Bont Shoes -- experiences...fit...?

[ny biker]

And Nike Frees are relatively wide -- or at least they were until recently. I could wear the Free Run+ 3 in women's, but when they discontinued that shoe and replaced it with the Free 5.0 they completely changed the fit. The sole is the same, but the upper is WAY narrower. Fortunately the men's fits about like the women's used to fit. Not sure how the Free 4.0 or 3.0 fit. I had always heard those were narrower. I must say I miss my NB 902s. They came in wides and the women's wides were WIDE! Then NB changed all their lasts from SL-1 to PL-1 and I haven't had any luck with any of their shoes since.

Why do they do this??? WHY WHY WHY??? I wore NB running shoes for decades, literally, and loved them. After my ankle surgery they were the only shoes I could wear without pain. And then suddenly they changed the lasts so that now they all feel like there are big rocks under the balls of my feet. I had to get rid of a nearly-new pair of shoes that cost something like $130 because they hurt so much.

I did eventually find one pair of NB cross trainers that I can still wear. I don't run, just need good support for long walks and gym workouts, so the cross trainers are okay for me. But they are leather, not the airy mesh of the running shoes, so my feet get hot in them. I went back to the NB store to see if they had a more-mesh shoe with the same last, but they didn't have anything. Boo.

I tried some Nikes (Air Pegasus maybe?) and they seemed okay at first but after wearing them a while I developed terrible pain in my left foot from having my toes crammed into shoes that were too narrow. Even the wide version was too narrow. Though I had never had pain from my Sidis before, once the Nike caused my left foot to hurt the Sidis made it hurt, too. Which is how I wound up with the Bontragers.

BTW I do prefer the D width for the NB shoes. I might be able to get away with the regular width, but I like to give my feet plenty of room when I'm working out.