How to Shop for Shoes

The cutest pair of shoes in the world won't do your footsies any favors if they're too small or too big, or they have heels so high that they jeopardize your balance and your safety. And no, they don't score extra points just because you bought them at a fabulous sale. If you want to be shoe-savvy the next time you go shopping for footwear, read on.

Instructions

1. Determine how often and where your prospective new shoes are going to be worn. Suffice it to say, most women don't take this into account when they walk past a shoe store. They simply spy a trendy pair of heels in a window and immediately think, "I'll have to find something to wear with those!" Ask yourself whether you're looking for shoes for the office, for fun or for special occasions. If your job requires you to stand for long periods of time, for instance, or if you do lots of walking, you'll want a comfy fit and a lower heel. If you're buying shoes for a sightseeing trip, a rubber sole will provide more traction than synthetics or leather.

2. Plan your shoe shopping trip toward the end of the day rather than first thing in the morning. The reason is that human feet swell up a bit as the day goes on; accordingly, footwear that was purchased as soon as the store opened its doors may pinch your toes by the time you slip into them for an evening on the town.

3. Have your feet professionally measured by a salesperson in the store. Most people assume that once they hit adulthood, their shoe size will forever be written in stone. Age, weight gain or loss and pregnancy, however, all affect the size of feet . It's for this reason that it's also good to do a yearly "shoe purge" of footwear that you've had for a long time. Even if it was your favorite pair of hot pink platforms from the 1970s and you've been faithfully holding out for their retro return, the odds are that they're never going to fit quite like they did when they were new.

4. Shop for your larger foot. Symmetrical as we humans are, our feet are not exactly the same size as one another. Unfortunately, shoe stores sell their merchandise with the expectation that they are. To compensate for this, always ask to try on styles in the larger of your two foot measurements. The reason is that the shoe for the smaller foot can be taken into a shoe repair shop to have inserts added to make it as comfortable as the other one.

5. Buy shoes with a modest heel (1/2 to 3/4 inch) rather than totally flat. This slight elevation will give your feet more arch support and alleviate heel pains. At the other end of the spectrum, stay away from heels that are higher than 3 inches. Excessively tall shoes shift your body weight to the ball of your foot and introduce strain to the tendons and muscles in the arch. Further, they squish your toes into the toe box and can result in painful blisters, bunions and corns. High heels, of course, are also unwieldy and could cause you to lose your balance or twist your ankle.

6. Walk around the shoe store to determine how comfortable the shoes are before you buy them. The toe area should be comfy and allow your toes to wiggle a little bit. If your shoes feel too loose, you run the risk of your feet sliding back and forth (resulting in surface irritations and ugly heel blisters) or stepping out of them completely and losing your balance. The shoe should also have a flexible upper (the top part of the shoe) that gently bends when you move your feet, and the interior should have sufficient cushioning in the toe and heel areas to absorb contact with hard floors and cement.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are in the market for sturdy hiking shoes that will require you to wear thick socks, take the socks with you when you go the shoe store. Most people forget this because the walking shoes are either an impulse buy, or they're wearing thinner socks (or no socks) when they make their purchase and thus don't account for the extra layer that will be filling up the inside of the shoe or boot.

• Always have your feet measured while you're standing up, not while you're sitting down.

• Just like clothing, a size 7 shoe isn't going to be a universal fit across different manufacturing lines. If you're buying several pairs of shoes in one trip, and they all carry a different designer label, try each pair on instead of assuming that the second and third will fit exactly like the first.

• Never buy tight shoes with the expectation that they will soften and loosen up over the course of time. If they are painful to wear in the shoe store, they will not become any less so after you take them home.

• Never allow yourself to be pushed into buying a pair of shoes that aren't perfect. Exercise patience and move on to the next store if you don't find a right-fitting pair in the current one.