How long do your shoes last?
Yellow Arrow shows the nasty creasing or frown lines – Remember there is no Botox for Footwear! That red line should really be straight up and down
How long do your shoes last? When do you know they need replacing? What are some of the less obvious signs your shoe is kaput!
So, we all want things to last forever; however, like the TV show Seinfeld or Cheers or Buffy the vampire slayer or even the Tiger King, all things must come to an end! So too a well-loved, well-worn pair of kicks (we are watching you, Carole Baskin ??)
What’s the life or average life of a running shoe?
About 6-9 months for the average punter, if you are wearing them 2-4 days a week. Closer to 6 months if they are your daily footwear. This seems to blow people’s minds, that shoes don’t last forever ?
Running footwear is designed to be a mixture of high performing and comfortable. Think more European fancy car and less Smelly ford falcon taxi with stains and aroma of regurgitated pizza! ?
What signs can you look for, apart from the normal wear?
Look at the rear of your shoe. Place it on a flat surface. The centre of the heel counter (fancy name for the part that cups the back of your heel), the centre should be straight NOT leaning over to one side or the other.
If you look at these fabulous kicks Donna brought in (Donna is a cook), you can see that left shoe looks more like the leaning tower of Pisa and less like the Centrepoint tower. This dear friends is nooooot a good thing!
Donna was getting pain along the outside of her foot, making hours in a busy kitchen pretty crumby. (There’s a joke there)
Now, look at the sole of the shoe. Yup, right where those big bright red arrows have been strategically placed. See that the Creasing down the side of the shoe. They look like enormous frown lines that need filler or a shot of Botox if they were in a forehead. Sadly filler and Botox is only for Instagram models. Donna’s shoes are, yes you guessed it, bound for footwear heaven!
What about the shoes upper? ?
There is more to look out for than holes where your big toe has installed its own “Air conditioning” into your shoe for you.
Look at the image with the green arrow. You’ll see that the foot has started to protrude past the outside of the sole of the shoe. “This little piggy” as the kids’ nursery rhyme says has definitely “gone to market”.
If the upper of your shoes start to malform (leaning or protrude over the soul of the shoe) on either side of the shoe, then this is another great indicator that your shoe has reached its 11th hour.
What other shoe wear and tear stuff should I look out for?
So, we’ve assumed a basic primary school level of education for our readers. And we’d like to think that you are more Jerry than you are Kramer from Seinfeld.
So, the assumption is you understand that when your shoes get holes in them, or when you see the tread wear off the base, or your shoe wearing down you understand and appreciate that your shoes have lived a life well worth living yada yada yada …..
Can worn shoes affect your Orthotics?
Yes, they can! We realise not everyone that not everyone who reads our posts has orthotics, nor does everyone require them. But many of you do and so a quick note to say that Footwear that has worn such as the ones in this image can yes significantly have effects on the capacity of your orthotics to perform as they should. New orthotics are almost always better in brand-new shoes. When your shoes begin to wear and create unusual angles such as those in the photos you begin to find your orthotics don’t perform the way they were designed to.
So, that’s it! These are really simple things that you can look for that aren’t always as obvious, but will have a detrimental effect on your comfort if not addressed. Being in the whole foot comfort business thing as we are, we thought it was a good idea to bring it to your attention!
After reading this, do you need our help? Do you need more advice? Awesome! We really love helping people with foot ankle or lower leg pain! You can call our super helpful team on 9673 2987 and we will start being super helpful ?
PS Yes, we were serious. There is no filler nor Botox available for your kicks—apologies to any Instagram models who may have taken offence.
Dr Brenden’s White paper report on the “6 Reasons You Won’t Beat Heal Pain” outlines what’s stopping you from beating this and tips on how to stop it in its tracks!