Bike Fit Question - Leg Length Discrepancy

[badgercat]

Badgercat,

Thanks so much about the information about the Chaco's. I think they look mighty cool, and it's great to know that they work people to do heel lifts or orthotics. Did you get a set of Chaco's with lifts from the cobbler in the FAQ? If so, how long did it take between ordering them and receiving them?

Mine did come through David, the one listed in the FAQ. I don't remember exactly how long it took... I went back and forth with him over email and telephone a few times before deciding to go through with it. I want to say, though, that from the time I said "go," to the time I had them in hand, was about 10 days.

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.

I was so clueless about how common leg length discrepancies were, that I didn't realize you could have things like this done at local shops until my Chaco started to separate at the toe a little bit. I brought it in to be re-glued and the guy said he would have done the lift differently and better. David's work isn't perfect... I definitely wouldn't have minded having a little more rocker at the toe, for example (these are things that I just didn't know to ask about back then...), but for my first pair of professionally lifted shoes, I've definitely gotten a lot of miles and happiness out of them.

KnottedYet, can you still get resoles and such done on 'third-party' lifted Chacos just the same? I've been thinking about investing in another pair in a different style so I have something to wear when mine are wet from being washed.

At some point in my life, when my finances (and my taste in shoes) are more stable, I definitely want to have permanent lifts put into more of my shoes... it's just such a better way to walk/stand around than lifting one heel with the same lifts I've been switching in and out of shoes since I was in high school.

I guess I didn't realize that most of Chaco's manufacturing was done abroad these days...mine say "assembled in Colorado" on the tags, but it never occurred to me that that's not the same as "made in Colorado." A similar thing happened with Timbuk2 (messenger bags that I love for bike commuting), though it seems like they're still pretty committed to high quality products and good working conditions, I like the idea of my stuff not having to be transported across the globe--carbon footprint and all that.

[KnottedYet]

They're not even assembled in Colorado any more. As of June this year, all manufacturing stages are done in China.

Chaco repair is still in Paonia, though.

One of the advantages of having your local repair shop do the lifts is they can see you walk and customize the lift to you personally. David does his work at a distance and to a standard model. My shoe dude, for example, could see that I get a lot of my power in my stride from my toe-off, so he knew I'd need a scored area at the metatarsal heads and a definite taper/rocker to the toe.

Chaco stands by David's work, I wouldn't knock it!

I haven't had Chaco do any resoling yet (my 10 year old Z1's need new soles). Most of my problems have been dog-meets-sandal related... I'm thinking of having Chaco just send me some new soles and getting my same guy to replace them. He has a less sexy and much cheaper 1/2 length lift he says he could make (though he doesn't think I'd like it as much). I might have him do that to my oldest sandals.

[badgercat]

melissam, I should have mentioned before that if you are thinking about ordering a pair, make sure you try on some pairs in a store and walk around for a while before you do! My local outdoor store in Wisconsin carried them, but they also sell them at REI. They don't come in half-sizes, and I wear 8.5 normally and wound up with an 8 in Chacos, but my old roommate usually wore a 6.5 and wears a 7 in Chacos. It seems like their fit is as dependent on your arches as the overall length of your foot... I actually almost wound up with a 7 Wide, but decided I needed a little bit more bumper for my clumsy feet.

KnottedYet, It sounds like your local guy is a gem... was he a lucky find, or did you have to shop around before you found someone you really liked working with? May I ask, generally, how much you've paid for your custom lifts at a local shop? I'm just trying to get a ballpark for when I start looking for a local place out here to maybe get lifts in some running shoes, hiking boots, etc.

The ability to be re-soled is super-important to me... I wear down my shoes at the heel very quickly, so I think my Chacos will need to be resoled every couple of years with as much as I wear them. I remember asking David about it back when I was ordering and he said when lifted shoes got sent in for re-soles, Chaco would do the 'regular' shoe, and then forward them on to him to re-sole the lifted one. I might contact their service folks directly and ask if they'd handle shoes with a "non-David" lift. Your idea of just getting soles from Chaco and having your local guy do it is a good one as well.

I'm wondering if it would be reasonable to contact David and say "Hey, I've been pretty happy so far, but would be a lot happier if..." and see if there's anything he can do to make my shoe more flexible. On the one hand, it seems crazy to wait over a year to bring up issues like that, but on the other hand, I didn't really know any different back then! And he was very flexible back then and told me he stands behind all his work...

Anyway, as this thread was originally about LLDs as they relate to cycling... um... well... oops.

[KnottedYet]

I cycle in my Chacos!
(there, now it's cycling related again!)

The shoe repair shop I went to does a lot of work for the orthopedic surgeons and podiatrists in Seattle.... so he's not cheap, but it does seem to be worth it! My work of art lift was $50. A half-length lift would be about $20 or $30. He says he could also lift my Keen sandals and shoes, but they're ok with the adhesive lift-stacks I have in them now. I took in a bunch of shoes and he told me which ones would be good lifted and which ones would melt or fall apart.

Other repair shops would charge less, but I really like this guy. My LLD is pretty minimal (1/2 inch) so I get by with in-shoe heel lifts or just go without for the most part.