Yep, these shoes stink for this gal...

Look at the left shoe and compare it to the right. See how the upper is canted on the outsole? This “varus cant” can create lots of problems or could actually be beneficial, believe it or not, depending upon the pathology.

In this particular persons story, it was NOT a good thing. They have an anatomical short leg on the left-hand side. If you remember from following us here in the past, generally speaking, the shorter leg tide tends to be more supinated and the forefoot tends to be in more varus. This means more of a “reach” with that foot during the contact phase of gait, Whether that’s running or walking. This generally means that the forefoot will pronate more on the long leg side.

This shoe “defect“ may actually be benefit for someone who has too much rear or mid foot pronation as it would “delay” pronation by starting to rearfoot in an inverted position at heel strike.

The Fix?

You could grind the sole into varus an equal amount to equal the varus cant. In our opinion, not a good idea.

You could return the shoe (that’s what this person is doing) and get another one

In addition, you could…

Give the person a 3 mm sole lift to correct for the leg length discrepancy

Make sure they have adequate range of motion in the first ray on the short leg side to be be able to plantar flex the 1st ray and reach the ground

Make sure they have adequate control of the core musculature as well as foot intrinsic musculature during stance phase.

Dr Ivo Waerlop, one of The Gait Guys

#badshoes #theshoeistheproblem #forefootvarus #leglengthdifference
#gaitproblem