Made to Last

Because we grow up in a culture where thongs are a summer must have and have made a habit out of walking around barefoot, it has helped to shape Aussie feet to be flatter and wider than average, especially when compared to most European countries. In fact, Australian feet are far more similar to other island nations; Japan, New Zealand and countries in the Pacific Islands

So, how does having wide feet affect what boots you should be wearing?

We see three main pillars that are affected by wearing shoes that are not the right width for your feet, comfort, performance, and protection. It’s the three pillars we have shaped our footwear around.

If you’ve ever experienced the pain of trying to fit a substantial hoof into a pair of thin European boots, you don’t need telling how uncomfortable it can be. Blisters, pain and lost toenails are all symptoms of not having the right fitting boots. With Men’s stocking in both a wide fitting 2E and extra wide 4E Jet III, as well as a D width for our Women’s Jet III, XBlades gives your toes the breathing space they need whilst the neoprene lining helps prevent them crashing into the edges of the shoe.

At an elite level, there are physiotherapists and podiatrist working non-stop to ensure the NRL and AFL stars are well looked after in their footwear. Despite this many players still choose the wrong boots, against the wishes of their podiatrists. Not knowing about fit and comfort, therefore, has lead to players wearing boots that may actually be harming their performance, research has shown that players wearing uncomfortable boots often had poor performances. Further to this, poorly fitted and uncomfortable boots have also been shown to have negative impacts when it comes to injury prevention.

Because of these key principles of our footwear, we have made an effort to ensure we have lasts that fit the unique shapes of feet we see playing Australian sport. Our extremely popular 4E fit of Jet in past years has been a welcome relief to footballers all over Australia, New Zealand, parts of Europe and now even Japan, where wide feet were not well looked after before XBlades. In 2019 we’ve bought in a slightly narrower (although still wide) 2E fitted Jet III boot to ensure that customers who found our 4E last too wide were not missing out!

In 2018 we introduce a narrower Women’s D last, the first brand to do so, which helped to combat issues of poorly fitting boots in elite women’s sport, you can read more about that development here.

Ultimately we are committed to ensuring that when you lace up your next pair of XBlades boots, you can have the confidence that they will be the most comfortable and best fitting you will have ever owned.