If you’ve followed along on this blog for any amount of time you probably already know what makes good diabetic shoes and why following proper diabetic foot care is so important. You may not however fully understand the importance of deep depth shoes and why so many diabetic shoes are deep depth.
Deep depth shoes basically refer to the depth in shoe space from the top of your foot to the arch of your foot. Most diabetics have rather large feet and many of these tend to be wide. Due to the size of feet and because of the malformed shapes some diabetic feet develop many diabetics not only wear extra wide diabetic shoes and special diabetic socks but they also use customer diabetic shoe inserts which are designed to better conform to the shape of a diabetic foot.
Some diabetic inserts are simple and small, akin to normal Dr. Scholls foot insoles however many good inserts for heavily misshapen feet tend to be a bit bigger. Some other people need full sized orthotics which can be quite large compared to standard feet and standard insoles and the extra depth shoes can offer room for these feet, insoles, and orthotics without looking too different from standard shoes.
How Extra Deep Shoes Work
Just because you have diabetes doesn’t inherently mean you need deep depth diabetic shoes. Deep shoes can be very similar to normal shoes. Diabetic walking shoes for instance can sometimes look exactly like normal athletic shoes. However as a diabetic foot gets worse and worse the foot slowly needs more support and the support that diabetic shoe insoles and orthotics offer requires a bit of space.
Some deep depth shoes are designed just like traditional shoes but are raised higher to accommodate the deep insoles and orthotics that some people need to wear. The best deep depth shoes however are designed to appear far more normal than they really are.
If you look at the front side of a normal pair of shoes you will likely see a plastic, rubber, or leather flanges which wrap up the front side of your toes on the outside of the shoe. This part of the shoes sole is often very close to the level that your toes generally are and they are the same level as the back of your foot as well.
Good deep depth shoes which hide their depth are designed with the toe area of the shoe lower than the front side of the shoe. In a cruse way of describing these deep depth shoes the heel is normally high off the sole while the toe is closer to the sole than normal. This gives the shoe a slight heel which is relatively imperceptible to those looking at the shoe from the outside.
Because most diabetic feet have more trouble at the ball of the foot, arch, and toes rather than the heel adding this extra space up front can help significantly in allowing room for bulky insoles or large orthotics. These shoes may still be slightly taller than most shoes but the extra quarter inch to half inch of depth up front can make a big difference in casual appearance.
The Best Deep Depth Shoes
There are many diabetic shoes on the market and the best shoe is going to depend on what you need the shoe for. Good diabetic athletic shoes may need to make better use of moisture repellent fibers just like the best diabetic socks and wide diabetic slippers. On the other hand the best pair of diabetic dress shoes may need to be better designed to focus on depth. A set of dress shoes which are deep but actually look deep can be a little awkward. At the job appearance means something and your shoes can say a lot about who you carry yourself and what values you have.
As I’ve said on many other pages on this blog some of the best diabetic shoes include those from Propet and Drew Shoes but for true deep depth diabetic shoes it’s hard to find a better shoe that the deep diabetic shoes made by Orthofeet.
Orthofeet diabetic shoes can be purchased in many fine specialty shoes stores but by far the easiest place to find really good prices on Orthofeet is on Amazon where many retailers offer discounts that just can’t be frequently be beaten in brick and mortar store. Check out this collection of deep diabetic shoes on Amazon and check the reviews. There are a lot of good options available for both men and women.
