Experiences with Good Feet Store?

[Query]

This isn't about skate boots - but maybe some of you know enough to have an opinion...

My orthotic shoes (with rigid forefoot soles to slow osteoarthritis, and a bit of extra height for diabetic inserts) need replacement, because the soles are softening. I asked a salesman at a Good Feet Store if they could sell such shoes, in order to try to avoid the cost of seeing a podiatrist and orthotist again. He had me go through their 1.5-2 hour presentation, and try their arch supports.

He fit me for the arch supports by having me place my feet on a piece of paper that made an ink imprint. And he traced my feet around the imprint, to show the part that doesn't touch - though the pen stayed below the ankle, which makes sense since none of their shoes are ankle high. That part seems reasonable - maybe slightly better than merely tracing around the foot at two angles, as some skate boot techs do.

He said Good Feet Store gives everyone a set of 3 heights of arch supports. (He said they have 300 sizes & shapes, for different feet.) The arch supports were somewhat uncomfortable to me. He said the arch supports strengthen the feet, and the arch supports were stiff (my orthotist gave me 3-layer compressible foam inserts, which I showed him before the presentation). I suspect they just stretch foot tissue, without strengthening anything, but maybe I'm wrong.

They charge $1500 for the arch supports - much more if you want extras, like a machine to shake your feet, or supports for more pairs of shoes. That includes lifetime replacement of arch supports, if they break. You sign a contract agreeing to no refunds if they don't help.

The salesman had no medical training. (But neither do I.) He measured my feet with Braniff device. If I remember right, we agree on my heel-to-toe length, but he ignored the arch length, which by my measurements give a different size - or maybe it was the other way around. He said I have a size D arch width, but ignored my heel, which is about half as wide.

He said that my heel on both feet needed to be fixed, because it was not directly behind my little toe, measured along a line parallel to my inside longitudinal arch. He implied the arch supports would fix that - but since that includes bone structures, I have my doubts.

He also said that the extra darkness (corresponding to increased pressure, when standing barefoot on a flat surface) under the imprint of the pads under then ends of my big and little toes, and heels, were abnormal, and said that would be fixed by the arch supports too.

Some online reviews rave about their service. Some - including some podiatrists they compete with - say they are an overpriced service which isn't sufficiently customized to help everyone. If I needed stiff arch supports, I think I could form them myself out of athletic tape, or buy them online for $10-$60, though I wouldn't know how to fit mail order supports.

In the end, they didn't have shoes that were high enough to accommodate my inserts or give me the ankle support I like, a need I told the salesman at the start. And I don't need their arch supports, because I have no foot pain in normal shoes (just skates, if the insoles don't fit me) and have been told by a podiatrist that I do not have abnormal pronation or supination. All of which I told him at the start. (Note that most of their customers come into the store with foot, knee, leg, hip or back pains which I don't have. So I'm not their typical customer.)

So I'm not buying, and he wasted both our time. Though it was interesting, so I'm not sorry to have gone through the presentation.

Have any of you had good (or bad) experiences with them? Of course don't say anything that could get this forum sued.

 

[Query]

Additional info: The Good Feet Store salesman told me the highest arch support should hurt my feet, after a couple hours, but that was needed to "strengthen" my feet. He said that if the first pair didn't hurt, he would have given me higher ones.

BTW, although I do not now have any of the pains that Good Feet Store specializes in treating, I did once.

There was a time when I had pain and sometimes cramps at the front of my foot. A podiatrist concluded, after maybe 2 - 3 minute of feeling my feet, during which she found no broken bones and that my toes had a very limited range of motion, that I must have osteoarthritis (I am over 65, and I have diabetes, so maybe that folded into the diagnosis), perhaps from having worn out the cartilage between my toes or metatarsals. She told me to get foot x-rays (which showed that I had bone spurs between the rear part of the large and small toe metatarsals, and the metatarsals next to them, though she didn't know that), but didn't look at them. She told me I should get shoes with stiff soles to reduced forefoot motion, and do exercises to stretch my toes and feet. She sent me to hanger clinic, with a prescription that just told them to give me diabetic shoes and inserts, with no additional information. They ordered them..

The pain and cramps went away, and toe range of motion increased somewhat. Was it the reduced forefoot motion, the inserts (that are somewhat thicker than normal shoe insoles), the exercise, or did the muscles and ligaments eventually stretch themselves, so the pain would have gone away on its own? I don't know.

Or perhaps The Good Feet Store solution would have had the same effect. The rigid arch support would have possibly reduced forefoot motion, because I think their support actually went somewhat under the metatarsals. And they would have stretched my toes and feet, by a different method. Maybe it would have worked, for me.

I simply don't know, and never will. I won't do controlled testing, by going back to normal shoes and insoles, and stopping exercises, until the pain returned, because that might do additional harm.

Perhaps that very short exam was my podiatrist felt it worth doing, because I was on Medicaid, which doesn't pay as well as other medical insurance. (But Medicaid covers all the costs of what it covers, and does not allow copays or deductibles, so it was free to me.) I'm not sure, but think she charged Medicaid $400-450, and The Hanger Clinic probably charged an additional $400-500, including the cost of the inserts and shoes (neither of which they made themselves - but they took measurements and a foam foot impression). I'm not sure what the cost of the x-rays was - maybe $200-300? So all told, the medical costs + shoes + inserts were somewhat less (to Medicaid) than The Good Feet Store would have charged. But that is because Medicaid limits costs - if you assume everyone would have charged 2 - 4 times as much if I had no insurance, the medical route would have cost much more than The Good Feet Store.

I am no longer eligible for Medicaid, and would have to pay roughly half the costs myself - and everyone will charge more because Medicaid isn't involved. If I want to see a podiatrist again (and this time go to a 1st rate podiatrist with a good rep in the skating community), and get x-rays again, it will be fairly expensive. Maybe $1500-2000, after insurance? Which is why I am considering just getting shoes with stiff soles again. But I've decided not to try The Good Feet Store solution.

Still, I'm curious if other people have tried them, and what the results were.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Additional info: The Good Feet Store salesman told me the highest arch support should hurt my feet, after a couple hours, but that was needed to "strengthen" my feet. He said that if the first pair didn't hurt, he would have given me higher ones.

BTW, although I do not now have any of the pains that Good Feet Store specializes in treating, I did once.

There was a time when I had pain and sometimes cramps at the front of my foot. A podiatrist concluded, after maybe 2 - 3 minute of feeling my feet, during which she found no broken bones and that my toes had a very limited range of motion, that I must have osteoarthritis (I am over 65, and I have diabetes, so maybe that folded into the diagnosis), perhaps from having worn out the cartilage between my toes or metatarsals. She told me to get foot x-rays (which showed that I had bone spurs between the rear part of the large and small toe metatarsals, and the metatarsals next to them, though she didn't know that), but didn't look at them. She told me I should get shoes with stiff soles to reduced forefoot motion, and do exercises to stretch my toes and feet. She sent me to hanger clinic, with a prescription that just told them to give me diabetic shoes and inserts, with no additional information. They ordered them..

The pain and cramps went away, and toe range of motion increased somewhat. Was it the reduced forefoot motion, the inserts (that are somewhat thicker than normal shoe insoles), the exercise, or did the muscles and ligaments eventually stretch themselves, so the pain would have gone away on its own? I don't know.

Or perhaps The Good Feet Store solution would have had the same effect. The rigid arch support would have possibly reduced forefoot motion, because I think their support actually went somewhat under the metatarsals. And they would have stretched my toes and feet, by a different method. Maybe it would have worked, for me.

I simply don't know, and never will. I won't do controlled testing, by going back to normal shoes and insoles, and stopping exercises, until the pain returned, because that might do additional harm.

Perhaps that very short exam was my podiatrist felt it worth doing, because I was on Medicaid, which doesn't pay as well as other medical insurance. (But Medicaid covers all the costs of what it covers, and does not allow copays or deductibles, so it was free to me.) I'm not sure, but think she charged Medicaid $400-450, and The Hanger Clinic probably charged an additional $400-500, including the cost of the inserts and shoes (neither of which they made themselves - but they took measurements and a foam foot impression). I'm not sure what the cost of the x-rays was - maybe $200-300? So all told, the medical costs + shoes + inserts were somewhat less (to Medicaid) than The Good Feet Store would have charged. But that is because Medicaid limits costs - if you assume everyone would have charged 2 - 4 times as much if I had no insurance, the medical route would have cost much more than The Good Feet Store.

I am no longer eligible for Medicaid, and would have to pay roughly half the costs myself - and everyone will charge more because Medicaid isn't involved. If I want to see a podiatrist again (and this time go to a 1st rate podiatrist with a good rep in the skating community), and get x-rays again, it will be fairly expensive. Maybe $1500-2000, after insurance? Which is why I am considering just getting shoes with stiff soles again. But I've decided not to try The Good Feet Store solution.

Still, I'm curious if other people have tried them, and what the results were.

Curious as how you are doing today. 30 years ago I had employer insurance and had plantar faciitis. Foot doc proscribed custom orthotics at my expense (!) for $500 as it seems society doesnt recongnize the feet, teeth and eyes are part of the Human body. I moved on to OTC orthotics but now at 76, need something better. I am trying doctor first. Good feet store is overpriced.

 

[Query]

A couple days ago I found a pair of high top athletic shoes in "Dick's Sporting Goods" that would almost work - rigid soles (like the Podiatrist says I need) and some ankle supports but the ones they had in stock were too small to fit my inserts.

Their sales reps were surprisingly helpful - much better than I would expect at a big box store. One of them told me that basketball players (he is one) no longer use high top shoes. They use ankle braces. He went and found one on their shelves for me to try. (It costs $30.) I decided it was too supportive - it might weaken my ankles to always walk around using supports like that. But it fits well inside athletic shoes.

OTOH, I wouldn't want to try to fit them inside snug figure skates... Though I suppose that if the skates heat molded, they might work. But I think the one I looked at isn't supportive enough to make up for broken down ice skates.