New Balance 926 for normal to over-pronator: these shoes are made for walking!
Written: Jul 23 '04 (Updated Aug 31 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Blessed relief for flat feet; all-black, brown or white leather for professional environments.
Cons: Made in PRC (and unfortunately not priced like typical Chinese shoes); very slippery when wet.
The Bottom Line: This little sub-$100 expenditure did more for my feet than thousands spent on my flat feet in my youth on podiatrist's fees and orthotics. Can't recommend them highly enough!
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| kurt_kurosawa's Full Review: |
These shoes, available in dignified all-black, brown or white leather for office, uniformed, and medical duty, are blessed relief for the hard-walking pronator (person with flat feet), providing exceptional stability, motion control and comfort for under $100.
UPDATE (added)--the NB 925 has been replaced by the NB 926, which has less of a "sneakery" look. Zappos struck again: though the NB site has no mention of commonality, Zappos knew they were built on the same last, so I bought them, and they fit perfectly. Since I wrote the original review, I've walked countless miles and stayed on my feet for many 12-hour hospital shifts (sometimes up to 18 hours) in these shoes as a nursing assistant and finally as an RN. I'm now on my third pair. I've also noticed that all this time, my knees have felt wonderful, though they bothered me and gave out unexpectedly for many years in the military.
WARNING (added)--these shoes are very slippery when wet. After walking through a puddle, the slipperiness persists a lot longer than you'd imagine. This applies when coming in from the rain--the soles bring enough water along to keep them slippery on a linoleum floor for several steps.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: As a security guard, I normally patrol in a truck, but last week I was assigned to a mall foot patrol. I'm not sure of the exact distances involved, but the mall is star-shaped. I have to make a minimum of one interior and one exterior patrol each hour, adhering to the form of the star (not cutting corners).
On Monday night, I was making my rounds in 15 minutes outside and 10 minutes inside for a total of 25 minutes, but on the second round, developed a sharp pain on the bottom of my right foot. A thick gel heel cup fixed that pain, but it also threw my weight forward, jamming my feet into the toes of the shoes, and I developed mild blisters.
On Tuesday night, the blisters grew and caused me tremendous pain. I hobbled around slowly, gingerly walking on my heels. A local running shoe shop recommended a stability and motion control shoe, and finding none within a 35-mile radius, I ordered the NB 925 in size 10D from zappos.com for $97.95 with free shipping.
Wednesday night. I'd heard the expression "I had blisters on my blisters," but had never before felt it. By this time it was taking 20 minutes to get around the outside of the mall. When I got home, I found a welcome e-mail from Zappo's saying they'd decided to upgrade my shipping to 2nd Day free of charge.
Thursday, no work. I received my shoes from Zappo's--they felt unbelievably good--but discovered my right toes touched the inside of the shoe slightly. I called and they told me this meant the shoes were half a size too small. On hearing of my circumstances, they told me they'd send me a 10.5D-sized pair overnight (shipping paid by them), and I could print out a return label on the Web and send the 10D pair back--they'd cross in the mail. I sent them back that afternoon.
Friday, no shoes. I checked the UPS tracker and they'd arrived in Newport News and were put on the truck in the morning, but no delivery was attempted. I spent all night looking for the shoes and calling customer service.
I dreaded Saturday afternoon, a longer shift than usual. I walked a couple of rounds with some thick plastic medicated pads my wife bought me, augmenting them with band-aids. Nonetheless, I developed a third set of small but painful blisters overlapping the others in the creases between my toes and soles. By this time it was taking me 38 minutes to go around the inside and outside both.
On Monday, I picked up my shoes at UPS, not trusting any drivers. The new blisters were still tender, but I threw all caution to the winds and put no pads or band-aids on my feet. I walked around the inside and outside and was feeling so good I cranked out another complete tour before checking my watch. 43 minutes for 2 interior and 2 exterior rounds, my personal record by a good margin.
This shoe has a lot to recommend it. The gel layer soaks up shock as well as those thick heel cups I'd tried, but the rigid structure of the shoe itself incorporating a graphite rollbar and two support posts does a magnificent job of supporting the foot, greatly improving efficiency, and keeps the foot from sloshing around in the shoe with resultant blisters and fatiguing lack of control (directional stability).
There is a perfectly-placed "gripping ridge" for the toes on the insole that works as well for my size 9.25 left foot as my size 9.75 right (for these shoes, I learned to round my largest foot--a quarter size--up to the next half size and add half a size for medium-weight socks). The toe is somewhat bulbous in comparison to width at the arch, which allows roominess for the toes with no sacrifice in rigid control of the arch and zero heel slippage. Looking at the shoes from above, they look ugly, no other word for it, but they don't look bad to others, or so I've been told.
The shoe also has a "Walking Strike Path Outsole" which goes unexplained, but I can tell you that for the first time in my 51 years, I'm walking normally--that is, starting at my heels, rolling along the outside edges of my feet, and pushing off with all my toes at the same time. I've broken off several conversations just to get walking again, it feels that good and natural.
And I can't say enough for Zappo's. They dealt with my two greatest online shopping fears, wrong sizing and shipping time, in the most impressive display of customer service I've encountered in over four years of heavy online shopping (when I got home Monday night, I even found a follow-up call from Dave at Zappo's on my machine to see if everything had worked out and to offer further assistance if it hadn't). When shoes are as hard to locate as these, knowing the right Web merchant is a make-or-break factor in a purchase decision.
Update: Those shoes lasted me 10 months in my security job, many miles of walking. The white ones got approved for nursing school even though they are not strictly speaking all white. I now work as a nursing assistant mostly in a hospital emergency department, and I walk constantly in a big loop through the area (12 hour shifts), but my feet never hurt me. They have gone up to $105 a pair.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kurt_kurosawa
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Member: Kurt Kurosawa
Location: York County, Virginia
Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 46 members
About Me:
"Inside the needle's eye, a turning night of stars." Rumi, tr. Barks
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