Feet First For Travel

Nothing disrupts vacation activities like first-day foot blisters.

Whether you're planning to scale the heights of Mt. Rainier or stroll the Louvre, make sure your travel shoes fit perfectly and provide sufficient foot support.

Before buying shoes for travel, get a podiatrist, physical trainer or qualified shoes sales professional — there's one on staff at most athletic shoe stores — to fit you properly.

Obviously, your foot size and shape are crucial considerations. But gait — the length, angle and other specifics of your unique stride — determines the style of shoe that best serves you.

One fitting should give you a key to your shoe requirements.

Do you pronate or supinate?

“Neither!" you respond indignantly.

Yes, you do! Most people walk with ankles tilting inward or outward to some degree. Discover which when a shoe fitter studies your gait as you walk away from them or exams your old shoes. If you wear soles down toward the inside, you pronate. If heels are worn down on the outside, you supinate.

Pronation is more common, and supportive in-shoe correction is commonplace: reinforced arch support is built in to many shoe brands and styles.

There's no in-shoe support for supination. So, supinators must buy new shoes or replace worn heels more frequently.

You can acquire good travel shoes almost anywhere. If local boutique or department store selections are insufficient, try Magellan's (www.magellans.com) and Travel Smith (www.travelsmith.com) for attractive, affordable men's and women's mail order travel footwear. Their selections have been tested for walking comfort, style and durability, and you're allowed to return the shoes if the fit isn't right.

For ladies only, renowned reflexologist Laura Norman (www.800feetfirst.com) manufactures handsome and sturdy suede walking shoes featuring cushioned inner soles with raised areas that massage nerve endings in your feet as you walk.

Even with footwear that fits well, it's generally a bad idea to travel in new shoes, unless they're custom-made.

Alas, most made-to-order shoes are likely to run you more than your vacation's cost — unless you happen to be traveling to well-heeled Hong Kong, where custom-made shoes are often cheaper than ready-made designer footwear back home.

With custom-made shoes, you alter shape, heel height and other details to suit yourself, or bring along a pair of favorites to be copied exactly.

Limitless possibilities make decisions difficult. You need a patient cobbler who's experienced in matching styles with different leathers and colors. Shoes copied from photos may look different from the originals, so order the cobbler's own on-display styles for sure matches.

Custom-made shoes fit your foot's proportions. Distance from toes to instep is different on every foot, so shoe proportions differ, too. Custom-made shoes are more comfortable and last longer because your feet put equal stress on all parts of the leather.

Measuring is simple, even if you're ticklish. In 15-20 minutes, the salesman draws outlines of your feet, measures areas across your toes and instep, height of your arch and instep, distance from sole to anklebone.

At your fitting, a day or two later, you test a canvas mockup to find pinching or rubbing points. Adjustments are made. Usually, one fitting is sufficient. Shoes can be completed in four days, but a week is optimum.

Your personal last (the model for your shoes) is made from the canvas mockup. Use the same last for additional orders, provided you choose the same heel height. Otherwise, you need a different last.

Custom-made shoe shops — in Hong Kong and elsewhere — retain lasts to fill subsequent mail orders. But it's best to try on the first pair of shoes made from any given last in the shop, rather than have the shoes shipped home.

Customers sometimes complain their shoes aren't made from specified selected leathers. To avoid switches, ask for a small swatch of the actual skin from which your shoes will be made. If cobblers refuse, have your shoes made elsewhere.

Supple leather and suede stretch, so shoes should fit snugly at first. Heavier leathers stretch less, and if they're made snug, they might remain snug.

Hong Kong Tourist Board's (www.discoverhongkong.com) shopping brochure lists recommended custom-made shoe shops. Prices for custom-made shoes usually range from about $200 to $400, and boots are about $300 to $500.

To find out more about Jennifer Merin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2005 JENNIFER MERIN

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