Hey there. I have a weird problem with how shoes fit my feet. When I put them on and get them tied, I have to loosen the laces so much that I can sometimes only tie a square knot, rather than a bow, with the laces. This is across the board with nearly every running shoe I've ever tried. I thought it was normal, but when I look at how shoes fit other people's feet, it seems like everyone can cinch their laces much tighter than I can. Not only that, but when I do tie that knot, I am able to just slide the shoe on and off my foot without untying it. Any looser and they will slide around, but any tighter, and I feel bad pressure on top of my foot/ankle.
My feet seem to have spread out a bit over the years too. I've done a ton of backpacking and a lot of running. I have a stockpile of mizuno wave rider 18s that I do most of my slow runs in, and while I like them a lot, it seems like I might need to switch to something wider now, cuz I'm having some weird lingering feelings in my arch that I don't want to turn into anything bad.
I know that I can never wear shoes where you slide your foot in (I'm female), because the top of my foot is just too.... tall or something? My arches are high-ish, but not super high. I guess my forefoot is pretty wide... I remember trying on some Brooks pureflow shoes, and the elastic fabric that stretches over the top of the foot was like a torture device.
Does anyone else find that they have to use almost all of length of the lace to get your shoes to fit right? Do you think wide shoes are the way to go?