I just got my first pair of 440s. I love how they fit and skate but for whatever reason they absolutely KILL my feet. I have plantar fasciitis and i thought the cupsole of the 440 would help but it almost seems to make it worse. Does anyone else have this problem? Im thinking about getting some custom insoles to see if it would help.
Its a huge bummer because i cant really afford to buy new skate shoes right now and my old ones (Lakai Protos) are completely blown out.
Welcome to Plantar Fasciitis Corner.
I have pretty bad plantar fasciitis, and have an absolute nightmare of a time finding comfortable skate shoes or even reducing the pain enough to skate or do much of anything. Cupsoles are good - you really need to support your feet. I had a pair of 440's, and they didn't work for me. If your Lakais worked, but the 440's don't, it could be from one or both of these issues:
1) the shoe and insole have basically no arch support
2) the midsole cushioning of that shoe seems to only be concentrated in the heel. This causes a lack of support under your forefoot, and a noticeable drop from heel to toe, which can flex your achilles tendon (which is connected to your plantar fascia) at a sub-optimal angle.
If you weren't having many issues with the Lakais, I imagine your PF isn't too bad, and you can probably manage to comfortably skate the 440's with a couple of adjustments. Custom orthotics would probably help a lot, but they aren't cheap. If you have medical insurance that will pay for them (I know that's tricky for Americans), I'd definitely go that route. If not, I would do the following:
1) Get an insole with rigid arch support (not floppy rubber or gel) and a cupped heel. Try to find thin ones, without too high of a heel if you can (so as not to worsen the achilles angle thing I mentioned above).
2) Stretch before and after skating, and any other exercise. There are some good suggestions
here. The thing that helps me the most is keeping my calf muscles stretched out and loose. Once you try a few stretches and get into the habit of it, you'll start to figure out what helps you the most.