If you don’t know where to look, it can be difficult to find shoes if you have a narrow heel and wide forefoot. The internet doesn’t help much as there are so many poor quality articles out there. Hopefully this post will help.

Read on to find out more.

Foot Shaped Feet

No, your feet are not duck feet or pizza feet. They are foot shaped! Take a look at images of babies’ feet online – many of them have a wide forefoot and narrow heel. It’s a completely normal foot shape that many people lose as they age due to their footwear choices.

There’s a good chance that there’s nothing wrong with your feet, that the problem is actually the limited range of shoes that are available in most shoe shops.

Fashionable Shoes

Pointy shoes have been en vogue for a very long time. The fashion is for a long, slimmer looking shoe, but the reality is that many people just don’t have feet shaped like that.

If you consider yourself to have narrow heels, you’re probably used to the fact that many shoes just don’t fit well and that you have to avoid certain styles. And you know that often ‘wide fitting’ shoes are too big on the heel.

The good news is that there may well be shoes out there that fit, it just takes a little research to find them.

What Is a Wide Toe Box?

The first thing you need to decide is – what exactly are you trying to find? If you’re looking for a shoe that is wide enough across the ball of the foot and doesn’t cramp your toes, then you need a wide toe box.

A toe box that is actually wide to the end of the toes, rather than one that tapers to a point. Read our post What Is a Wide Toe Box to find out more.

Be particularly careful of this if you have bunions. While you may be tempted to get a pointy-toed shoe that is wider at the ball of the foot (so that it doesn’t press on your bunion), this type of shoe may actually contribute to worse bunions over time¹.

How to Find Shoes That Fit

The first place to start is to figure out whether you’re wearing the right size shoes. It’s so common for shoes to cramp our toes that you might not realise that you’re wearing the wrong size.

To check, you can measure your feet using our guide How to Measure Your Feet.

Most online shoe shops have a size guide which will convert your foot measurement in cm/mm into the corresponding size in their shoes. Read shoe sizing charts carefully and check whether the length listed is inside shoe measurement or your foot measurement.

If the chart lists foot measurement, you can be sure that the inside shoe measurement will be larger, to accommodate the changing shape of your foot as you walk. If you don’t have 1-1.5cm of space in front of your toes inside your shoes, you’re wearing the wrong size.

Avoid sizing up in order to get the right width as too much space in front of your toes can alter your gait.

Unfortunately many footwear brands do not include width measurements in their size charts, but you can always email them to ask for the inside width of shoes and compare it with your foot width.

If you’re trying shoes on in a shop, or trying shoes at home that you have bought online, use the Shoe Liner Test to check if the shoes are wide enough (and the right shape) for your feet.

Find Out Your Foot Shape

Feet can vary quite a bit in terms of shape – some feet have a much longer big toe than all the other toes, other feet the second toe may be longer, etc.

Knowing your foot shape will help you to identify brands and models of shoes that are the right shape for your foot. Read our Foot Shape post  to find out what shape your feet are.

Look for Foot Shaped Shoes

Sometimes people are not aware that there are many brands offering foot shaped shoes. You are most likely to find foot shaped shoes by searching for ‘barefoot’ or ‘minimalist’ shoes.

These shoes have a wide toe box to ensure that there’s enough room for the ball of your foot and all of your toes to sit in the correct anatomical position. You can read why that’s important here.

You can check photos of barefoot shoes online to see what shape the toe box is and how wide the heel is. Look for top down images so you can clearly see the shape.

Different barefoot shoe brands have shoes of different widths – both width of the toe box and the width of the entire shoe. So if you try one brand and it’s too across the forefoot or too wide at the heel, keep looking, chances are you will find a different brand that fits. Some brands will even make shoes custom made to your own measurements.

If you’re reading about barefoot shoes for the first time, you will probably want to opt for a ‘transition’ shoe which has a thicker sole, until your feet get used to this new type of shoe. Read our Transition post to learn how to adjust to this new type of shoe.

Look for Secure Fitting Shoes

Choosing shoes that fit securely is important for those of us with narrow heels. Slip on shoes are likely to be a difficult shoe when you have narrow heels because you may just step right out of them. Shoes that have laces or an instep strap are a better choice and will help to ensure the shoes stay on.

Other Tips to Keep Your Shoes On

Once you have all the above points covered, if you’re still having trouble, you could try adding a heel grip to the back of the shoe – but make sure it’s a grip rather than a cushion, which will be smooth and unhelpful. For a thinner alternative try moleskin.

In the winter try leg warmers or stirrup socks to fill space around the ankles. In the summer go for strappy sandals that have an instep strap.

You could also try invisible socks or a thin insole inside the shoe as you may also have a low volume foot which may be compounding the problem.

Find out more about how to find the right shoes with our Barefoot Shoe Shopping Guide.