Trainers with wider toe box

I’m struggling to find a normal pair of casual trainers for office use. I have pizza shaped feet with a normal sized heel but apparently wide toes. From the amount of stuff I’ve found online it seems I’m the same as about a third of the population. Shoes like Five Tens fit fine, but they are too clompy for the office.

I currently have a pile of Adidas, Vans, Puma and DC’s all ready to get posted back.

Can any recommend brands to look at?

Men's Primal Zen

I get them sent from america, expensive but worth it for shoes that fit.

New Balance 574

There’s a reason every  giffer over 40 with a beard wears them. They’re essentially square.

Keen are good for my duck feet, though they are a bit pricey now, so wait untl they are on sale.
Lizard, from Italy, are also great, but again, cost a lot more than they were 5 years ago.
Vivobarefoot can be good, but wideness is different in some models, I had to send some back last year, though the boots I got in the January sales are great.
I was recommended Hobibear last week.Never heard of them before, they look like a bargain type of vivobarefoot. For the price, I’ll be getting some soon, if they are no good, I havent lost much. The Lady who recommended them says they are great.
https://hobibear.com/

@MSP

Try https://www.footworksrunning.co.uk/collections/lems

Edinburgh based. I got my Primal’s there

Adidas Pace are wider than Sambas but are at the cheaper end of the scale with slightly thinner soles. Depends how fashion conscious you are but they are great for me. I have high big toes which can’t be accommodated with narrow shoes. My walking shoes are Keen which have a very generous toe box.

https://www.vivobarefoot.com/uk/

Lems are a good choice, I’ve got some of their Outlander boots which are super comfy. I also use Topo shoes for on and off road running.

New Balance 574

There’s a reason every giffer over 40 with a beard wears them. They’re essentially square

This intrigues me a _lot_. I run in wide fit NB 860s and they’re the most comfortable, foot shaped things I’ve ever put on my flippers.

I like the Altra Superior although I believe this year’s version is quite low volume which suits me.

I’ve got wide feet and have about 4 pairs from Fitville.

Altura are wide and foot shaped. Ugly, but they fit with you requirements.
Brooks do a wide fit that is big width as well, though like Altura you’ll not win any fashion contests in them.

Altra, strangely enough Scarpa Crux fits my square feet well too.

Inov8 do various widths but are standardising the range into Standard and Wide. If you like their shoes, I think watch out for each model being revised into those lasts.

I think newer 510s are narrower than they used to be. Vans are pretty comfy once I’ve broken them in. The Inov8 I bought are okay, but I really should have bought them a size up. Might need to give them another round with the shoe-stretchers. Merrel vapour glove 3 LTR are so very comfortable, they mould to my feet, but if you’re not used minimal/barefoot shoes you probably won’t find them comfy. I got a pair of the Hobibear from amazon, they’re okay, they’re wide and cheap, but crappy foamy insole which I binned. Also have a pair of TSLA which are a cheap-&-look-cheap version of the vapor gloves.

Altra for running shoes.

Not really daily dossing around in shoes though.

I have this issue a lot.  Adidas are hopeless and have made 5:10 start using their lasts, which I can only assume are designed around fitting the TDK skeleton.

vaude seem to be pretty wide, as are keen and Teva. I love my new balance running shoes, but for everyday dossing about duties I’ve not found anything better than Salomon XA Pro 3D Gtx in 1/2 a size up from normal (for length, not width).  Nevisport seem to have them on permanent sale too. I’ve also some old etnies skate shoes which are a lot wider than their MTB-specific shoes. Comfy like slippers.

Thanks you all, I’ll have a look at the NB’s. Don’t think I’ve ever tried those.

And Lems look like a good alternative to the Vibram boots I keep missing in the sale!

I do wonder though why so many shoe companies, especially outdoorsie ones feel their shoes need to look utterly awful! Having said that my kids have pointed out that most of the current Nike/Adidas range look like someone ran over a moon boot with the lawn mower.

I think newer 510s are narrower than they used to be

Definitely this and for a while now.  When I last bought some a couple of years ago I needed an 11 not a 10.5.

This is sadly an all shoes problem.  The desire to make normal shoes you could poke someone’s eye out with seems to be strong.

I can only assume most of the major shoe manufacturers are undertaking horizontal diversification into podiatry.  🫤

KEEN are really wide in the forefoot, particularly the original US designs, their ‘European’ ones are slightly lower volume but still generous. Columbia’s footwear, which used to be Montrail, has a pretty roomy forefoot too. From memory they based their original last on a massive survey of – mainly – US feet and it came out with a high volume forefoot combined with a narrower heel.

My experience with inov8 is that they fall apart in short order with regular, day-to-day use, ymmv. They’re nice for running in while they last, but for simply wearing in the office, na.

As far as aesthetics go, everyone’s embracing the whole giant foam midsole concept I think. And fashion is fashion. But anyway, Columbia is worth a look. And KEEN.

Been through this last year, as I have wide feet and need room esp at the toe box.

for trainers, I finally hit gold when I visited my local running shop and I went in having my heart set on a particular wide fitting brooks or NB shoe, but after trying several on, the owner recommended I try some Altra via Olympus, which I wasn’t keen on as frankly they didn’t look that great.

but bloody hell they are the best trainers I’ve ever had in terms of fit and comfort. Probably because they are just foot shaped. Sounds weird but they are. They aren’t cheap and they really don’t have the style of NB etc, but they are a great fit if you need more room in the toe box.

previosuly I’ve tried brooks wide fitting and I wouldn’t recommend them for fit tbh, mizuno neither, new balance wide fit 574 aren’t bad to be fair. But Altra are the best fit I’ve found in trainers.

ive tried keen and most of the others mentioned above and none really fit my wide feet that well.

New Balance 574
There’s a reason every giffer over 40 with a beard wears them. They’re essentially square

This. I’ve heard them referred to as ‘dad shoes’. I have feet like an orangutan and have a large selection of 574’s in different colours. I’ve recently mixed it up and bought a couple of pairs of similarly old-school style Diadora’s and they’re also nice and comfy for those of us with missing link style monkey feet 😃

Skechers Relaxed Fit work for me.

As someone whose feet are wide enough to obviate the need for snowshoes this thread is wonderfully reassuring….

Normal Altra aren’t wide enough for me, but luckily they do a 2E in some styles. My Brooks Adrenaline are 4E, and I’d also vouch for the 2E Inov-8 shoes in their new range, although I had to go up a full size.

I suspect they’re not quite what you’re after, but other shoes you might want to consider include the Meindl Comfort Fit range, and Blundstone – their half sizes increase the width but not the length.

Good luck!!

Big wide spread toe person here too.

As already mentioned above, Keen and Skechers are my go to.

I’ll stick my oar in too, not only wide, but bunion and hammer toes to add to the fun. 12.5UK size as well which can be a little limiting.

Agree on NB wide trainers being pretty good.

Agree on 5.10s becoming useless (but, fear not, if you need wide and big shoes Specialized canvas flats are awesome).

Agree on Innov8 being OK but not lasting well, though even the ‘wide’ are very style dependant, and even the widest I have are quite tight.

Sketchers wide are OK, but I find, as a big lad, they offer little to no support so make my feet ache if I’m doing any walking in them.

Keen I agree are very good, but now no longer sell/ship to the UK from europe, so that’s a right pain in the tits.

Completely coincidentally, @dantsw13 , I just found Fitville. They are dangerously close to being a bit ‘NHS’, and they do size up BIG, but I followed their fitting guide and got a pair of general smart ish trainers (on Friday) that are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned. And they are not expensive.

Scarpa Ribelle runs are very wide in the toebox.

Those feet don’t look that wide, but it’s unfortunate italian brands tend to go to a narrow ‘latin’ footshape

For a high street suggestion, Reebok are wider than other big trainer brands (well, Nike and Adidas at least).

Nike Dunks are pretty wide.

My ”Hipster trainers” as my S-I-L calls them. 😀

Altra the comfiest widest toe shoes I’ve ever owned by a zillion percent.

+1 for altra.

i got a pair from start fitness with  15% off.

very bling, but well comfy.

My wife swears by altra https://www.altrarunning.eu/uk/experience-collection

I’ll stick my oar in too, not only wide, but bunion and hammer toes to add to the fun. 12.5UK size as well which can be a little limiting.

Just in case it’s useful to anyone, Hanwag – German outdoor footwear brand – does a range of wide fit boots, but also special bunion versions designed, as you’d guess, for people with bunions. I don’t think they do either in shoe form, or at least trainer-type shoe form, though.

Which of the Altra models are you guys recommending for normal use?

All the ones on start fitness look a bit specialist, I’m not sure I could.

All these brands offer shoes with wider toe boxes

Xero

Vivobarefoot

Belenka Barebarics

Bohempia

Freet

Realfoot

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