Arch pain while trying on shoes

[Totu]

Hi everyone! The staff in hiking store didn't know what to advice me about my feet, so I thought I'd ask here. I am still selecting hiking shoes for my camino starting in a month and I have a question about how the hiking shoes should feel for arches. I tried on several shoes in the store and one thing I noticed with many of them that they were really comfortable when I put them on, but after few minutes walking around in store I started to feel a bit of pressure/pain across the bottom of my foot (at the back of the arch). As far as I know I do not have too high or low arches and I don't remember problems with them in the past. Most of my everyday shoes are without any or with very little arch support. Maybe my feet are just not used to this and once I would walk a bit with the shoes it would get better? Has it happened to any of you? Or is the pressure feeling a big indication that I should just go for the ones that have very low arch area? Thank you

 

[C clearly]

Not a good sign! Try on others. If it is just a little "pressure" that's different from other shoes, it might be worth having patience and testing them a bit further. For example, custom orthotics take a bit of getting used to, but are great in the long run. However, there shouldn't be any pain.

 

[Rajy62]

I started having the same problem after two Caminos, i.e is after some 2000 km of walking. It turned out that my left arch is collapsing. I am getting a 'high arch' insole and hoping it will remedy the problem. What model shoes/boots were you trying? Have you tried the Merrell Moabs. They are like sneakers with an outsole for trails. If the pain persists, you need to visit a podiatrist asap to analyse your feet.

 

[Jan_D]

yeah it's probably nothing serious but might be worth getting checked out… I was walking with a girl last year who had to stop because of excruciating knee pain - turned out it was just a side-effect of overcompensating for the arch pain! she was ok after getting an insole, but it was a pain trying to find a podiatrist in the middle of nowhere, and it took a few days out of her camino, so maybe best to get it sorted out beforehand: long-distance walking can really put pressure on parts of the body you don't usually have to worry about, especially the feet! (sorry to state the obvious, ha ha…