Hey all, I was pointed to this thread by a member I will leave nameless (he can certainly identify himself if he wishes). But I want to talk about Aldens, arch supports, and body ailments. First off, I am NOT a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but what I am is a guy who has been selling shoes for a lot of years, with a LOT of focus on back and joint problems and foot ailments. It is not my intention to open any proverbial cans of worms here, I am only offering my knowledge of feet and footwear. That being said, here I go.
The 405's ARE designed as ORTHOPEDIC shoes. What does that mean? They are built up in areas where MOST shoes are not, to offer greater support. What are these areas you ask? First, they are VERY heavy, by heavy I mean stiff (well, weight too, but this time I mean stiff) a stiffer shoe offers more support. Why? You may ask, and I will answer that later. Secondly, they have what are called Extended heel counters. A heel counter is the solid piece of leather or fiberboard around the back of the heel. On most shoes, they don't go very far out, on the 405's they go out much much farther. Or further? Well, which ever, they are longer. That helps keep our heel in place and gives us more HEEL SUPPORT. Thirdly, if you flip them over, you will notice that the heels are shaped kinda curvy like Heidi Klum
(sigh, I love her)...Anyhoo, the curve goes more under the inside of your foot, this is to keep you from pronating or rolling your ankles (and consequently your arches) in, hence giving you more stability.
Now on to the subject of Arches...you hear the word, most people think of fast food that is moderately tasty and will eventually kill you, unless you live in St. Louis, then...well, nevermind. What I am talking about are shoe arches and foot arches. And what they do for you.
Foot Arches: We have several arches in our feet, but we will be discussing the metatarsal arch, and the longitudinal arch. The first one, goes side to side under the ball of your foot, the other one is the one that runs front to back. Our feet are designed (more or less) to take the weight of our body, and distribute it over a few square inches. The weight comes down the backs of our legs, to our heels, where it is then shifted forward on to our longitudinal arch then across our metatarsal arch. Now, you may be asking yourself "what does that mean exactly?" well, people with higher arches are generally better off. Better off meaning their feet (generally) get tired a lot less faster than someone with low arches or flat feet. Now, I happen to have low arches and I am horizontally gifted (read:overweight) so my feet should be killing me after a 15 hour sale of running up and down stairs and dealing with incredibly stupid people and their bratty screaming snot nosed kids...oh sorry, got off topic ;-)
Anyway, I can run stairs for 15 hours a day for a week and other than being physically and mentally exhausted my feet are more or less OK. Now I will agree that the cushioning thing for some can be a problem which brings me to my next topic...
SHOE ARCHES
The first thing I want to do is clear up a very common misconception about "shoe arches". Because you look inside a shoe and don't see a giant foam rubber hump in the shoe, doesn't mean it doesn't have arch support. REAL arch support in a shoe comes from the way a shoe is constructed. If you look at a shoe and see a welt on it ( not a welt like a nun would give you when she smacked you with the sharp side of a ruler) but the thig around the side of a shoe where it is stitched together, that offers support, the fact that a shoe is as stiff as a board (but not necessarily light as a feather) gives it support (and I will explain why in a second, Promise) The fact that a shoe TIES as opposed to being a slip on gives it support. And Here's the explanation.
The Welt: The stitches pull the leather underneath your foot, making a little "arch" or cradle of sorts.
The laces: The better a shoe fits, the more support it offers, a tie shoe has better fitting properties as there is more control over the way it fits, and also, the lacing draws the leather under your foot up, adding to the "cradle" effect mentioned above.
Thirdly and perhaps the most important thing is the stiffness of the shoe. This is difficult to explain...imagine the underside of your foot like a bridge.
if it's not on something solid, it wobbles and there goes the bridge (I'm also not an engineer, so bear with me) but if you look at that bridge, and imagine it bolted down to a 2x4, it's not going anywhere. A welt makes a shoe stiffer, and when it's stiffer, your foot is supported more. If that makes sense. Now, you may be asking me "Then why do my New Balance, Nikes, K-Swiss, Addidas, Converse, Reeboks, Kangaroos, Zips, what-have-you's, have a big ol foam rubber arch in them?" Take your athletic shoes, and try and twist them, go on, grab the toe, and the heel and wring them like you would a sponge...the twist quite a bit probably. This is because they are built on a cement construction ( i.e. glued together) contrary to what the advertising folks at the athletic shoe companies would have you believe, their products are not the end all be all in arch support. The foam doo-dads are put in there because the shoes don't have a heck of a lot of support otherwise. But they DO have cushioning. Which I will admit the 405's lack. So can you run in the 405's. Sure Indy did. But would I recommend doing the Boston Marathon in them...probably not. Yes, support will help with your back and your knees and everything else (provided your shoes fit properly Not Too Short) and regardless of what you may hear otherwise Do NOT buy the 405's a half size down. I can almost guarantee that the ball of your foot will be sitting to far forward in the shoe rather than at the spot it was designed to sit at and you will end up uncomfortable. But to each his own. I am also not necessarily saying "don't wear orthodics" if your physician has prescribed them, it's for a reason. By all means use them. But just be careful when getting shoes as you are putting a foreign object in your shoe, it will take up space away from your foot, so if you were a 10 D before, with orthos, you may be a 10 E or a 10 1/2 D...there is no such thing as a standard size, so play around with it until you are comfortable. And if you need "Dr. Scholls" cushions in your 405's...crybaby!! Just kidding. That's all for tonight class, I want to see if my candidate is closer to becoming president of this country, AND I have to check my myspace page!! any questions, please PM me, I will do my best to help you.
Schmidty