Quote Originally Posted by badgercat View Post
Hope no one minds the bump... I'm a new forum member with a 9/16" LLD, and it's nice to see such a wealth of info out there, so I thought I'd chime in with my personal experience.

I think 9/16" is probably too much to be correcting just at the heel (gives me terrible posture, but does help with the hip pain), but I do use heel lifts most of the time. The difference is in my femurs--I just grew that way. I also have a mild-moderate S-curve scoliosis, so there might have been some causative effect of one on the other, who knows.

This isn't necessarily cycling related, but the last post about sandals makes me want to put in a good word (I'm not affiliated with the company at all, just a happy customer ) about Chaco. They're a great company (socially and ecologically pretty responsible) that makes quality footwear. Chacos were pretty popular where I went to college (Madison, WI) and I was always so sad that I couldn't wear them because I couldn't envision how they'd work with a lift. Well, Chaco had thought of that already. They work with a cobbler in a neighboring town to their headquarters in Colorado to do custom lifts (between the footbed and sole) in a couple lines of their sandals. Since he works with Chaco, the lifts don't violate your warranty, and you can still send your sandals to Chaco for repairs, resoles, etc. (Basic info in their FAQ's here).

I got a pair of ZX/1's about a year and a half ago, and am SO happy with them. Unfortunately, the lifted shoe is significantly heavier and less flexible than the regular one, but to me, it's a small price to pay for being able to wear sandals again. I had avoided sandals for years because of my LLD, and now it's a rare day to find me not wearing my Chacos--my tan lines are pretty impressive. I took a couple pictures of my sandals (yes, I love them THAT MUCH) and then my camera battery died... if anyone's interested in what they look like lifted, I can upload them after I find my charger.
I got my Chacos lifted by my neighborhood shoe repair guy, cuz having Chaco do it was turning into a huge hassle. He crafted an amazing work of art, tapered and scored and curved, beautifully flexible and rockered.

Chaco makes great sandals. I'm kind of sad that they fired the folks in Paonia and now have everything made in China. Now I treasure my collection of Chacos made in the US. I have some that are over 10 years old and going strong!

There's no reason to assume that now their quality will go down at all, it's just kind of frustrating to see the pictures of Chaco "employees" on the website and in the catalogs, and know those pics are just propaganda now and all that is gone.

ETA: Chaco's repair service is fabulous, they've been great to me! Anything you've done to your Chacos, they can handle it.