i just want supportive black ballet flats
The other week I was telling my husband how hostile the footwear industry here was to women with wide width feet.
"What do you mean hostile?" he asked. "Just that there are fewer options?"
Here is what I mean, friends. (And I'm using one example to demonstrate: this company is by no means an outlier.)
Spring Step shoes generally sells cute, funky, artistic shoes, like the below:
Five years ago, when I wrote a fashion blog, Spring Step, like many companies, didn't sell any wide width shoes. But when I checked on them again this year, oh cool they added some wide sty--
This shit is constant. Constant. If you wear a wide shoe, especially if you need arch support, ESPECIALLY if your 'wide' is wider than C width, you will take your marshmallow clogs and you will like them. Or if you're lucky, you will spend weeks hunting for wide width shoes that look non-orthopedic, shell out $$$ for them, and they will still fall off your heels. (Most shoe companies just size up their lasts, the base the shoe is built on, rather than creating new ones, which means the heel of the shoe also gets wider if you have a wider toebox. Which is not how most women's feet are built!)
All this is to say if anyone wants any specific recs for pretty, supportive shoes in widths wider than C, I have made spreadsheets of the precious few options out there, just lmk what style and budget you're looking for.
