud]

Wear them for a few minutes around the house until they begin to break in. If you have to wear them for work or an event try those wooly band-aid things they sell.

 

[FStephenMasek]

That is why the dress shoes with padding at the back of the heel are best. I got a pair made in Italy which are much more comfortable than some far more expensive ones I've owned.

 

[Big_e]

Feraud's idea about the band-aids is great. I haven't had a bad pair of shoes in a long time. When I did used to, I would localize the offending part of the shoe that was rubbing my foot raw. I would then get a set of pliars and using the round outside edge I'd give the offending leather a good rub down. This always worked for me as it softened the leather and made it give way. You may have to rub vigorously for a couple of minutes and it won't harm the shoe.
Ernest

 

[John in Covina]

Sometimes you can soften up some parts of a shoe by manipulating the leather. Sporting good stores here carry a couple of blister kit items for hikers that act as protection for damaged skin. One product is called moleskin. It will help you be more comfortable until healed.

 

[Fifty150]

I took them off to see that the back of my socks were wet!

my feet have been rubbed red, raw and weepy

How do you gents like to prepare your footwear?

dress shoes with padding at the back of the heel are best

There is a product you can buy, which sticks to the back of the heels, and cushions your foot.

There are online tutorials:

This is supposed to be normal. Your heel is supposed to slip a little as the shoe flexes.

 

[Fifty150]

I do the same thing to all of my boots. Oil, condition, and polish. The products will do their thing from the outside. I wear the shoes. The heat and perspiration from my feet will do their thing from the inside.

Wear the shoes when you're at home, during the evening, when you won't do as much walking. This will allow you to slowly break them in as you are reading the paper, taking out the garbage, surfing the interwebs, making love....... and afford you the luxury of taking the shoes off if your feet hurt. Not advisable to lace on brand new shoes, then go to work, and then have your feet hurt. Can you take the shoes off in the middle of a construction site, as you're fighting a suspect resisting arrest, or in the middle of a board meeting?


Oil soaks into the leather, loosens the fibers, and makes it easier to flex. Oil and water don't mix. Very difficult for raindrops to penetrate leather which is permeated with oil.

Leather lotion or conditioner is like applying lotion to skin. It supplies things like lanolin and silicone, or a recipe of whatever proprietary blend of ingredients is on the label. You can read the labels. But I don't think any brand of leather cream has anything that will harm your leather.

Shoe polish usually has some sort of wax. Not that I want military shoes, but I do want a coat of protection on top of the leather. Wax coating is so important, that some products are meant to be rubbed into heated leather to give a waxed finish. A lot of military people will build up layers of wax paste by heating it with a cigarette lighter. A good coat of polish will bead off raindrops. It will also make it easier to clean off urine, vomit, blood, spilled drinks, and other bar room hazards.





I don't have a preference of mink oil or neatsfoot oil. I have no brand preference. I buy the products based on pricing and availability. If a certain retailer has a sale, I'll buy a bunch of the product. If the shoe polish is white, I either buy a bunch of white shoes, put it on my sneakers, or learn to use it sparingly.

​

 

[Fifty150]

I recently bought some boots that were really hard and stiff. A full leather lining, a true toe cap, a full heel cap, a heel counter cover inside of the boot, a leather half sock liner, and two leather lasting boards for the insole and the midsole. Even the tongue and lacing system have double layers of leather. A thick, heavy boot.

Right out of the box, I applied oil, conditioner, and polish.

I wore the boots. They were stiff. The top of the vamp pressed into my foot as the shoe flexed. The back of my heels rubbed into the heel counter. It was not pleasant.

I applied another coat of product. I wore them again. This time, it wasn't as bad. Actually, I could feel that the shoe was not as stiff. There was still a little slipping behind the heel. The vamp was flexing and bending, but no longer creasing into my foot.

The shoe is breaking in. It feels like the shoe will be fine by the time I've worn it around a half dozen times. And I think that the leather has enough product to protect it as it develops a patina. .

 

[Fifty150]

3rd time wearing. 2 applications of product. It's done. My feet feel good. I think that it's broken in.

 

[Eagledog]

I had a pair of Jim Green boots and sent them back to Amazon. The toe cap created a sharp fold behind my big toe. Usually wearing new shoes for a short length of time each day will allow them to form into a comfortable shape for your feet. However, sometimes the shoe is just a bad shape for your foot. The heal can be too straight, pointy, tall, or wide. Behind the toe area where the tongue, toe cap, and forward laces come together can be a big problem area on the inside. All these heavy seams can push on top of the foot. The bottom 2 eyelets can be a big pain sometimes.

 

[Fifty150]

sometimes the shoe is just a bad shape for your foot

I agree. We all have different feet. Shoes are a "one size fits all - off the rack" item. Some of us need bespoke. Some of us are lucky that we can reasonably get by with what they sell us.

The toe cap created a sharp fold behind my big toe.

This is a tough, thick boot. The toe cap with 2 layers of upper leather, a toe cap stiffener, and leather liner, will not flex. It's almost like a steel toe. So the only flex will be behind the toe cap. As you can see in the photo, the leather has flexed and broken in to my footsteps. Again, you are absolutely correct. As the shoe was new, and not broken in, this part of the vamp felt like it was crushing my foot. Fortunately for me, the boot flex point was in alignment with the ball of my foot and my foot's flex point. If the ball of your foot is not at the point where the shoe's "widest part", you could have issues.

 

[Fifty150]

The toe cap created a sharp fold behind my big toe.

Indeed. A tough part to break in

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Limmer recommends against dunking your shoes in water and then wearing them to break them in (yes, some people do that, particularly with handmade goodyear welt workboots), but they do say that you can wear wringed out damp socks to help with break-in and forming the shoe to your foot. I've never done it because I've never had to do it, but I would try it if the situation called for a more aggressive tactic.

If you think it is the shoes, and not you, I'd recommend returning them. I made the mistake of battling a pair of my first "expensive" boots, authentic British monkey boots. I'd saved up money for a while, and the moment I put them on, I knew they were terrible footwear for me. I tried this. I tried that. I loved how they looked, but they were incredibly uncomfortable at rest, and to try to walk in them was entirely not fun. Still find them to be nice looking, but if you have to walk more than 50ft from car to desk or something off your feet, just awful. I knew better, but they won the war. They were almost brand new when I sold them on ebay. If you know better, trust yourself. There's no reason to battle footwear.

 

[rattlesnake501]

Don't jump into wearing new shoes or boots, especially traditionally made ones without much or any padding, all day the first day you have em, y'all. Part of the deal with well made footwear is that you have to actually break them in, and once they're there, they stay broken in.

Buy shoes that fit well at the start and break them in slowly. No need for padding, no need for extra thick socks, just wear em around the house a few hours at a time and slowly start working your way up in time. If you need stick in pads or extra thick socks just to make your shoes bearable, they're not the right shoes for you. It ain't worth the pain.

-broken in two pair of zero padding, high heel, high arch, leather midsole, leather insole, leather arch, leather shank, vibram sole, Spokane built handmade boots, one pair of which have steel toes. Also broke in a pair of all leather William Lennons and a pair of cowboy boots with a leather insole.

 

[Fifty150]

Part of the deal with well made footwear is that you have to actually break them in

But it is a different experience. Breaking in a pair of Allen Edmonds dress boots, would not be the same as the layer, upon layer, upon layer of thick, heavy leather found in a Pacific Northwest logging boot. It all depends on how they made the shoe, and what they used. I own more Allen Edmonds than I want to admit. Not one of them hurt my feet when breaking in. Sure, it was stiff new leather. But not layers upon layers of thick, heavy leather like the Jim Green, or a logging boot.

I've worn them every few days for the last week or so. By the third day, they felt fine. I could see that the leather was broken in at the flex points. The leather grain was more pronounced where the shoe folded at the ball of the foot. I could feel that the steps were effortless, without resistance. I've worn them with jeans and shorts. I think they will be just fine for the next time I have an assignment in a blue suit. Even though I already own several items of footwear which will pair with a blue suit. Hiking boots make a bold fashion statement. Almost like when it was a trend to wear combat boots with suits.

To someone with tender feet, these boots hurt your feet just from looking at them. The same way that you can see that you could probably wear them for life, you can see the pain. These are masochist shoes.

.

 

[Cuvier]

Y'all are a bit lucky. I've got massive nerve damage after an accident nearly took walking away from me. I can't really feel my right foot. I can get shoes that fit and are comfortable on my left. I can't tell if it's a bad fit on my right until I start bleeding and my shoe fills up and overflows.
I could not take those shoes back to the store.
My only advice is to wear them a bit at a time while home and watch for signs of rubbing.