toe protection

[lamby]

Hi all, Does anyone have any recommendations for the padding of toes. I presently utilize gel toe-protector caps - on my big toes, and my next biggest toes of both feet. My toes are doing fine so far this season, and I think using the caps has helped, but wondering if there is a better product out there than the gel products I'm using. They work, but it seems like they are trapping moisture, and they get cold. In the past I've used Second Skin products with success in areas that were getting too much pressure, or for things like bad shin-bang. Maybe there is something like that, in a toe-protector-cap or other product that I should try out.

I use something very similar to this product:

a brand of gel toe-protector caps

Thanks in advance for any ideas. Best, Lamby

[Corey]

I mold the liner with extra stuff around my toes so they don't touch anything and I can wiggle them a bit.  I let the hold on the rest of my foot prevent toe contact. 

I can't imagine purposely adding anything in the toe box. 

[RoroSnow]

Same as Corey, plus I re-cut the inside foam layer of the liner for even more space around the toes and extra warmth...

On some liners i also did some slits for extra liner deformation.

Test carefully !!

[lamby]

Thanks Corey and RoroSnow. Pointing me toward liner modifications makes good sense. I'm probably overdue for new liners too.

[queequeg]

Hey Lamby — can you be more specific about which toe is the problem and where the crash is? I have an egyptian foot, wherein my biggest toe is the big toe and the rest are smaller. It sounds like your situation is similar but that it is the next toe over - a greek foot? Am I getting that right?

When one toe is significantly longer than the rest, this poses a problem because it will always end up taking more of a beating than the rest of your toes, as the first point of contact.  As Corey and RoroSnow pointed out: good liner molding procedures can help: but if you have one toe that is much bigger than the rest: a tiny bit of hard padding can help to redistribute pressure to reduce stress on the one hot-spot.

No amount of punching shells will prevent my big toe from being in agonizing pain by the end of the day, but adding a bit of volume around the rest of the toes helps. Use some *hard* bootfitters foam to add a teensy bit of volume around your shorter toes — so that they share some of the load. I add some bootfitters foam in front of the rest of the toes to assure that pressure is distributed evenly across all toes rather than just the big guy. It does not take much at all but it makes a *huge* difference.

My point is: if one toe is significantly longer than the rest it is always going to take the brunt of the beating, unless you add some support to distribute that pressure across the remaining toes.

Hope that helps!

[lamby]

Great point QQ.

I have a pretty typically shaped feet I think. The first toe (after big toe) is the longest. And yes, the tip of that longest toe, especially left foot, (I'm regular footed) takes a lot of the impacts and stresses. In particular the tip of that left, longest toe seems to develop a lot of callus just below the front of the nail - at its tip. After showering I will often spend a bit of time with a callus rasp to remove some of that build up, before it gets excessive.

Outside of big toe (left foot) and front footpad (interior-side in particular) gets a lot of callus. Extreme rear area of heel on left foot gets a lot of callus build up, but that may be left-over from summer work boots. Not sure, but it is always built up with callus.

Right foot does much less work, and is much less impacted/in need of maintenance or added protection.

 I had never thought about the adding a tiny amount of hard bootfitters-foam in front of other, shorter toes, to help distribute the load.

Thanks a lot for the input!

Edited January 8, 2021 by lamby
spelling and grammer

[RoroSnow]

90% of feet problems come from the shoes....

I would investigate around modifying your liners with good care or help and for the rest of the time, ditch your "pointy" shoes or boots and get some "natural foot shaped" shoes or workboots.... And if you can, be barefoot at the maximum.....

Others options can certainly be investigated or, provided by people on this forum. Best of luck Lamby.