Footwear Assessment
What is a Footwear Assessment?
Footwear can come in all different shapes and sizes which can make it difficult to find the pair that is just right for you and your feet. When trying on shoes, there are factors within your own feet that can make a shoe right or wrong for you. Before trying shoes, you should know if you have flat arches (pes planus), normal arches or high arches (pes cavus) as the depth of the shoes can affect comfort. Also, it is important to know if your ankles pronate (roll in), supinate (roll out) or are neutral as this will affect the level of support you should be looking for. The width of the shoe is another component of a well-fitting shoe, if a shoe is too wide for you, the level of support will decrease or if the shoe is too narrow, this can aggravate the skin and reduce range of motion within some joints.
The benefits of a Footwear Assessment?
- Take the guesswork out of purchasing shoes: after assessing your feet, we can direct you to certain brands and styles of shoes that will suit your feet.
- Reduction of pain: ill-fitting footwear can cause rubbing, callus & corns throughout the skin. When the feet and skin are provided with the correct support and room within the shoe, these developments can be reduced.
- Increase balance: correctly fitted and supportive footwear can increase your balance by stabilising you from the ankles and arch.
- Increase the lifespan of shoes: once pressure is distributed evenly across both of your feet, the localised pressure points once noticed on the soles of your shoes can decrease.
What to expect during a Footwear Assessment?
1. History
First, we’ll discuss any issues or pain you have been experiencing in and out of shoes.
2. Posture
We’ll assess your foot and ankle posture whilst standing and walking. If you play any sports then we will also assess posture during movements involved with the certain sport.
3. Foot type analysis
We will determine if you pronate, supinate or are neutral, as well as if your feet are narrow, standard or wide.
4. Force Platform
Using the technology of the force platform can help us determine any areas within the feet that are being overloaded, these areas usually indicate where the footwear can show signs of heavy wear.
5. Review of current shoes
We will have a look at your current shoes and the wear patterns on the soles of the shoes. A gait analysis will be undertaken if your different shoes.
6. Shoe recommendations
Once all factors of your lifestyle, work and sport have been taken into account, we can then recommend certain brands, styles or footwear stores we think you will gain most benefit from.
FAQs
What should I bring?
You should bring the current shoes you are wearing for work, sport and everyday activities. If you are finding a certain pair of shoes uncomfortable and haven’t been wearing them, bring these along too as they can help us determine the issue.
Where do I purchase shoes from?
We have several footwear stores for all shoes types we trust and recommend, we will provide you with their name and location.
How often should I replace my shoes?
This will depend on your activity and how often you use the shoes. If there are any obvious wear patterns that are causing imbalance through your feet and body then the shoes should be replaced.
We’re here to help!
We invite you to call us at Hampton Podiatry Foot Clinic on (03) 9521 0366 and one of our friendly team will gladly arrange an appointment.
Alternatively, you can book online by clicking the button below.