I wear bulky looking shoes because I am flat footed & I have bad balance.
In layman terms, it means I have duck feet & I walk like a penguin.
If you want a complete & biological explanation for my condition, you can read about it here.
I found out I had flat feet way back in my teens & endured through the pain for many years. Half way through college, I flew to Toronto, Canada for a holiday & found out there are special shoes meant for people like me.
The magic I want to talk about are the shoes I wear.
Up till today, I've purchased 3 pairs over a span of 5 years. I wear them everyday back in college & everyday now to work. Without it, my feet, calf mucle, thighs, back & shoulders will hurt.
Don't be fooled by the quantity & duration of my shoe purchase. Flat footed people are extremely harsh on thier shoes so they are infact very durable.
It is very simple really. All the weight on your body relies heavily on your feet for balance. Once the balance collapses, your body will compensate by using (straining) all the muscles which supports your body while you stand. Thus, flat feet people are no fun to be around when they don't have thier shoes :)
Besides the shoe, you also need special inserts for your shoes as every individuals feet varies from size & defect. So, you'd need to look for a podiatrist who will make a special mold from your feet & construct an insert specially for your feet.
I understand that they are only a handful of podiatrist in Malaysia. My doctor was Dr. Mark Reyneker. He is a South African & he is makes my feet happy! I have not seen him for many years now so if you do go to him, tell him I say Hi & tell him he's on my blog! :)
So back to the shoes.
The only thing we can wear are Beast shoes from Brooks.
They make the best shoes for stability & motion control. Again, there are only a handful of Brooks retail stores in Malaysia & most of then are in Kuala Lumpur.
But if you do have flat foot, it is worth it to fork out the money for it.
In technical terms, flat feet people have collapsed arches. When normal people make an imprint of thier feet on the sand, they will see a curve on the inner part of thier feet.
Instead of having a curve, our feet will make a dull & full print on the sand - just like a duck's feet.
So you see, our shoes are made big & chunky for support.
Take your feet problems seriously. They are worth it.
Here are the 2 extremes of shoe soles for your understanding:
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