Uneven heel wear

[Michelle Crossfire]

I have a question for anyone who may be able to shed some light on this. I noticed that my shoes having been showing signs of uneven heel wear. It affects me sometimes when wearing heels, usually more chunkier heels or wedges. It seems that the outer portion of my heels are wearing down sooner than the rest of the shoe. Can anyone shed some light on this as to what is happening or why?

[Pixie_94]

I'm not an expert, but this is often caused by the posture, how you support your weight when standing or how you walk.

[Micki_Finn]

You walk funny. I don’t know what else to tell you. It’s not like they make the heels softer in one spot. If you’re shoes are worn in funny, the cause is you wearing them in funny.

[Robertacd]

Micki is right, shoes wear by the way you walk. Just like the tires on your car wear uneven if your front end alignment is off.

[Cheryl T]

Definitely posture and how you walk.
Look at other shoes that are flat like maybe a sneaker and you'll probably see the same wear pattern. It's just you notice it more on your heels.

[LucyDarlene20]

See a doctor or chiropractor. For me it was a sign of uneven posture due to lumbar problems.

[Lydianne]

You walked the Indianapolis 500? :idontknow:.

- L.

[Teresa]

Michelle,
My heels have always worn down quicker on the outer edges , not so bad in femme mode as I take smaller steps , also driving can wear shoes unevenly depending if it's a manual or automatic transmission .

[suzanne]

Everyone is different and few of us are perfectly symmetrical. I experience some of the problem you mention, but perhaps not to the same extent. Its mostly because I'm pretty heavy, so I just expect shoes made for a large-ish woman to not be strong enough to be indestructible for me. Women's shoes are built for looks, not ruggedness. Truthfully, I'm surprised at how durable my shoes are turning out to be.

[Tracii G]

I would say you have a subluxation in your spine.
That means a vertebrae out of place.
Do you have lower back pain? If so you are favoring one leg or the other as you walk.

[Asew]

As long as these heels are worn mostly for walking then yeah you walk unevenly. But if you wear these to work and sit long period or something, then it could be how you keep your feet under your desk and such.

[JenniferMBlack]

My shoes are the opposite the insides wear faster then the rest. Not just heels all of them. So yeah I know I put more pressure in the inside of my feet.

[Allisa]

Are you bow legged? I know I am and my shoes show signs of it on the outer edges of all of them.

[kayla_bayarea]

Lots of people either over supinate or over pronate when walking or running. That's the entire reason they have different models of running shoes. If you look at your other shoes that you wear a lot you will see this wear pattern as well. It has absolutely nothing to do with heels.

[Stephanie47]

Supposedly one is suppose to place the shoe down heel to toe. When wearing flat, presumably men's shoes included, one usually puts the entire foot down. I suspect there may be some weakness at your ankles which is making an uneven placement of the heel.

[Rhonda Darling]

Kayla, thank you for a science based answer. For those who would like some additional facts about bone and skeletal issues that affect foot placement when walking or running, search the internet for “Supination and pronation”, then read the articles or select “images” and you can see charts and such from medical tests and research papers. It’s actually rather interesting, and has nothing to do with any self choice of foot placement.

[chris80]

Heel wear on the outer back part of the heel means you are walking normally. if you are flat footed then the inner edge of the heel will wear faster. This applies to men's shoes and block or stiletto heels equally.

[docrobbysherry]

Funny, everyone knows the answer without ever asking this important question: What heel hite r your shoes, Michelle?

I walk quite differently in hi heels, (4" and up), than I do in drab and women's flats, (under 4").

Hi heels change my posture and the length of my steps!:battingeyelashes:

[AngelaYVR]

I am thinking that your feet are angled outwards as you walk (supination with external rotation). It is very common and can be corrected with physical therapy.

[Michelle Crossfire]

The supination theory presented here was of particular interest to me. I had a doctor appt scheduled for Apr 2 and was going to bring it up. Thanks to the corona virus scare, all my appointments are now by phone only. No in person appointments for the time being. I still want to bring it up to my doc and see what she says, might be a bit harder describing it over the phone as to being in person and being able to show her my shoes and watching me walk. We shall see how it goes.

[ReineD]

It's really not complicated. :)

I think if you checked your guy shoes, you'd also find more wear on one side than the other. That's normal. Everyone's foot is shaped differently, to fit into a standard shaped shoe. Everyone walks differently.

The issue with smaller areas on women's shoes, such as a heel, is rather common. It's a good idea to have the rubber piece at the bottom of the heel replaced when it begins to show signs of wear. Find a shoe repair place, doing this saves a lot of money. It only takes a few minutes. I've had to do that with every pair of shoes that I've worn a lot.

Or, you can fix it yourself.

How-to videos:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=replace+heel+tips

Replacement heel tips:
https://www.google.com/search?q=replacement+heel+tips&client=opera&hs=F5a&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi00u__-aroAhWFLc0KHao6D50Q_AUoAXoECA8QAw&biw=1184&bih=780

[MonicaPVD]

Underpronation, also called supination, causes your foot to roll outward with each step, putting more pressure on the outside edge of your foot. I have this problem as do many people. Shoes aren't meant to last forever. Some people can correct it. Others just live with it.

[Lydianne]

I walk at 5mph - that's confirmed. ( Or at least, I did in 2016 when, early one morning, I was walking back home, and about half-an-hour into the one-and-a-quarter hour walk back from my parents', a combination of myself approaching a speed-measuring device and a car travelling at around 40mph in the opposite direction to what the device was logging, triggered it, and a "5" showed up on the display ). I had walked past that device dozens of times previously and have done so afterwards with intent of repetition and never triggered it, but this was a perfect storm.

For a long time, I believed I had perfect walking biomechanics because of how fast I could walk and for how long I could maintain it. In 2018, I started taking video snippets of my times outside en femme, and part of it included videoing the shoes as I walked. To my surprise, I noticed that my foot at the propulsion part of the cycle snaps inwards when it leaves the ground, straightens somewhat evenly during the step, and is pointing marginally outwards by the time of its plant.

I lose a lot of potential forward propulsion in a sort of a twist-move. The outer-rear of all my flat shoes and the heels of my femme shoes wear down first. I wear through shoes quickly, but it's not as though the rest of the sole is perfect while the outer-rear is done. The entire shoe gets done 'evenly enough'. As a child, it was the outer-side slightly towards the front, but I got told back then that I walked on my toes. That did wear down disproportionately quickly compared to the rest.

- L.

[JenniferR771]

It is possible that you are walking like a woman or even a glamorous fashion model--feet in a straight line and with a slight sway or wiggle when seen from behind. Watch an online fashion show.
Not a problem--tell the rest of us how to do it.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iba-1&hsimp=yhs-1&hspart=iba&p=Milan+fashion+week#id=2&vid=56c62fb97f63ed49e8ef18e5856ef30e&action=click

[MonicaPVD]

Lydianne, I'm pretty sure that 5MPH is not walking, it's jogging. The average adult walks at 3MPH and a radar gun is tuned to pick up a two ton box rolling down the road, not a lovely lady such as yourself.

[Genifer Teal]

Check the heel of the shoe. I've noticed many times they're not put on as straight as they could be. Poor quality.

[Lydianne]

The average adult walks at 3MPH

Indeed! I didn't want to compare directly. Walking with someone else is done staccato with a lot of turning around. I don't walk accompanied much.

Lovely lady, I wish. My first videos en femme at 30 fps in good light, my feet were a blur. When crossing a very busy road when I'm not supposed to ( jaywalking, I guess ), it's even quicker, but I couldn't sustain that for several miles.

- L.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Michelle :hugs:, The problem is the shoes are not wide enough for your foot,


Many many years ago I had that problem with my male shoes, I was advise to a 10.5 EEE and that solved the problem.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Orchid .oo:daydreaming:oo.

[Charona]

I haven't worn ladies shoes enough to develop a noticeable wear pattern. My old and well-worn boots show heel wear at the rear and slightly to the outside, which I attribute to slight scuffing as I walk and possibly to a little dragging when I put my feet down when stopping my motorcycle. The soles show more wear on the inside edge about where the balls of my feet are.

I would seriously distrust a single reading of 5mph from a traffic radar. For a start digital devices usually have a specified accuracy of plus/minus one count. If I really were interested in my walking speed I would use the time-tested method of a stopwatch over a known distance. Many schools have a running track, usually a quarter mile, and often open for public use by exercisers. Be aware the quarter mile is at the inside of the track, not the outside.

[Lydianne]

I would seriously distrust a single reading of 5mph from a traffic radar..
...Stopwatch... running track...etc

. . . or maybe I've been distance walking in real life conditions for over twenty years :thinking:.


. . maybe.. :whistling:.

- L.

[Manna]

I have a question for anyone who may be able to shed some light on this. I noticed that my shoes having been showing signs of uneven heel wear. It affects me sometimes when wearing heels, usually more chunkier heels or wedges. It seems that the outer portion of my heels are wearing down sooner than the rest of the shoe. Can anyone shed some light on this as to what is happening or why?

I think its depend on posture and how you carry the heels. First you have to make sure that your shoe size is correct or not according to your feet, may be its the problem.