texass4 said:
Sidi mega width shoes have been recommended, but no one stocks them, so I can't try w/o ordering and returning.
Any ideas at all would be appreciated.
I have really flat feet, but my footprints are at least triangular. I definitely recommend getting a shoe that has the least built-in arch you can find. I found the Specialized BG shoes to have much too much, and I can't tolerate the whole built-in wedge business. The only shoes I've tried in the last few years that I really liked were Pearl Izumi and Sidi Mega. I'm off Pearls because they held up so poorly.
I'm just breaking in a set of Megas, and I like them a lot. They're what I've been after, in that they have very little arch support built in. There's a little, but except for the Pearls, as little as I've found in the last five years. They are definitely a lot wider than the standard Sidis, but the width all seems to be at the ball of the foot and forward. If you have a lot of extra width between the ball of the foot and heel, I'm not sure they'd be much help.
FWIW, I sized my Megas by trying on my wife's regular Genius 4s (she has big feet and I have small ones). I could get them on, but my toes were crowded--not in length, just mashed against each other because the toe box is so narrow. So I ordered the same size in Mega (got Genius 5s instead), and they are perfect.
So if you want to consider Megas, go try regular Sidis in the same model. If you find a pair that fits everywhere except a crowded toe box, you're probably good to go with the same size in Mega. If you are having other fit issues (like too tight across the instep), going Mega probably won't help you.
And not to get in the middle of the pushy-shovey you and djg are beginning to have, but I'd say you could do a lot worse than to look into custom shoes. I'm pretty hard to fit, and while I haven't had custom shoes done yet (I considered it a couple of times when my feet were particularly bad), I can say that the custom clothing and bike frame I have were worth every cent I paid. Not only do the clothes fit WAY better, they actually still fit well after gaining or losing weight--not the case with off the rack. And the custom frame, well, I can hardly describe how nice it is. If your shoe-buying life is a nightmare, and I imagine it is--my case isn't as bad as yours from the sound of it, and I've been plenty desperate--then you could improve your life a lot with a custom shoe or two if you can swing the cash.
Can't help you with the duck foot thing, since my feet go the OTHER way.