What kind of feet do I have?

Question

Running has evolved into a popular enough sport that it seems like you can get a special pair of shoes for almost every type of feet. My only problem is trying to identify exactly what type of feet I have.

From my own research I know most feet fit into one of three instep categories:

• Pronators
• Neutral
• Supinators

And on either side of neutral you can be either: mild, moderate, or severe pronation/supination. But what else is there to know? Start googling foot types and you get a flood of classification types. This site claims to have a algorithm that identifies 24 different foot types.

Then there's your toe type:

• Greek – Foot with the second toe being the longest.
• Egyptian – Foot with the big (first) toe being the longest.
• Square – Foot with even length toes.

Each of which can be further categorized as tapered or wide toe.

But what about everything else? Say you have wider feet, narrower heels, longer toes, heel spurs, small ankles, big toe gap?

Aside from visiting an orthopedic doctor is there a way for people to learn what kind of foot type they have?

Answer 1

Aside from visiting an orthopedic doctor is there a way for people to learn what kind of foot type they have?

Yes, easily! Just look at an old pair of shoes!

Below we see two shoes, one old (left) and one new (right). As you can easily see, the left shoe shows excess wear on the outer toe.

You've probably seen the kind of graphic below that relates wear to foot-roll. So just compare your shoe to the graphic.

Based on the above shoe, this person is an "underpronator".

With regards to foot type, the amount of ankle roll is the most important, everything else is just overclassification. With regards to toe length or foot width, these can be addressed by trying on shoes.

However, foot roll is something that shoe manufacturers do advertise and you can easily come across while doing research.