“Like quitting a bad habit, my body has forgotten how to walk in these heeled things.” -Anonymous

Knowing that whatever work boot I bought would cause physical misery for my body, I bought these cheap boots at Walmart.

I took out the insoles but that didn’t help. My knees were locking at foot-fall and I developed knee–>back–>feet–>soul problems.

My family physician referred me to what she claimed was the best Orthotics medical office in Ottawa. I was dreading the visit, thinking that it would be expensive and they would sell me something that my body didn’t really need and that I would inevitably get into some unwanted debate with the doctor about minimalist vs supported foot philosophies. All that worry was for nothing. The conclusion from the visit was that bringing my work-boot to a cobbler and having them slice off the heel would be a decent first step in being comfortable while on the construction site.

It cost $80 (not cheap!), but here’s the result. There was good communication between myself and the woman at the cobbler’s. She even snapped a shot of the minimalist shoe I was wearing at the time (the Dylan model from Vivo) to show the man who would be working on it that yes indeed, I did want a flat boot.

So far I haven’t walked very far in them, but I can say that I feel like I’m leaning slightly backwards, rather than feeling like I’m wearing high-heel shoes like I was pre-op. This leads me to think that my calves will become strained and so I might benefit from inserting heel shims to try and level my foot to become parallel with the ground.

I will not lie, they definitely feel weird. There’s some kind of arch interference going on, but they do not hurt me like they did when they had the heels.

EDIT October 6th 2014: My current solution has been to put in some insoles to compensate for the toe spring. It works well enough, though is not perfect. Miles better than how they were to begin with (there’s no longer any heel dragging and the boots are lighter and leave me feeling more dexterous than before).