Indoor soccer shoes for narrow but wide feet

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8/11/15
The new Champion brand 'Gusto' model shoes are fabulously comfortable, feel like the best shoes I ever had. They may be cheap and lacking in longevity but thats the way to go, because it gives you a welcome chance to make small adjustments in size when you get the next pair of shoes. When I walk outside my feet don't hurt for the first 1000 yards anymore. When I walk up the stairs, my feet don't hurt anymore. My calves don't hurt anymore because the pain in the feet is what led to the pain in the calves. Its such a weird feeling, its as if I'd forgotten what its like to to these things painlessly. I'd been mystified as to why, even after training hard to become fit doing things with the feet, there would be pain doing simple stuff like walking up the stairs.

I never experienced foot/calf pain until years after college, never was finicky about shoes. But I now weigh 50 lbs more than I did then when I weighed approx 140 lbs. Since I'm much faster now, the PSI type pressure hitting my feet when I run is greater than it used to be. I officially measure at size 10.5, width C narrow, and low-arched but not flat footed. Loosening up the shoelaces always reduced the pain. The confusion lay in the fact that I am very wide (7.4 cm)  at the point where the foot is the narrowest, yet narrow (9.4 cm) at the ball of the foot where the foot is the widest.

One woman had told me I had 'Plantar Fasciitis', but judging from what I knew re the are effected by such I thought she was wrong. Then a Y staffer thought I needed to roll the soles of my feet over things like big beer cans. I kept blaming the problem on a lack of conditioning and aging.

Now I understand, important points to remember: 1) as our bodies develop, our tolerance for misfit shoes can decrease; 2) looking at shoes, the officially designated width of the shoe means little, one needs to measure the shoe width at the base of the toes and at the narrowest part of the shoe; 3) measuring one's own feet, the official width measurement derived from the width of the foot at base of the toes means little, one also needs to know the width of the foot at the point where the f oot is the narrowest; 4: one needs to outline one's foot with a perpendicular pencil and then take measurements adjusting for the width of the pencil;

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8/2/15
My soccer shoes had not worn out but I had to get new ones. Because after 6 minutes running around on the indoor soccer court, the pain in the soles of my feet and my calves became debilitating. Whichever pair of shoes I tried for tennis or running, pain in the soles of the feet and the calves became disruptive. This problem had been going on for years. So I decided to pay serious attention to it, and buy a new pair of shoes. People were developing the misconception that I am a sluggish person who lacks energy.

So I measured my feet: 28 cm long, 9.7 cm wide at the ball of the foot the widest point, 8.4 cm wide at the midpoint between heel and toe; 7.4 cm wide at the narrowest point. Both feet were the same.

I found out that this classified me as a "narrow", size-C in width, which I could not understand, because I had noted that the pain in the feet/calves decreased whenever I loosened up the shoelaces as much as possible.

So off I went to the Arsenal & Watertown malls in Watertown to buy a pair of shoes to be used for indoor soccer. Shoes that work for indoor soccer can be used for tennis running basketball, but shoes that work for tennis running & basketball don't necessarily work for indoor soccer, because I play an aerial-game, & I need a low toe area so that I can flip the soccer ball into the air.

Looking at the shows featuring low-toes, I discovered that they were all too narrow for me at the longitudinal midpoint. Some shoes were labeled 'W' or '4E' indicating that they were extra-wide to some extent. I found that the ones labeled 'W' were too narrow at the longitudinal midpoint, and the ones labeled 4E were too wide at the ball of the foot point.

As I continued with the search, my focus shifted to finding shoes that were wide enough at the point where the foot is narrowest; seemed less than 5% of the shoes satisfied this criteria.

At Payless Shoes in the Watertown Mall, I told Joel, the salesman, that I was looking for wide shoes. Right away, displaying competence, he pointed me at the Champion 'Gustos'.  I was suprised because the shoes were not labeled 'wide'. He said they were shoes that were wide in their medium-width version. The Gustos were 7.4 cm wide at the narrowest point, exact same width as my feet at their narrowest point; they cost $25.

Moving on to the Arsenal Mall across the street, at the Reebok outlet I found two low-toed shoes that were approx wide enough at the narrowest point: the Reebok Zquick TR 2.0 (on clearance at $50, 7.0 cm wide at narrowest point, not labeled as 'wide'), & the Reebok Royal Simple (on clearance at $30, 7.0 cm wide at narrowest point, not labeled as 'wide'). Also somewhere I found the Nike 'Flex Experience', size 4E, which was approx wide enough at the narrowest point, low-toed, but which cost $65.

In the end I bought the Champion brand 'Gustos', size 11, because though I am a size 10.5, the Gustos run a half-size larger than normal. This because they were 7.4 cm wide at the narrowest point. But when I got home I was thinking, that maybe I should have bought one of the Reeboks because they had a lower toe.

Points to remember:

1. The fact that technically speaking one's feet are 'narrow' at the ball of the foot point is deceptive. The width at the ball of the foot is not the only width that should be taken into account. Previously I had gladly bought shoes without considering their width, simply because officially speaking, my feet are 'narrow'; but they ended up being a source of much torment.

2. Whether or not a shoe is officially labeled as an 'indoor soccer shoe', is beside the point. Any shoe that resembles an indoor soccer shoe and has a low front toe will do.

3. The fact that a shoe is inexpensive and has a reputation for not lasting, is not necessarily a negative. When finding a shoe that fits is tricky, a cheap shoe that doesn't last, could be an advantage.

4. Whether a shoe is labeled as 'wide' is not the issue. Some shoes are wide without being labeled as wide.

5. It can be dangerous to buy shoes online through the internet, especially when you don't know what the perfect brand/model is for you. Once I bought a soccer-ball online: it finally arrived very late, the company in Texas did not respond to emails, and when I got the ball, it did not hold air for more than a few minutes (good ol' Texas boys). The width of the shoe at various longitudinal points cannot be determined via the internet. One can end up surprised that a certain brand runs a half-size larger.

Relevant Links:

Wide Soccer Cleats
Everything But Nike: Champion Gusto Runner
Mens Gusto Runner | Champion | Payless Shoes
Amazon.com: Champion Men's Gusto Runner: Shoes

This 857 word post was written in 80 minutes.

Adidas Absolodo X IN my choice for soccer shoes

After several hours of tiring time consuming research, I made my choice for a new pair of soccer shoes. I decided to buy the Adidas Absolodo P X IN, or the Adidas Absalodo X IN (as of now I can discern no difference between the two shoes except for the outer coloring). I now explain the reasoning behind this choice.

I have been practicing soccer on a basketball court using Adidas Bracara shoes, which have served me well. But with the passage of time, the Bracaras have become smoother and smoother on the sole area of the foot, and I have been slipping more and more. It got to the point where I felt sort of as if I was ice skating. I decided that my next pair of shoes should as much as possible, on the sole area that contacts the ground, resemble a basketball shoe. Basketball shoes are made for basketball courts so such is simple common sense.

Secondly, I decided that the shoe laces on the shoe should be "asymmetric", "offset", "off center" lacing type shoes, meaning that the shoelace holes should not go straight down the middle of the shoe, but off to the side of the shoe; and I decided that the shoelace holes should angle to the outside of the foot not the inside of the foot (Nike is now making best I can tell--the photos at their website are confusing--at least one indoor soccer shoe featuring laces that angle off towards the inside of the foot).

My Adidas Bracara shoes feature a row of shoelace holes that angle off towards the outside of the foot; when I bought them it had become no longer possible to buy shoes with laces going down the middle. The shoes I used before the Bracaras, Pumas, had the shoelace holes right down the middle of the foot. At first I was worried that such shoelace angling might mess up my game, which involves alot of keeping the ball off the ground and backspinning the ball. I thought that since the shoelace holes angle off to the outside of the foot the result would be that I would not be able to use the shoelaces and the shoelace holes to aid in the backspin of the ball. But as it turned out, while using the Bracaras I was able to competently backspin the ball keeping it off the ground and close to the body while running around, despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot.

As I progressed in skill I entered into a long struggle involving an attempt to master the difficult skill of keeping the ball close to the body but off the ground while running, by way of chipping the ball to my right with my right foot despite being left-footed. I found this skill to be the most difficult skill I had ever attempted to master. Finally after several weeks of practice, in the past couple of days I've gotten to the point where I consider myself on the verge of mastering it. As I finally succeeded, I realized that the success was associated with putting plenty of backspin on the ball. I decided that the shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the outside of the foot, help me to succeed in accurately chipping the ball to my right with my right foot because they help me to backspin the ball. Thus I decided that I want shoes with shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the right of the foot.

The Adidas Absolado P X IN, and its twin the Adidas Absolado X IN, both feature soles that are like basketball shoe soles and that have a relatively large number of grooves in the sole per square inch, with the grooves being relatively deep. Also they both have the shoelaces angling towards the outside of the foot. Therefore these are the shoes I favor.

The shoes that I decided not to buy fell short of the Adidas Absolado X In shoes for several reasons: the groove patterns on the soles of the shoes did not resemble the groove patterns in basketball shoes; the grooves were too shallow; there were not enough grooves per square inch; the shoelace holes did not angle off towards the outside of the foot.

I spent some time studying tennis and I read about how the loosely strung tennis rackets allow the player to put more spin on the ball, which supports the idea that shoelaces help to put backspin on the ball.

I don't really need the help the shoelaces provide when it comes to backspinning the ball for air-dribbling tricks such as: cutting to the left with my left foot; cutting to my right with my left foot (I am left footed); cutting to my left with my right foot (more natural than cutting to my right with my right foot). I need the help the shoelaces provide for backspinning, for cutting to my right with my right foot.

I've read plenty of text re the supposed impact of shoelaces in terms of the power and precision of shots and passes. My personal experience with the Adidas Bracaras has been that I've been able to get off (my estimates using stopwatch) accurate 100 mph shots with the outside of the foot despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot. My opinion is that power and accuracy are produced not by extreme effort or by the position of the shoelaces, but rather by the ball and the body in the optimal positions.

Around the block for five miles in eight-two minutes

Saturday March 7 Run

Reminds me of the song I heard when I was a child...'around the world in eighty days...'

Prior to the run footwear-wise I put into effect the recommendations I made to myself after the March 6 run. These were:

"Left foot: increase ball-of-foot & toes-baseline padding from 8 layers to 12; increase toes-area-padding from 16 layers to 20. Continue using the 'pretaping' type m-wrap...Right foot: increase ball-of-foot & toes-baseline padding from 8 layers to 12; continue using 'multipurpose' type m-wrap. Eliminate padding gap under line that separates toes from ball of foot (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/running-footwear-continued-experiments.html)".

With both left and right shoes: I used completely new fresh m-wrap pads; I engineered the pad for the ball-of-foot/base-of-toes-line and the pad for the toes so that the two pads fit together seamlessly; I used tape not glue so as to avoid layers of m-wrap being hardened by glue; I first taped down a 8 layer pad for the ball-of-foot and base-of-toes and a 16 layer pad for the toes with one piece of tape; then on top of this I taped down a 4 layer pad for the ball-of-foot/base-of-toes-line and a 4 layer pad for the toes area with another piece of tape.

This double-layered approach could be advantageous when it comes to tinkering with padding levels in the future.

Following the orders I gave myself I used the 'pretaping' type m-wrap in the left foot and the 'multipurpose' m-wrap in the right foot.

The thicknesses in terms of layers of m-wrap in pads that are most natural to work with are: 2, 4, 8, 16. This is because I fold the m-wrap repeatedly to create a pad.

When I cut the pad out of the folded m-wrap, I place a piece of card representing the desired cutout pattern on the pad and draw around the edge of the card to draw the pattern on to the pad, and then cut the pad out according to the desired pattern.

When I do this, I position as much of the perimeter of the piece of card as possible to align with the edge of the folded m-wrap that is basically all one piece; this helps to keep the layers of the pad aligned with each other. Thus there is advantage in folding into thicknesses of 2, 4, 8, and 16.

Saturday March 7:

I ran the round the block course again (1st 3rd 5th miles run, 2nd 4th 6th miles walked). Time after 5th mile: same as Friday March 6, 82 minutes at 4:38 PM. Only 50 seconds was subtracted from the time for breaks such as tying shoelaces.

In the left foot: I felt some pain in the left index and middle toes in the first mile. After the first mile I tightened the shoelaces in the left foot, because I felt a looseness in the heel. After the shoelaces were tightened, for the rest of the run I felt some slight tingliness and numbness but not pain. After the first mile I felt the sensory illusion of unevenness under the forefoot.

In the right foot: The foot felt just about perfect the entire six miles. Whatever slight discomfort I felt in the foot, was I estimate simply what someone who has been running for less than half a year would expect doing six miles on concrete-type surfaces.

I developed a slight soreness on the outside of the pinkie toe on the right foot prior to the run. I estimate this was because I attempted to go to sleep wearing the running shoes as I thought such might stretch the shoes to the proper extent or naturally acclimatize my feet to the shoes. I wore the shoes for a few hours as I lay in bed but I could not get to sleep while wearing them. Thus I woke up late in a sleep-deprived state.

My advice to myself for the next run:

Left foot: increase padding in heel area from 16 layers to 24 layers; loosen shoelaces.

Right foot: no change in footwear, be careful re soreness on outside front area of pinkie toe.

The footwear during the run was:

Left shoe:

foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
12 layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes & ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
16 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
Adhesives: tape, not glue.
'Pretaping' type m-wrap used.

Right shoe:

foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
12-layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes and ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
16 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
'Multipurpose' type m-wrap used.

During the run, as I ran up Exchange Street, this tall heavy clean-shaven East Asian type man wearing glasses with thick dark frames saw me, and said in a loud tone of voice, 'he's handsome!'. He was walking with some people in the direction of the big local restaurant called 'the Chateau' ( http://www.chateaurestaurant.com/ ). Maybe he was white not East Asian but his skin was white.

Yesterday during the run a couple of 'Latino' teenagers were backing out of a driveway blocking my path as I ran down the sidewalk towards their car. I stopped and patiently waited for them to pull out. They insisted that they should freeze giving me the opportunity to run around behind them. Seemed they desired to express themselves as respectfully courteous. Looking into the driver's face, he seemed to gaze at me with admiration, as if he knew that I would be able to get in shape and become a star.

I hear alot about crimes committed by various types of immigrants. In contrast to such are the Hispanics or 'Latinos' living in the neighborhood now who were not here ten or fiftenn years ago. They all seem like good folks who just want to live law-abiding lives in peace with other ethnic groups.

I'm famous around here for my 'Pele'-like soccer tricks, sprinting 20 yards full speed keeping the ball off the ground but close to the body using alternating left and right feet. To a lesser extent I am infamous for my lack of endurance.

The round-the-block neighborhood is much more lively on weekdays compared to Saturdays.

Whatever the day, today as most other days there was the problem of lots of cars and the fumes they emit. I got whiffs of a few different types of car-type-fumes during the run,. This problem is better late at night and early in the morning.

The weather today was 55-60 degrees during the run (http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=7&year=2009&month=3&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1 ). A long-sleeved sportshirt, a sleeveless t-shirt, the visibility vest, sweatpants and shorts were warm enough, maybe too warm; not wearing the sweatshirt was a good idea.

I estimate that a product that should be easy to find but is not is: a cool, lightweight vest built basically for the pockets it has that joggers can put things in.

Keys etc are a heavy weight for the thighs as they move while running when placed in pockets in pants. The pockets in the pants are shallow and you always feel as if what you have placed in them could slip out with disastrous results.

Strange that the visibility vest I bought at the Running Shoes store, Marathon Sports in Cambridge MA (http://www.marathonsports.com/ ), does not have any pockets for keys and stuff in it.

A so-called 'hip bag', a small bag attached to a belt is a possibility but such could result in physical problems for a jogger.