Thursday, July 22, 2010

Wide Chacos don't work for me without modifications

I've got these wide Chaco sandals. The wide part, the footbed part, fits really well. My regular width Chacos gave me nasty blisters on my heels because the heel cup was too narrow. I had to slice the heel cup with an exacto to make them fit. My new wide Chacos don't have that problem.

My new wide Chacos also are the kind that don't have the toe loop. That is much better. My old Chacos have the toe loop. I've given up on the toe loop and have flattened it, but I can still feel it under my foot. It's not that bad to feel it, but the rest of the strap is too long and I've had to sew it shorter to compensate. Also, I can't adjust the straps very well with the toe loop flattened.

The trouble with the new wide Chacos is the straps don't feel like they are placed properly and they are much too long. They ride too high on my ankle in front and rub my ankles raw. I've tried everything to try to fix this and finally resolved it by wrapping elastic bands around the buckles to attach the buckle to the middle strap so that it won't ride so high. I've also adjusted the straps so the buckles ride far to the inside of my foot and sewn the excess length on the outside edges to take up the slack. The middle strap still rubs painfully across the top of my foot. It's like it hits a nerve or sensitive area. Nothing seems to fix it. It's like the straps are just placed all wrong.

Today I tried sewing some fake sheepskin strips to the undersides of the straps to see if that cushions the pain. It seemed to help. I don't need the elastic bands anymore at least. I may try getting some real sheepskin and sewing that to the undersides of the straps. Real sheepskin will stay cushy and soft longer. I might rip out the sewing I did to take up the slack and let the sheepskin take up the slack instead. They had real sheepskin pieces at Art from Scrap.

I would return the sandals but the footbed part just feels so good. Tevas don't do it for me. Their footbed isn't the same, doesn't feel as good. I can hike in the Chacos. I hiked 15 miles or so the other day in them and felt great all day. I just have to do a lot of mods to them to work.

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