[pct-l] shoe sizing - questions thereof

[Eric Lee]

TheDuck wrote:
>
In reading Yogi's PCT handbook, it seems the suggested shoe size (for
running shoes) is 1/2 to a full size over one's day-in-day-out shoe size. My
question is: is that for people that wear confining shoes on a daily basis,
and it's with all the trail pounding their feet broaden out to their more
normal dimensions; or is that for everyone?
>

Long-distance hiking can do strange things to your body.  It's really like
nothing else and it's hard to say how your body will react until you
actually do it.  Especially in the area of feet, everyone is different.

That said, I think the phenomenon of feet spreading out and gaining shoe
sizes happens most noticeably to people who haven't already spent a lot of
time abusing their feet.  People who have already spent years doing
long-distance hikes or runs tend not to notice shoe size changes as much on
a thru-hike as do people who have done just the occasional overnighter here
and there.

I haven't done a thru-hike yet but I've been doing annual section hikes of
100 to 140 miles at a time for eight or nine years now (plus all the
training that leads up to them) and my shoe size gradually and permanently
increased from 10.5 to 11.5.  I've been stable at 11.5 for a few years now.

Part of that was probably my feet physically spreading and part of it was
probably me realizing that the nice snug stable-feeling fit that I used to
look for while shopping for shoes/boots was actually not healthy for my
feet.  My feet are actually much happier with a looser-fitting boot that
give them room to move around a bit (within reason).  Contrary to popular
wisdom I actually have far fewer blister problems with a looser fit than I
did with a snug fit.  Again, everyone's different, but I'm of the opinion
that many people wear their shoes a little too tight in the first place.

Eric