Does anyone else out there have wide feet? Mine are technically flippers. When we went snorkeling in Waimea Bay, I didn't need to rent the gear. I could barely get the large flippers on. I'm a 4E. When women complain about jamming their feet into pointy little torture devices. I understand completely. The loafer of a lesser man with a D-width foot is like a stiletto heel for me.
There are a lot of people with wide feet. Apparently Native Americans have wide and "tall" feet, which I assume means a high instep, like mine. Nike recently announced the N7 Native, designed specifically for their feet. Nike doesn't sell anything in wide sizes, so instead of adding 4E to their line they need to make a big splash about doing something for Native Americans. At least some of the money is going to help impoverished communities.
If you have wide feet, you can't just walk into a DSW like normal people. Sometimes I can get away with wearing a 10½W in a New Balance sneaker, or a Clark's shoe, or a Euro 44 at Aldo. Before the internet, I had to wear size 11's or larger and deal with the blisters as my foot slid around in the oversized boot. I still have a pair of 13-eyelet oxblood Doc Martens from my punk days that looks likea clown shoe compared to my real shoe size of 10. I heard of custom shoes made for the uber-rich and envied them. Once at a Renn Faire I saw someone making custom moccasin boots and thought about it, but I didn't want to look like Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans.
Nowadays you can go to Zappos.com or even Amazon and get shoes sent to you with free exchange shipping, if they're too snug. But for the wide foot, there's only one place I know of where you can walk in and be guaranteed to find a pair of shoes that fit you, and that's at Dave's Wide Shoes in Edison, NJ. They also have a website and offer exchanges for size, if you're Wide Footed in Winsconsin.
They're in a strip mall not far from the Menlo Park Mall, on US1. Tucked between a Chinese restaurant- "Noodle Specialist!" and an empty storefront, this is where you get pampered relief for your tortured, misunderstood, nonconformist dogs. You learn friendly brands as a wide-footer. Propét, which makes nice cap-toes, and also some ugly boats that look like burlap sacks. Old standbys like Bostonian and Florsheim make some nice comfy dress shoes, too. It's casual and stylish shoes that are rare for us.
New Balance has always had a great selection, from their standby 574 sneaker, to even their Collector's edition Centennial brown leather ones coming in a meager XW, which fit me just fine. Dunham Bootmakers is my new favorite. I found them when looking for hiking boots that would be comfortable, after hiking 10 miles in a pair of Wolverine steel-toe construction boots. They also make some nice leather strap sandals, and casual shoes. I grabbed a pair of brown mocc toe casuals from the friendly proprietor.
So don't suffer if your feet are wider than they are long, or if you have Hulk feet that burst open the seams of your Clark's like mine did. They have comfy and stylish shoes for men and ladies whose feet veer from the norm. It's cheaper than moving to Hawaii where you can wear slippers all the time and get "luau feet" when your toes spread out from not being jammed in a shoe all day long. And less likely to get you ostracized, like the Barefooters at the Society for Barefoot Living.
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