right to water
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- Time of past OR future Camino
- norte
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Yes, taking the liner out & standing on it s exactly right. That is also the fastest way to find the correct fit. It will immediately eliminate boots that are not right! I cannot stress this tip enough.There is one further suggestion to add to @davebugg's pretty comprehensive advice. It assumes that you have followed the advice to wear the sock combination you intend to use, or at least socks of equivalent thickness. When you want to check the amount of clearance for your toes, remove the liner from the footwear you are trying on, and stand up with you foot on it and your heel aligned to the rear of the liner. You can then readily see the distance between your longest toe and the front end of the liner. If you don't have a centimetre, be cautious. Be cautious about having too much as well, but there will be other indications that footwear is too long.
ps - I like to have about a thumb's width, but I appreciate that is a measure that would vary widely!!
This moves the thread into the realm of blister prevention, and using a petro-chemical lubricant is just one of several approaches you will see promoted here.Lather your feet with Vaseline under your socks.
Multiple Caminos and I have never worn shoes one size larger. Never had a problem.
Never wore boots one size larger in the army for ruck marches and the like. No problems.
Never wore boots one size larger when I used to wilderness backpack. No problems.
I’ve concluded that Gore-Tex is very much a personal thing. Some people complain about it making their feet too warm and sweating and others talk about it’s stiffness. I have had multiple pairs of shoes with Gore-Tex and they have not created a single problem for me. On the contrary they have kept my feet dry during an all day rain and in wet conditions.Lots of good advice here. Thanks to all who speak from experience. Especially avoid snugness on the sides. And Goretex IS STIFF. I am taking two pair, to trade off as needed. ON Cloudaces AND Adidas Terrex GTR2 (Goretex) for rough and rain. Lather your feet with Vaseline under your socks.
My advice is pretty simple. Buy your shoes and wear them with everything (or as much as possible of what you plan to take with you) while you train with them for a week or two. Nothing quite like it.
I agree. Prior to walking the Primitivo this past May, while training predominantly on pavement, I developed Achilles tendinitis that actually improved on the Camino trails. Doing rehab and planning Invierno in November, my living room now looks like a shoe store, trying to find something that lessens the hurt. Buying online & returning which is what I’m doing is so nuts.Ah, if only I had a store to go to. I use Amazon.
Not a good idea to rely on manufacturers’ sizing. It varies from one company to another. Best to find a size and width that works for you. No need to break in shoes that fit (from experience). I put on a pair of New Balance trainers, just out of the box, and walked the Via Francigena, 1400 miles, without a blister.hi! please be careful with shoes. i walked the camino del norte, august/sept. from irun. many mountains. i bought gortex. my shoe size is 37. i bought 37. don’t do that!! it will kill your feet. always, for the camio, buy 1 shoe size more than your real size. i should have bought 38. also, the camino del norte has many mountains. mang people walked with soft mountain running shoes. their feet were in uch better shape. gortex is hard and kills your feets. great against rain but very, very hard - your feeet downhill will keep hitting the front of your gortex shoes. i reccomend soft moubtain running shoes. i thin salomon is very good.
I am now more cautious about this. It was my experience in the past that mesh, fabric and suede/fabric have required little effort to break in. Over the past 18 months or so, I have purchased new ASICs for competition walking, a pair of Sportiva boots for trekking, and a pair of Hoka OneOne Challenger ATR5s for trail walking. The first two have been good. The Sportiva did become more comfortable with use in a very short time, and the ASICs worked straight out of the box.No need to break in shoes that fit (from experience). I put on a pair of New Balance trainers, just out of the box, and walked the Via Francigena, 1400 miles, without a blister.
I am now more cautious about this. It was my experience in the past that mesh, fabric and suede/fabric have required little effort to break in. Over the past 18 months or so, I have purchased new ASICs for competition walking, a pair of Sportiva boots for trekking, and a pair of Hoka OneOne Challenger ATR5s for trail walking. The first two have been good. The Sportiva did become more comfortable with use in a very short time, and the ASICs worked straight out of the box.
But the Hokas have been a disaster for me, and I haven't been pain free wearing them for any extended period. They appear to have a very inflexible strapping arrangement for the toe box underneath the mesh outer that doesn't have any give, and continues to rub on my slightly wider right foot even after several months of somewhat regular wear. I will continue to use them for shorter walks to get some return on the purchase, but I am losing hope that they will break in for my feet for longer walks when my feet begin to swell more.
Thank you for the suggestion. I do already have the wide fitting, but it is really only a 2E from what I can tell, not any wider than that. They have gone past the 'use only in the house' stage where most Australian retailers will exchange as I have been working on wearing them in, and they are now full of good central Australian red dust!!I do not if you have tried taking them to a shoe repair shop to try and have them stretched; sometimes that can help. Your concerns are valid. . . the synthetics do not really break in the way leather products do. The ATRs do come in a wide width, but that may be what you already have.
Did the ATRs feel comfortable out of the box, without the rubbing when you tried them on, Doug? My wife is using the same shoe and developed a similar issue. Fortunately, she was able to return them and exchange the regular width for the wider width. The wider width is feeling a tad too wide for her, but they are much more comfortable.
REI also have a page of good advice on hiking boot lacing here.Your post reminds me of another shoe consideration - the ability to modify your lacing pattern to customize the fit when helpful. One thing I like about my Asolo EVO GTX shoes is the section of eyelets covers a longer length of my foot. This gives me more options to use a “window lace” if needed to loosen up a specific section. See this link for some practical advice on lacing alternatives: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/lacing-running-shoes.html. For more than you’ll ever need to know about alternate lacing patterns check out this link: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/luglacingmethods.htm.
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