Best Shoes & Best Insoles
How to stop shoes rubbing the back of your heel [Back of ankle & Achilles]
How to stop shoes rubbing the back of your heel? Rubbing on the back of your ankle, your Achilles, or calf? STOP Achilles & heel blisters!
Table of Contents
How to break in shoes that rub your heel treatment video:
In this video, we review:
- How to soften the back of new shoes.
- How to stop shoes rubbing the back of the ankle.
How to stop new shoes, heels & leather shoes from rubbing the back of the heel video summary:
🦶Do you have back of the heel rubbing, side of the ankle rubbing or back of the ankle rubbing on your SHOES?🦶
- We show you how to STOP blisters on the back of the heel from new shoes, shoes rubbing back of ankle & shoes rubbing back of heel!
- It is easy to get shoes rubbing side ankle bone, a blister on the heel from new shoes, or even shoes hurting the back of the ankle!
In this video, we review:
- How do I stop my shoes from rubbing my heels?
- How to stop shoes from rubbing Achilles.
- How to stop shoes rubbing the heel.
- How to fix shoes that rub on your heel.
- How to soften the back of new shoes.
- How to break in shoes that rub your heel.
Why do I get rubbing at the back of my heel?
How to prevent back of the heel rubbing:
When your shoes rub against the back of your heels, they dry irritation and friction.
- The skin on the back of our heel can safely handle some friction without pain. There are limits to how much it can take.
- When our shoes cause friction and pressure with every step, there will eventually be raw skin or a blister that develops on the back of our heel.
- These blisters or breaks in the skin can result in an infection, a retrocalcaneal bursa, or even the development of a bone spur at the back of the heel.
Depending on the height of your shoes around your ankle, continuous rubbing may also irritate your Achilles tendon and contribute to the back of the heel bursitis.
How to treat blisters on the back of the foot & blisters on heels from shoes?
If there is a raw blister or damage to the back of your heel, the back of your Achilles tendon, or the back of your ankle, it does need proper treatment.
A blister does need to be monitored for signs of irritation.
Signs of infection would include:
- Redness surrounding the back of the heel blister.
- Increasing pain and itching to the back of the heel.
- Increased thick drainage.
- Pain out of proportion.
If there is a concern for infection, contact your podiatrist immediately to ensure there are no worsening complications or the possible need for an antibiotic.
Blister on back of the heel from rubbing treatment video:
How to stop shoes from rubbing the heel & fix heel blisters video summary:
🦶 Do you have a bottom of the foot blister? Toe Blister or Heel Blister? 🦶
- We will show you how to prevent foot blisters and see if they are dangerous!
- We go over the best ways how to treat blisters on feet and toes.
- These include blood blisters and friction blisters on the back of the heel and the bottom of the feet!
- We answer questions like: should you pop a blood blister on your foot or pop a small blister on the toe?
- To learn how to prevent and treat blisters on the bottom of your foot!
How to break in new shoes, heels & leather shoes:
When you’re shopping for that new pair of shoes, these are good rules to follow:
- Make sure the socks you’re wearing when trying on your shoes are similar to what you’ll be wearing daily.
- A mistake would be to switch to very thick socks that might make the shoe even tighter.
- Buy shoes late in the day to get a better fit, so they’re not too tight. Our feet swell by up to half a size during the day.
- This means new shoes, heels, or leather shoes that fit perfectly in the morning might not fit so well in the afternoon.
- A good rule is to avoid new shoes, heels, or leather shoes too loose or wide.
- A common misconception is that a wider shoe will stop rubbing, but these are a known source of rubbing.
- Measure which foot is longer and flattens out more.
- It is good to measure the larger foot and fit your shoes to the giant foot, not the smaller foot.
- This might also mean that you are undergoing a condition called overpronation.
- This 2020 study shows how blisters can be prevented through the use of moleskin.
The larger foot undergoing overpronation is more likely to have to rub at the Achilles tendon. This overpronation can lead to an Achilles blister.
Socks for heel rubbing:
Blisters and rubbing can be caused when your socks don’t give enough cushioning between your feet and the shoes.
Choose socks with some natural bulk & padding (so they aren’t super thin but don’t go way too thick).
We also want to choose socks made from materials that draw moisture away from the skin, like wool.
Cotton, on the other hand, tends to trap moisture between the skin and the sock.
Socks are generally pretty good these days. Just buy a new sock that has some reasonable bulk and is not extremely cheap.
As we get older, our skin tends to become thinner and frailer as we age.
Older skin has less natural padding and protection, with less heel fat pad and cushion.
So if the bones in your feet are feeling more prominent and exposed, choosing socks with a good amount of cushioning and support can be even more important.
Use insoles & orthotics to stop overpronation:
Orthotics that prevent overpronation can effectively prevent heel rubbing and irritation to the Achilles tendon.
- They can also raise your foot and change the angle at which the heel presses against the back of the shoe. This can be very effective with a bone spur or bump on the back of your heel.
- Be aware that a tight orthotic can decrease room in an already tight shoe in some shoes.
- Custom orthotics can be very effective in preventing heel rubbing and overpronation. This is something a podiatrist can really help with in most cases.
- We see people on almost a daily basis that do significantly better with a slight orthotic adjustment.
When well-fitted and designed insole can have the opposite effect and instead ease the rubbing and friction.
Shoe stretching & making a small shoe bigger:
In a perfect world, you would already have the perfect fitting shoe.
- In the real world, people have many poorly fitting shoes.
- This is where shoe stretching can come in.
Specifically tight shoes that could benefit from being broken in or being made bigger.
Home remedies for how to break in heels, new shoes, or leather shoes:
At home, put your shoes on wearing a very thick pair of socks, or even wearing two pairs of thick winter socks.
- There is no need to overdo it, but wearing thicker socks for short periods of time can help break in new shoes and make them fit better. This will gradually make the shoe stretch out and fit easier.
- These thicker socks can also help prevent blisters.
- There are sprays available that are designed to help shoe stretch. We detail how to use these sprays below in the video.
It is possible to combine shoe sprays along with the shoe stretchers that we show below.
How to break in new shoes & stretch shoes Video:
How to break in new shoes & how to break in shoes that rub your heel video summary:
🦶Do you have a small shoe? We show you how to stretch a SHOE WIDER!🦶
- If you have new shoes, leather shoes, boots, cowboy boots, or sneakers:
- we will show you how to stretch out shoes WIDER at HOME!
- This can help for bunions, tailor’s bunions, and heel rubbing.
- We focus on the sprays, shoe widening, and stretching.
- This guide goes over how to use a shoe stretcher, a boot stretcher, and shoe expanders.
- We also go overshoe stretch spray usage.
In this video, we review:
- How to break in leather shoes
- How to break in running shoes
- How to break in new running shoes
- How to break in basketball shoes
- How long to break in running shoes
- How to break in Dansko shoes
- How to break in leather boat shoes
- How to break in patent leather shoes
Best Shoes & Best Insoles