Lipedema Friendly Products – Dressing Aids and Shoe Horns. What’s your Advice?

Hi friends!

On the development of footwear project, we have entered the stage where the LegsLikeMine team are using a team of fit testers to wear our shoes around and give us feedback on the fit. The goal is to make sure there aren’t hidden gotcha’s like, the shoes didn’t work with ankle cuffing, they provide enough support and durability, the tread is good, and they’re comfortable. We’re learning a lot about the unique needs of ladies with lipedema. Here’s one of our lovelies who has Stage 3 lipedema trying on the fit pair.

This fit model actually wore the loafers for two days and gave us some fantastic feedback.

For example, our team designed a loop in the back of the shoe to be longer than standard, but that we will change one more time (making it shorter again) as we learn more about what’s working. It turns out the loop wasn’t the challenge, but we’ve also learned that many of our ladies in the lipedema community need a little help when it comes to putting on shoes in the form of a shoehorn or a boot pull. Maybe it’s because our bending isn’t what it used to be, we have balance issues, or sometimes the backs of our shoes fold in when we’re putting them on.

You can see the extra large loop in the back. We’re fixing that. But look at that beautiful non-slip, wide sole. We need that!

Thinking longer term though, we’re heading for calf boots very quickly now that we’ve got the lasts and the soles going swimmingly, and the boots will need to have a ‘pull’ built into them. That means we might also need a tool that can extend the reach of our ladies to get into that pull. I’m looking into a few dressing/donning aids and wanted to share what I’ve found. I’m interested in your advice too on donning aids.

We’d Love your Advice on Dressing Aids!

When I’m talking about dressing aids, I have something like this in mind. It’s got a long handled, sturdy shoe horn, with a hook at the end so you can use either end, and reach long enough to where you don’t have to overly bend to get to your shoe. I like this one because it’s also a dressing aid to help you with coats and things like that. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!

Questions

Do you use a shoehorn or a boot pull now?
What do you like or not like about it?
Do you recommend any in particular?
How long do you need it to be?
When you buy shoes, do you want the shoehorn included or just buy it separately to keep costs down?

Feel free to drop me your thoughts, or comment below. LegsLikeMine@gmail.com.