He suggested "almost any brand of good, supportive athletic shoe, not the cheap ones from
Walmart, but one that feels good and makes your whole foot feel supported when you walk."
He also suggested that I go to a quality shoe store for an appropriate shoe fitting because one of the reasons most people experience chronic foot problems is that we have a habit of consistently wearing the wrong size shoes. There's a place in Sacramento called The Good Feet store, and he did suggest I try that place. The shoes are a couple hundred bucks.
I never, ever had to buy "wide" size shoes until after the Birkenstocks Summer of 1996.
In fact, he also told me to never, ever wear high heels again, especially with the damage/widening to my midfoot caused by the Birkenstock's. He told me to absolutely never wear pumps or dress shoes, not even to church, nothing without an arch support, ever. I still wear nice shoes to church, though, but once a week for an hour probably isn't going to do that much damage. He also told me that once you start having foot widening, the absolute worst thing you can do for your feet is go barefooted. I never knew it, but apparently going barefooted causes your arches to collapse, which can be really detrimental to someone who already has flat feet.
