Adventures in Foot Pain.

Disclosure right up front: the shoe company Vionic contacted me a few weeks back and instead of me immediately deleting their email like I do with most PR pitches, I was excited – I really love the two pairs of Vionic shoes I already own. They asked if they could send me a pair of their orthotic support shoes or sandals, and I picked out these sandals to try out. They also asked that I review them here, though they did not ask me to link back to their site or say anything specific. This is that review.

Here’s a fun thing that has happened to me: sometime in late 2013, I started having some really wicked pain in the arch/heel area of my right foot. Like, out of nowhere, shooting pain, OMG, what is wrong with my foot kind of stuff. I would get out of bed in the morning and have to limp my way around until my foot “warmed up”, which (I realized later) magically happened shortly after I put shoes on for the day.

I Googled things, like one does, and terms like “Plantar fasciitis” came up. I’m not saying that’s what I have for sure – because I’m not a doctor, nor have I seen one for this specific issue (though when I told my endocrinologist about my symptoms, she was all “Yeah, it’s probably that”) – but I am saying that it could kind of maybe be that because my situation seems to fit all of the criteria.

It took me several months to really do anything differently, but at the end of last summer I finally decided I should probably stop wearing shoes with zero legit arch support (cough) and see if some more supportive shoes would do anything. I asked my Facebook friends what they’d recommend, and Alanna came through with a solid recommendation for Vionic shoes. I ordered a pair of ballet flats and you guys, it was like a revelation. They have orthotic support! They aren’t ugly! I now have three pairs (oh hai) and my foot is so much happier!

(My normal inclination right now would be to make some sort of self-deprecating joke about being a middle-aged mom who drives a Subaru and wears orthotic shoes and how did this happen, but you know what? I’m not going to do that this time. All of those things are me right now, and I’m a fan of me. Me doesn’t need those self-imposed digs. Me also hates the grammar of that last sentence. Me go with it anyway!)

I’ve never been a big fan of high heels or really any kind of shoe I can’t just slip on… but as it turns out, wearing something with good arch support needs to be one of my criteria going forward, too. Aside from a little bit of itchiness caused by the underside of the straps on these, they’re really comfortable for me.