ORTHOPEDIC CUSTOM SHOES

The best custom shoes free you from thinking about your feet. They should fit beautifully, and feature all the style and variety in leather and patterns that make wearing shoes a joy to behold. One reason to choose custom shoes is for unique styling to express one’s individuality.

Boston Pedorthic specializes in custom shoes that address orthopedic concerns foremost. But finally the day has come when function meets style affordably. Due to advances in mass customization, there are more patterns and options in custom shoes to meet our customers’ requirements for footwear to satisfy an active and social lifestyle.

• Success Factors for Custom Shoes
• Using Boston Pedorthic for Custom Shoes
• Reasons for Orthopedic Custom Shoes

Success Factors for Custom Shoes

At its foundation, successful custom shoe making is complex, requiring a high degree of experience, skill and resources at all points along the process. A respected trade in Egypt 4000 years ago*, the process has been enhanced over time, but remains essentially as follows:

Using Boston Pedorthic for Custom Shoes

Boston Pedorthic routinely provides measuring and detailing for custom shoes, working with a variety of shoe makers, including:

1. Traditional custom shoe makers, building one custom shoe at a time, according to a pre-existing or new pattern.

2. Technology-driven custom shoe makers using mass customization processes to bring together highly skilled, computer trained technicians and engineers with traditional, hand-skilled shoemakers.

3. Production-oriented custom molded shoe makers, specializing in risk-conditions of the feet, such as diabetes, at Medicare allowable rates.

The process starts with an in-depth, pedorthic assessment to determine your foot condition. Beginning with a recounting of your history and symptoms, the pedorthist will examine your feet and your gait and then seek to determine the contribution your custom shoes can make toward your goals.

Why pedorthics? More prevalent in Europe and Canada than in the USA, a pedorthist is an allied health professional, focused on footwear, as it performs to meet the requirements of your individual foot condition. Pedorthists are highly skilled in evaluating shoes, fitting and detailing custom shoes, manufacturing custom foot orthotics and all manner of orthopedic modifications to shoes. Boston Pedorthic is an Accredited Facility by the American Board for Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics (ABC), and is a member of the Pedorthic Footwear Association (PFA) and the Diabetes Coalition of Massachusetts (DCOM).

Candidates for Orthopedic Custom Shoes

Because of their expense, custom shoes for orthopedic purposes are a resource for truly enhanced comfort and structural support, and a prioritized option for others. A skilled pedorthist can help you consider functional, off-the-shelf shoes or orthopedic modifications to shoes prior to considering custom shoes.

A skilled pedorthist can contribute as a member of your clinical team. It is always preferable to work with a medical prescription and detailed diagnosis from a qualified clinician like a physical therapist, physiatrist, orthopedic surgeon or podiatrist to best inform the design and purpose of your custom shoes.

If you are considering custom foot orthotics, please note that it is possible to combine the Boston Pedorthic Advanced Custom Foot Orthotics with custom shoes, in most cases.

Among other conditions, the following are foot ailments routinely addressed with custom shoes:

To summarize, the overall function of an orthopedic custom shoe is to provide accommodation of the various dimensions of the foot, be they severely narrow, severely wide, or a complex combination of circumstances that produce challenges to a good fit and comfortable function from ready-made shoes. Custom shoes are useful in addressing structural deformities that cause pain or gait anomalies like leg length discrepancies and painful joint motion. Providing a structured, custom innersole provides the intimate full contact for healthy alignment of the foot throughout gait.

Boston Pedorthic is specifically trained and experienced to fit and detail custom shoes. Custom shoes at Boston Pedorthic are detailed with precision for the individual requirements of the customer or medical prescription, combined with fine finishing and an attractive array of styles and wardrobe categories for men and women.

It's easy to get started. Just call (617) 787-8779 to schedule your no-cost, no-obligation appointment for custom shoes, conveniently located on Commonwealth Avenue, just north of Cleveland Circle in Brighton, Massachusetts.

Footnotes

* Handmade Shoes for Men, László Vass & Magda Molnár

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