Do it yourself
5 procedures. None of them needs a seller to cooperate, and none of them produces a conclusion about your health, because a ruler does not have opinions about anybody.
01
The length and width of each of your own feet, in numbers, so that a size chart becomes a comparison rather than a guess. This is the only figure in the entire transaction that you control, and it costs two minutes.
02
Whether the shape of the front of the shoe resembles the shape of the front of your foot. Four listings in this catalog make an outline claim and none of them gives an outline, so you supply the missing half yourself.
03
Where the sole bends, how much force it takes and whether it bends at all. Flexible appears on several listings in this catalog with no figure attached, and your hands resolve it faster than any specification would.
04
How the shoe stays on, how much of that is adjustable, and whether the listing said so. Thirty-four of the sixty-six listings here state no closure at all, which makes this the most commonly withheld construction fact in the catalog.
05
The pattern on the bottom of the shoe: how much of it touches the ground, how deep the channels are, and whether the seller photographed it at all. It is the only grip evidence twelve of these thirteen listings offer.
| The word | Checks that bear on it | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Arch support | Measure your foot, Check the closure | 2 |
| Orthotic | None of the five | 0 |
| Non-slip | Flex the sole, Read the outsole | 2 |
| Barefoot | Measure your foot, Trace the toe box, Flex the sole | 3 |
| Memory foam | Flex the sole, Check the closure | 2 |
| Wide | Measure your foot, Trace the toe box | 2 |
| Water resistant | Check the closure, Read the outsole | 2 |
| Grounding | Flex the sole | 1 |