Best Walking Shoe Guide

You can use running shoes for walking but you should not use walking shoes for running, not consistently and never for a marathon anyway.

So what’s the difference, and if it does matter how do you fit the best walking shoe?

The first step is to determine your foot type. You can do that easily by wetting the sole of each foot and stepping onto a brown paper bag with your full body weight. The outline of your foot impression will tell you your foot type.

High arched feet tend to stay rigid at the moment of impact with the ground. They do not flex enough to conform to the shape of the ground on impact. Rigid feet will leave a high-arch impression on your brown paper bag or in wet sand. The best walking shoes for rigid feet are well cushioned, impact control walking shoes. You may find that velcro fasteners are more comfortable than laces because your foot will sit higher within the shoe and place more pressure on the top of your foot than in the toe box. Impact control walking shoes are made from curved lasts.

Floppy or flexible feet have low arches and create a flat foot impression in wet sand. A neutral-arch foot rolls naturally inward when it bears weight thus reducing the impact on bones and joints. Floppy feet are too mobile. The foot tends to roll excessively in towards the midline of the body under full body weight. The arches give and flatten out when they hit the ground. This inward rolling movement of the foot is called pronation. Over-pronation is the term most used when describing motion control walking shoes. Motion control walkers are made from straight lasts.

If your foot impression is neither high arched nor flat footed then you have a neutral arch. This is the easiest foot type to fit because you do not need the extra cushioning or motion control technology. If you have wide feet your best walking shoe may be a Dansko Wide Professional Clog.

Once you have determined your arch type the two most important characteristics of the best walking shoe are cushioning and flexibility. Cushioning is measured by the amount of shock absorbing material in the midsole portion of the shoe. Flexibility is a measure of how easily the sole of the shoe can flex at the ball of the foot. This bending motion is important because your foot rolls from heel to toe in a walking gait. Stiff shoes will be uncomfortable at best and probably damaging to your health.

This Wikipedia article traces the history of athletic shoes, the world’s most popular footwear.