Old pair of sneakers?

[Tamar's camino]

Hello friends!

Leaving for my very first camino and starting in France on September 25-26...

I got myself a new pair of goretex waterproof walking shoes but I keep wondering how can I go wrong with my 2 year old tennis shoes ( cloth ) they have been through a lot and they are super comfortable ! I have prescription inserts that I need to put in, so my shoes have to be a bit bigger than usual.

I have high arches and on my right foot , after hours of walking I sometimes have pain between two middle toes, so I'm trying to make sure what would be the smartest thing to do.

Thank you all!!

 

[Anniesantiago]

Personally, I'd take the tennis shoes and inserts as a backup.

 

[Tamar's camino]

Thank you. Can't walk without the inserts. They are always inside

 

[MeganG22]

Any chance you could find the 2014 style of your old tennis shoes and purchase them? Shoes wear down, especially if they're not made for hiking/walking, and you will definitely feel it if you walk too much in your old shoes and could have some foot problems. No matter what shoe you wear, the first week on the Camino comes with a lot of pain in general as your feet adjust, so you want to give your feet their bet chance to recover as be okay!

I am definitely a fan of wearing lighter shoes on the Camino- I myself wear trail running shoes- and I think you are leaning in the right direction

 

[HelenB]

Hello friends!

Leaving for my very first camino and starting in France on September 25-26...

I got myself a new pair of goretex waterproof walking shoes but I keep wondering how can I go wrong with my 2 year old tennis shoes ( cloth ) they have been through a lot and they are super comfortable ! I have prescription inserts that I need to put in, so my shoes have to be a bit bigger than usual.

I have high arches and on my right foot , after hours of walking I sometimes have pain between two middle toes, so I'm trying to make sure what would be the smartest thing to do.

Thank you all!!

I wore my 'Sketchers GO walk' They look like a running shoe with a very thick soft sole and very light. By the time we got to Logrono I noticed the sole was wearing a bit so I bought a pair of walking shoes there. For the next week I would wear the new shoes for an hour or two in the morning then swapping back to the Sketchers. I gradually lengthened the time I wore the new shoes. When my feet got tired I would switch back to the sketchers. I wore the Sketchers on the last day into Santiago. I never had a blister for the entire walk. I had sore knees for about a week after we misjudged accommodation choices and ended up walking 38 km one day!!! I also invested in some poles and knee braces as a result of this little misadventure. Maybe my Sketchers would have made it all the way, but I decided better to buy the new ones than walking in Crocs if they died!! Maybe I should have taken a back up pair, it would have been cheaper and lighter. I have heard it said that Sketchers get smelly, but I have not had any sign of that. I had them for about 6 months before we left, they probably did about 500 km of the walk in May and they are still being worn every day. They look good and you can't kill them.

 

[Iamherdingcats]

Hi Tamara,

Mmmm...tried and true or new?
Last year I walked 500km in a pair of Blundstones ... My feet remained dry and blister free.
This year I bought a pair of waterproof hiking boots and I too question the shoe issue.

I found that there is a lot of concrete walking and I noticed that Spain has a lots of different sized rocks.
The soles of my footwear seemed thin, as in I felt many rocks.

Have you had opportunity to break in your new shoes?

 

[greggfr]

Personally, I'd take the tennis shoes and inserts as a backup.

Me too.

 

[scruffy1]

I've said this here before and I'll say it again, not embarrassed not proud. You will be walking at least 20 kilometers today, every day, and tomorrow, and next week, and into next month. Cold, heat, rain and dry. Sidewalks, stony paths, country lanes, up the sides of low mountains and worse, slip sliding down the other side, mud and makeshift bridges. How much support and comfort can you expect from two year old pair of sneakers for your ankles, your knees, or your back? Remember the "Sunscreen Song", he convinced us on the sunscreen but the lyrics continue: "Be kind to your knees, you will miss them when they are gone". See my picture to the left <---? This is experience talking.

 

[Kanga]

I've found Skechers ideal for walking across rock platforms on my beach walks, on cobblestones and on concrete roads. They are no good for me over long distances as I need my orthotics to prevent plantar fasciitis - but to change into and for tourist walking - ideal.

 

[Dennis D]

How long does it take for a pair of cloth tennis shoes to dry out if they happen to get wet? It is good advice to bring your boots along if you happen to decide to try using the tennis shoes. (Don't forget to break in the boots before you leave) Tennis shoes might be fine on the Meseta but not so great on the more difficult walking days. (Cruz de Ferro to Molinaseca, Valcarce to O'Cebriero - just to mention a couple). I use inserts as well but didn't realize the importance of changing my socks every couple of hours during the day when I first started my Camino. I learned the hard way that besides what goes on inside your head it is all about your feet. Take good care of them and you won't be disappointed. Buen Camino!

 

[Bajaracer]

Last year there was this pilgrim wearing Converse Chuck Taylor's, they're not even good basketball shoes let alone to walk in, her feet were full of blisters. Certainly not my first choice of shoes to walk the Camino in.

 

[mikevasey]

This is a hard question to give advice on, the usual attitude is go with good walking boots or shoes or at least light weight mids or shoes which are designed for long distances, I usually go with mids and have not had blisters for several caminos. However I usually see people who are walking in all kinds of footwear (flip flops etc) who are camino veterans and they swear by their choice. If it is your 1st camino I would devise someway of being able to get hold of a trusty pair of walking boots if your tennis shoes do not work out, ie. have them waiting at places along the camino where you can either pick them up or send them along to another point. What I will add is that until you have walked multiple days in that footwear you do not really know what is going to happen, something which never came to light before, such as slight abrasion with the surface of the tennis shoe might start to mean bad blisters after 2-3 days.

 

[volleyjanice]

I agree with looking for an updated version of your old shoe...and using them for back up and/or evenings. Everyone's feet are different of course but as you say, you already have some foot issues so I would err on the side of caution and wear a good hiking shoe or boot as my primary shoe. I also wear orthotics and as a 6'3" female I have the big feet to match. This leaves me with the dilemma of men's boots which tend to be too wide. I chose a Salomon Comet 3d gtx for it's extremely well padded and supported sole. The salespeople did try to steer me to a lighter weight boot but none felt as good underfoot. I developed a shin problem - seemingly one of the common maladies of the camino and I wonder if boot weight was a contributing factor. We will return next year and I will be researching my limited options. Wishing you pain free feet and a lifetime of memories. Buen camino!
Janice
PS my "evening wear" was Birkenstock sandals. Let me tell you, any second pair of shoes in big sizes takes up a lot of pack space!

 

[Anniesantiago]

This is really the old "which shoe to wear" discussion which could go on forever.
I have always, and will always, wear lightweight trail runners with motion control inserts on the Camino.
Except for a very few places, to me, boots are overkill, unless you are USED to wearing your boots and they are old friends.
I see more people with horrible blistered feet and ankles giving up their boots and shopping for lighter weight shoes than anything else.
As far as getting wet goes - my "tennis shoes" are dry each morning. Boots are cold and wet unless they are goretex, which shouldn't be worn (I believe) because it holds the moisture IN as well as out and your feet WILL sweat.

In the end, do whatever makes you and your feet happy.
I've seen people walking the Camino barefoot and I've seen them walking in cowboy boots and I've seen them walking in everything in between.
If you have a pair of shoes that are broken in and comfortable, slap some cushioned inserts into them and wear them.
Buy a walking stick for the very few rough spots like coming down into Roncesvalless, into Zubiri, or off Perdon.
Except for those 3 places, I don't recall any really rough spots on the Frances.
The Camino is more of a long walk than a mountain hike.
You don't NEED boots unless you just love wearing them or unless you have bad ankles, in which case I would wrap mine with an ace bandage before I'd wear boots.

 

[dougfitz]

I have only seen this approach once, when I walked the Camino Salvado in Western Australia in 2011. One of the women wore an old pair of Dunlop Volleys, which she claimed were the most comfortable shoe, etc, etc. I was the blister fixer for the group, and she never let me check her feet. At the very end she came to see with the largest blister on the side of her foot that had eventually burst. Her 'comfortable' shoes had at least one friction point that she had ignored for five days!

Even if the shoes are comfortable, the compression in the sole will have started to go after a couple of years of regular use. This might not be obvious just from wearing them. For some of my shoes, which have a recessed section in the sole at the heel, it is possible to tell this has happened. The deepest part of the recess starts to come into contact with the ground, and you start to see wear. At that point, it is clear that the surrounding sole has lost its bounce.

 

[Tamar's camino]

Hi Tamara,

Mmmm...tried and true or new?
Last year I walked 500km in a pair of Blundstones ... My feet remained dry and blister free.
This year I bought a pair of waterproof hiking boots and I too question the shoe issue.

I found that there is a lot of concrete walking and I noticed that Spain has a lots of different sized rocks.
The soles of my footwear seemed thin, as in I felt many rocks.

Have you had opportunity to break in your new shoes?

Thank you!,

No I haven't and time is running by fast, I think I'll be taking my tennis shoes. No blisters? That's great, all it heard until now is that everybody suffered from them...that's good to know you didn't

 

[Anniesantiago]

How long does it take for a pair of cloth tennis shoes to dry out if they happen to get wet?

I've worn New Balance Runners on 7+ Caminos in all types of weather.
My shoes never have failed to dry overnight.

Also, remember, Pamplona, Leon, Burgos, Los Arcos all have sports shoe shops where you can buy more shoes if yours don't work.

Just buy some Compeed in SJPP and remember to stop and apply it as soon as you feel a hot spot, BEFORE the blister forms, and NEVER peel it off. Let it fall off in the shower.