Your feet are the only thing between you and the floor. You don’t think about that until you have to.
I have had to. For a long time now.
What I am about to tell you is, for me, not casual. The wrong shoe, worn long enough, is a slow kind of violence against your body. The right shoe is the difference between being able to keep going and not. I am not being dramatic. I wish I were.
I have tested the four below in conditions I cannot describe to you. They are quiet, well-made objects, and they have not failed me. The differences between them are real. They come down to what shape your foot is, and what kind of walking you are doing, and how much of it you have left.
The first is for if you don’t know what to buy and you need to stop thinking about it. The second is for people whose feet have always been a little wider than the shoes they were sold. The third is what I would tell my brother to buy, if I had a way to reach him. The fourth is for people who are going to walk farther than they think they will.
