It is not a good, reliable test – it doesn’t really hold any clinical value – but it’s something that shoe manufacturers often recommend to select your perfect shoe. Put a wet foot down on a piece of paper and you’d be able to see if you have a higher profile because there’ll be less contact if you have a lower arch profile you have more contact and so more of the paper will be wet. There is also a test advised by running magazines and shoe manufacturers, which is called the wet paper test or wet paper towel test. However, a lot of people are not particularly good at self-judging. Simply look down – you can see if you have a flatter foot posture. How do you find out if you have flat feet? There’s a lot of hype around arch height among patients and runners and it’s often blamed, in my opinion incorrectly, for being the leading cause of everything.

There is less space between the inside arch and the ground. What are flat feet?Ī flat foot is just a foot with a lower arch profile.

We spoke to Alex Townsend, a specialist musculoskeletal (MSK) and sports podiatrist at Pure Sports Medicine, about flat feet and whether they require special running shoes. Runners who suffer problems related to flat feet are often advised to get running shoes with extra stability elements to counter overpronation.

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