Shoe customization is not as simple as it sounds. I am talking about fit customization here, not aesthetic or design customization, function, not form.
There are features, designs and materials that could count as customization too, but for this post I am setting those aside and focusing on how a shoe fits, and how that process differs from company to company.
Fit customization runs on a spectrum. The most custom end is leather, handmade, fit-checked footwear. The least custom end is pre-made sizes based only on width and length.
At Prevolve we also factor in biometric data, weight, foot strength, sport and position, to adjust certain designs and thicknesses within our cleats.
The foot has enough complexity that there may be no real ceiling on how much customization a pair of shoes could receive. But we live on planet Earth with time and resource constraints, so we cannot customize into infinity.
Whatever the differences between approaches, every version of fit customization relies on a shoe last to define the fit, the internal volume your foot will actually live in. The shoe is built around that last shape, usually with the upper pressure and heat formed to take it on.
The shoe last is the source of the fit, and its importance is hard to overstate. How a shoe performs has more to do with the last than most people think. Getting the shoe to hug your foot where it should and give room where it should not is what separates a comfortable, high performance fit from an approximate one. That is why we spent years refining our own last design algorithm, which I have written about here.
And a shoe being custom fit does not automatically mean it is healthy. Plenty of companies build custom shoes without considering the natural shape of feet, or how a foot might need to change to become healthier in the first place.
Real world options
What custom shoe options actually exist right now? They break down into three categories: manual and traditional custom shoes, algorithmic customization, and semi-standardized custom fit.
Custom fit handmade shoes
Start with the oldest form of customization: handcrafted leather shoes. This has been around for thousands of years and it takes a craftsman and traditional shoemaking tools to do properly. It is also a dying art and an expensive one, usually $1,500 or more for a pair, often with months of wait time.
These shoemakers will often cast your feet or take individual measurements of each one, then build mock shoes to validate the fit before the real pair. Two popular options:
- Robert Mathews, casual and traditional shoes, $1,495 and up.
- Crary Shoes, casual and traditional shoes, $1,100 to $1,800.
You might also find a local cobbler offering something similar. Search your area for custom fit leather shoes and see what turns up.
Pre-made custom fit
These companies keep a library of pre-made last designs and match you to the closest one. Using scanning or photogrammetry, they generate a basic 3D model of your feet, then match it to whatever design in their catalog fits best. If your feet are close to average, this works fine. If your feet sit further from average, it may not be custom enough to actually solve the problem. Companies using this semi-custom approach:
- Bauer, hockey and skate shoes, $1,300 to $1,800.
- Imotana, soccer cleats, $190.
- Zellerfeld, fashion and tech shoes, roughly $200 to $300.
- FUSED Footwear, fashion and tech shoes, roughly $100 to $300.
Algorithmically custom fit shoes
Plenty of startups have taken a crack at this market and failed over the last 10 to 20 years. Today there is a handful of companies making a real go of it:
- Prevolve Footwear, cleated athletic footwear, $595 to $795.
- Lore.cc, cycling shoes, $1,300 to $1,800.
- Hezo, cycling shoes, $330.
- Vivobarefoot, VivoBiome.
Most of these brands use a form of foot scanning or photogrammetry to build the 3D model of your feet, sometimes validated with extra photos or notes on your preferred fit. Once that model is confirmed, these companies run algorithmic 3D modeling to design the shoe itself.
It is slightly less exact than the handmade option, but letting computers do the heavy lifting of design and pattern making drastically cuts the time and cost of producing a pair of custom fit shoes.
Not every company in this category builds around minimalist principles either, so the shoe might be custom without being healthy.
Conclusion
There are more custom fit shoe options today than ever before. What matters is understanding what level of customization you are actually getting, and whether the company behind it understands the natural form and biomechanics of feet. Customization without that knowledge can still leave you with unnecessary pain and injuries, and wait times and costs for custom fit tend to run well above an off the shelf pair. Hopefully this gives you a clearer read on the landscape as you look for the right pair of shoes for your feet.