Mother of Invention: Rain Shoes

Elena has, technically, two pairs of shoes.

E's footwear requirements are pretty strict. Her main pair of shoes are the ones she wears with her AFOs; the shoe fits the AFO, not her foot. It has to be wide to accomodate the brace, and has to be able to be fastened tightly to try to keep her feet from wiggling out of the shoe OR the brace (so, no flimsy straps, elastic slip-ons, or laces). They also need to be light (Hatchback shoes are made to accomodate AFOs-but they are twice as heavy as a normal sneaker). Elena also has a leg length discrepancy; her right leg is longer than her left. We put a lift in-sole on her left shoe (we can't put it inside the shoe, b/c there is not enough room with her AFO) to equalize her leg lengths. In order to do this, the tread must be thick enough to accomodate the lift.

All this makes for a VERY expensive pair of shoes--and that doesn't even include her AFOs. Luckily for us, Elena gets a new pair of shoes about every 5-8 months, depending on how much she's grown.

Her sneakers (the shoes she wears without her AFOs in many of the PT videos) also have a lift in-sole, as well as customized arch supports. The arch supports were designed to try to keep E from excessively pronating her feet, especially on the right; our orthotist did not believe they would help much, but said they wouldn't hurt. Since Elena is typically not flat in her shoes, at least when she is moving (dynamic tone + contractures), the arch supports cannot do their job. Still, I think it was worth trying. In any case, these second pair of shoes are also quite expensive due to the LLD and the arch supports. A better sneaker for Elena would also include some ankle support (like a stiff high-top shoe, with the same thick, hard sole).

That doesn't leave us many options for dressing up.

But, on a less superficial tangent--what about the weather?

Rain, snow, and excessive heat are a real problem when it comes to E's footwear. For snow, one of the moms on a newsgroup I belong to mentioned A SHOE BY Circo (Target Brand) and they were fantastic, at least for putting on over her AFOs (E has a hard time moving in snow, for obvious reasons as well as the weight of the boots).

Rain, water, and mud have been a real pain. So, I had to become an inventor.

I needed some kind of rain boot that was 1) cheap, 2) would fit over E's AFOs AND shoes (as she'd be going to school), 3) had traction, 4) weren't too big or heavy, 5) and that would protect her shoes from getting wet and/or disgusting. I liked the idea of an overshoe, but all overshoes either wouldn't squeeze over her AFO + shoe or required E to "point" her toe to get into the boot (impossible while wearing her AFOs). So I got the idea of having the overshoe being an "overtread"--and VOILA!

Using this ingenious product called Cleatskins (marketed to put over sports cleats to prevent them from dirtying up a car), and a little "gaiter" type of "collar", here's E's rainshoe!

Cleatskins alone


cleatskins on shoes


I thought this idea of using a plastic bag would be great--and super cheap, too. Turns out it doesn't work. When E wears the bag (with a velcro strap around the calf to keep it from falling down), the silicone slips off the bag and falls off. So, I need to glue/sew/strap on a waterproof fabric upper to the cleatskins. That's okay...I"ll attach this picture to this post once I do it.