Good day everyone,

The company I am contracted to has issued safety shoes to various employees who need them, over the years.

Though the comfort aspect has shown improvement over time, I continue to endure feedback from staff who confirm issued shoes are uncomfortable and painful.

The advice given to each employee who is issued with safety shoes is only ensure extra room around the toes and wear very thick socks to minimise any discomfort.

I myself suffered (silently!) with my latest shoes, the first month was painful and as a result both big toes now seem to be disfigured and sore after a days work. The size of shoe is good but my socks are of a regular type.

Does anyone out there recommend an effective method or even a particular brand/model of shoe which would counter the said symptoms, symptoms which to be honest in my memory have always persisted over the years with wearing safety shoes?
Maybe an additional item such as foot padding?

For the record I wear mine all day and wear them to and from home.
I would be extremely grateful for positive feedback as it is an issue I would like to overcome for all the employees.

Many thanks in advance and apologies for the graphic description of the current state of my feet!

David H has provided good advice - I would go with that

I have worn safety shoes/boots all my life and to date have only had 1 or 2 pairs of footwear that gave problems and those problems were sorted in a few days on each occasion

Remember many people do not want to wear such kit irrespective and will point out any form of discomfort no matter what and it is worth noting that those same people will wear any sort of foot wear for the sake of fashion despite the pain

It is an age old problem and one that the metal shank in the middle and the toe caps themselves do exacerbate. If you have specific requirements such as foundry boots, rigger boots then you are going to be a bit limited.
However all shoes do take a bit of wearing in and it has to be said in the main with safety shoes you do get what you pay for - sadly!
We in 2006 went through an exercise of getting 300 odd employees kitted out with safety shoes for the first time. I do not think there was an excuse we did not hear - my absolute favourite being a very trendy young lady telling me no way was she wearing them as 'they did not go with her crop top' to another who asked if she could have a pair to go with trousers and one to go with her skirts...!!!
We use the Arco catalogue (we use Uvex shoes a lot - they are dear but last well over the usual 12 mths and we have very few comfort issues) and work with the employees ensuring they sign for each pair. Any serious complaints we do refer to the works doctor...quite a few have been headed off at the pass that way - but by being a bit flexible in the type of shoe we issue (still maintaining total control of the styles and type) we have pretty much got rid of all complaints of discomfort

Hi Dave,

As a consultant to small/medium engineering companies’ safety boots are an issue I regularly have to deal with; over the years I have become fairly hard-faced about it.
Once I have agreement that something needs to be worn I tend to ask a cross section of employees what they like, within the price limits agreed. I find if their peers have been involved you get far fewer complaints. I’ll usually end up giving people a choice of up to three different styles, the ‘plastic’ toecap varieties are particularly popular being so light. Across probably several thousand employees I have only come across one that we had to go to the extremes of having something special made.
I’m not suggesting you’ll find it easy; there are always some imaginative reasons for why someone can’t wear them.
My approach is to be very sympathetic, explaining that since they are essential for the job we really do need to find a solution that allows them to stay employed. I ask them to see the nurse or their doctor and get written confirmation that normal safety shoes are a problem – very few do.
If I get this or am pushed I’ll allow them to buy something more expensive so long as they pay the extra, I’ve never known anyone come back the second year and want to do it again.
I guess I’m just cynical but no matter how long you spend going through the thousands of styles out there, someone will not like them.
By the way I wear safety shoes all day and yes when new they were painful, but so were my £250 walking boots for the first few weeks.

Arco safety footware randes from £25 to £125, maybe you could provide a more expensive option, even get the user to contribute to the cost if they want the expensive ones. I have a pair of CATs and they are like slippers.

Yot know what they say, you get what you pay for.