A specially designed range for people that need a bit more space in their walking boots.
The Meindl Comfort fit range is the largest collection of mens and womens wide fitting walking and outdoor footwear on the market with dozens of styles from super lightweight shoes to full leather solid mountain boots.
These boots and shoes form a core part of our range but from one model to the next there are significant differences in the fit as well as the function.
In this article we will take a look at some of the different families of fit to help you find the perfect wide fit boots or shoes for your feet.
The main families in the comfort fit range can be loosely divided in to two based on where they are manufactured.
Meindl produce a lot of footwear so they have multiple manufacturing bases but the main production comes out of Europe and Vietnam and these two areas produce different variations of the Comfort Fit.
The European made boots and shoes tend to be the more supportive models with the cork footbed and the full leather boots. They are typically wide at the fore foot and have a squarer toe box profile with more width at the little toe and a straighter big toe, but with less overal depth in the forefoot. This is ideal for wide and boney feet that don’t have a lot of depth or volume. For example, people that have bunions but otherwise have a slim or low volume foot.
The Vietnamese made footwear is usually the lighter mid boots and shoes, often nubuck or suede and fabric panel in construction and with the lighter sole units. These typically still have lots of forefoot width but are a slightly more pointed and taper a little towards the toe. They have much more depth in the forefoot though and boots such as the Journey mid gtx or the Rapide Gtx have more volume at the widest part of the foot than almost any other footwear we sell. this makes them a great choice for poeple that have a high volume foot which is wide and deep.
Both the European and Vietnamese made footwear have very good, snug, heel hold and lace up well in the mid foot, so they still hold peoples feet securely.
Even within the broader families of the comfort fit we find there are differences though!
The Meindl Meran is one of the more shallow of the European made boots so is brilliant for people wanting a relatively lightweight full leather boot that gives width at the front but still pulls in snug in the depth. Wheras boots like the Bernina, Asti lady mid, Tauern and Jura Gtx are still square and broad with good heel fit but give a bit more space at the forefoot.
There is one other family of Meindl Comfort fit that is important to know about, the Meindl Sulden and the related shoe are the widest and deepest boots we have ever sold and they have the European Squarer toe shape combined with the depth of the Vietnamese made boots. They are so roomy that they come with a 3mm red volume reducer fitted under the footbed as standard though by the time you end up in this boot you need all the space you can get some many people take it out! The footbed is the cork support one which also has quite a lot of volume to it so this can be exchanged for something thinner for maximum space. Couple this with the supple leather upper and leather lining (no Gore tex membrane to inhibit stretching) and you are off into a new world of space for your feet!
If you want to know even more of the subtleties withing the Meindl Comfort fit range then simply get in touch with us and we will be happy to help. We always advise you follow our How to measure your feet guide before getting in touch so we have some useful measurements to help you judge size etc.
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