Why Our Rare And Famous Shoe Shape Corrects Pain

Maybe the Healthiest Shoe on Earth

There is no shoe as orthopedically shaped like this in the world because it is so difficult to make. I had almost 20 years of knee, foot, hip and other pain that went away after 4 months of wearing these shoes and I am confident our shoes can help with your pain too because our aasymmetrical last is swung to one side and that helps mimic a healthy barefoot step. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. These could easily be the least expensive shoes you'll ever own, when you consider the cost of a single doctors visit.

Statistics on lower body pain and related medical visits in the U.S.
Infographic on lower body pain statistics in the U.S. caused by bad shoes

Our last shape is based on the rare, brutally difficult to make, 1st and 2nd of the 6 generations of the The Munson Last. In 1912, Dr. Munson wrote that his shoe corrected and eliminated almost 100% of foot problems in the U.S. Army. It was so comfortable and successful at healing medical problems and keeping feet strong that hundreds of millions of boots were made on the Munson Last between 1912 and 1970. There are some good shoes made on the common and bulky later generations, but ours is highly corrective in nature and has been re-sculpted for elegance.

After learning here why so many shoes put our bodies out of alignment and cause so much of our pain, you will know what to look for and what to look out for when buying shoes for the rest of your life.

The Most Important Key To A Quality Shoe: The Last

Is Your Suspension Out Of Alignment

An old foot doctor explained to me that when the suspension of the car gets out of alignment, parts sag and lean and that causes a chain reaction of unnatural wear and tear and damage. The foot is the suspension of the body and when a shoe causes the arch to get weak and sag, then the feet lean, which causes wear and tear and is the root cause of most foot, ankle, knee, hip and back pain. But what is it about a shoe that causes the arch to get weak? Great question. Keep reading.

Diagram of a human body with lines depicting healthy arches and alignment.
Illustration of a human body out of alignment because of weak arches

The Master List Of Pain Caused By Bad Shoes

  • Someone told me that my knee pain was a symptom of overpronation. So, I searched, "Overpronation symptom" and found dozens of medical websites with short lists of pain that overpronation was tied to. I compiled all of those lists into one master list here. Basically, it is the way people walk that demonstrates to the world that their arches are sagging and weak. High arch is a weak arch too, but called underpronation.

A muscular man with his back turned, holding his lower back in discomfort.

By the way, there are some bad doctors out there who are not interested in fixing the root cause of why you have pain, but are more interested in selling you something that they make money on, like arch support inserts or dumb looking shoes that take the pain away while you’re using them but don’t fix the reason why you have the pain in the first place.

A doctor in a white coat dreams of a red sports car.

What I am boiling down for you here is what I learned over 3 years of indepth study of medical literature and videos and from interviewing Foot, Ankle, Knee, Hip and Back surgeons so you can understand it in a simple and plain way. The more people who know, the more pain they can avoid or correct for free. I hope this helps you so you can help others, regardless of if you buy our shoes or not. But don't misunderstand me, I do want you to buy our shoes. This isn't a hobby. But I believe this information all in one place will change the world.

Sketches of various styles of boots in black and white.

10 Reasons WHY Bad Shoes Cause Pain and Our Shoes Correct Pain

In 1908, Dr. Munson and the Shoe Board were tasked with fixing the problem in the U S. Army of 38% of soldiers having serious foot problems. Over the next four years, they x-rayed, examined and analyzed the feet of 2000 soldiers and tested thousands of different shoe shapes and finally came up with the most orthopedic shoe that essencially eliminated all foot problems in the Army. This is what he taught us.

Cause of Pain #1: The Big Toe Pushed to the Side

The most common root cause of pain in the feet, ankles, calves, knees, hips and back, is a weak arch that sags down and misaligns the body. That happens when the toe of a fashionable shoe is curved so it gently pushes the big toe in toward the middle toes. That pulls, stretches and over-extends the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the toe that are connected to the arch and that makes the arch weak. It's like when a stretchy bungy cord stays stretched out for long time. It loses it's elasticity and becomes weak. So it is with your arch. Our shoes were shaped to perfectly wrap around the anatomical form of your foot mimics a barefoot step and your arch stays strong.

In his famous 1912 book, The Soldier's Foot and the Military Shoe, Dr. Munson stated, "With respect to the vast amount of foot blemish now present in our army, all but a very small proportion of it is removable by the simple measure of selecting a shoe which closely resembles the normal contour of the average foot."

X-ray of a soldier's foot showing structural details and deformities.
Illustration of a foot with hallux valgus, bunion, and clubbed toes.

Solution:

Wear shoes where the toe curve starts after the tip of the big toe so the big toe isn't pushed in toward the second toe. Our shoes are built on the most famous and orthopedic last of all time, the Munson Last, that has a natural straight inner line from the center of the heel to the center of the toe before it curves over to the little toe, so the toe stays straight. We sculpted the last to be more beautiful though.

Dr. Munson wrote, "It was determined that the apparently slight changes made by the new military last and shoe in the shape of the sole have resulted in the shifting of the axis of the foot by approximately three quarters of an inch nearer normal at the toe. This change should…prevent the development of toe deformity and do much to ultimately rectify such of the latter as has occurred in other than very old cases. 

Diagram illustrating the soldier's foot and military shoe design.
Illustration of a foot with a straight inner line to design healthy shoes.

Cause of Pain #2 : Too Narrow Of Toe Box

Normal people take about 8000 steps each day and people who walk around town all day take about 20,000. That means we put our full weight down on one foot between 4000 to 10,000 times per day. When we press all of our weight down on one foot, the foot bones spread apart, sometimes up to half an inch. But if the foot bones don’t have space to spread out in a narrow toe box then that weakens the arch.

Our shoe is based on the Munson Last which has a wide toe box to allow for expansion and doesn't constrict the foot. 

Solution:

Wear unrestrictive flip flops and sandals or go barefoot as often as possible so your toes can spread back out. Wear shoes like ours that specifically boast a wider toe box, which increases stability and balance. In 1912, Dr. Munson wrote about his last, "It is a matter of observation of the Shoe Board that the foot of a recruit put in the army shoe tends to broaden, thicken and strengthen very materially after enlistment through use of a broader last and the foot development resulting from marching and other exercise."

Image of a military shoe and last for fitting.

Cause of Pain #3 : Arch Support Is Bad For You

Many doctors say that shoes with built in arch support or arch support inserts, shove the arch back up to its normal healthy position and temporarily put the body back into alignment, but they keep the arch fixed in one place and don't allow it to exercise and stay strong by extending and contracting. Therefore, the muscles atrophy and get weaker from total lack of motion, just like how arm muscles in a cast or leg muscles in a wheelchair get weak and lose mass from lack of movement. Inserts usually just treat the pain rather than work to strengthen the ligaments, tendons and muscles that make up the arch, which is usually the root cause of pain.  

Our shoes have zero arch support because Dr. Munson wrote, "Above all things, patent devices intended to support the foot arch should be avoided by soldiers with a tendency to weak or flat feet. These arch supports may give a sensation of relief when worn, but they relieve the symptom of discomfort at the expense of making the underlying cause of the latter much worse, for they splint and restrict the use of the very muscles upon the development and strengthening of which the regaining and preservation of the foot arch depends. Such arch supports are impossible of use in military marching, and once habituated to them, the wearer's feet are so much weakened that he is helpless without them."

Solution:

Wear shoes with absolutely no arch support and go barefoot as often as possible. That lets the arch expand and contract to return to normal strength. Here is a list of foot exercises to strengthen the foot. Because our shoes are designed with a narrow waist that wraps the side of the arch from above like a leather sock, it keeps it supported but lets it expand and contract to stay in place and to get strong. We couldn't find a factory in North America who could sew such a tight arch like ours.  

Of course, I'm not a doctor and certainly there are medical conditions that require inserts in super special circumstances but not for normal foot pain. The orthotics arch support insert business is a $2.3 Billion business each year in the U.S.

X-ray image of a human head and neck silhouette.

Cause of Pain #4: Shoes Too Short

When we press all of our weight down on one foot when we step, the arch naturally flattens and extends to absorb the shock and then contracts back to the arched form again. When the foot extends in length, in some people, it extends up to half an inch, but if the toes hit the tip of the inside of the shoe 8,000 times a day, it hurts the big toe and therefore hurts the arch that is connected to it.

Solution:

Our shoes are true to size according to the Brannock Device in all shoe stores used for measuring feet for size. Get your foot measured at a store and keep to that true size. It is fine to wear shoes that are a half size longer than you normally wear, especially if you have a weak high arch because in a healthy shoe, the arch will strengthen and go back to its normal length. But never go shorter, especially if you are on your feet all day, because feet flatten after all day standing on them and then contract to their resting position at night. Dr. Munson tested hundreds of soldiers to pick out their own shoe. 84% chose the wrong size. For some reason, most people want to wear shoes that are too short. Strange.

Cause of Pain #5: Heelstack Is Too High

The heel was designed to support most of the body’s weight and the rest of the foot is there mainly for balance. This is why Dr. Munson designed the military boot for millions of soldiers to wear with a 20mm high heel. He wanted the center of gravity to stay above the heel. It is recommended that runners have a zero drop on their shoes.

If the heelstack is too high, then that shifts more of our weight forward to be supported by the arch and that weakens it. The arch was not designed to support so much weight for long periods of time. And by changing the angle of the bone coming out of your ankle because you're leaning forward, that changes the angle that it goes up to your knee and then up to your hip socket. It can also make the pad on the ball of your foot, shift a little over time.

Dr. Munson wrote in his 1912 book, The Soldier's Foot and the Military Shoe:

"The heel must be low, since raising it will throw the center of gravity of the body forward on the foot, thereby bringing an undue amount of pressure on the foot arch which was never intended by nature to support it and may yield and flatten under the strain. Also it will force the foot forward in the shoe, bring undue strain across the instep, and, unless the shoe is very long, jam the toes to their injury against the front of the shoe. Finally, the plane of the lower face of the heel should correspond with that of the sole, so as to give the most secure bearing surface on standing. All these points have been considered in devising the new military shoe."

Solution:

Of course, you can wear your favorite pair of higher heelstack boots now and then. No biggie. Just don't live in them. The Barefoot Movement says to not have any heel drop at all. Dr. Munson did not agree and found that a short heelstack was just fine and millions of people's feet were corrected.

Cause of Pain #6: High Toe Spring

When the tip of the shoe is low to the ground, that is natural and keeps us from tripping and hurting ourselves. When the toe is curved up too high, that is not natural and it keeps the toes in an over-extended state all day long and so over-stretches the tendons, ligaments and muscles connected to the arch and makes the arch weak. And weak arches are the root cause of so much pain.

Dr. Munson insisted on low toe spring for his last and it worked. It kept the soldiers stepping safely and it didn't damage their feet.

Solution:

Again, don't go extreme and throw away all shoes that have a high toe spring. If you have some and love them, then don’t wear them for too many hours or days consecutively. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to lower the toe spring. Walk barefoot as much as possible.

Correct and incorrect saddle placement on a donkey.

Cause of Pain #7: Padding

A professor at Harvard and many other people say that barefoot or minimal padding is best for running. Others say it is healthy for two reasons. First, you know how when a karate guy chops a board in half with his hand? He can do it because he has been striking things over and over again and so has increased his bone and muscle density. A boxer can punch super hard because his wrists and bones are strong and dense from hitting a punching bag over and over again. You weaken the muscles and lessen bone density when you use padding in your shoes. Padding was rarely used in shoes before the 1970’s. Barefoot cultures obviously don’t use it either.

The second reason padding is bad in shoes is because a foot is like an ass. If you understand that the middle of its back is not designed to support a lot of weight, but its hips and legs are. then you'll sit on it differently and you won't end up on the ground with a sore arse of your own. Padding and cushion distribute the bodyweight so the whole foot supports it more evenly, including the delicate arch that isn’t designed to support much weight for prolonged periods. Cushioning in shoes actually amplifies the shock up the body. The math is really interesting.

Solution:

Go barefoot whenever you can. Look for shoes with no padding like ours and all other high end bespoke shoes and cowboy boots are made. Wear thick socks with a padded heel if you have to if your heel hurts because it is damaged or too weak.

Cause of Pain #8: Little or No Toe Flex

If the sole of the shoe is too stiff, then the toes aren’t allowed to flex and exercise much. The mechanics of a step are this (biomechanics). You step down on the outer side of the heel and as you move forward, the bodyweight goes from being supported by the heel to being supported by the outer side of the foot. As you keep leaning forward and raise your heel, the ankle rolls (pronates) a little toward the inside big toe side of the foot and when the bodyweight is in just the right spot, the toes push down into the ground and propel the body forward. The sole of the shoe needs to be flexible at the toes so they can flex and bend and push off or else they don’t get exercise and so get lazy and weak and the arch that is connected to them. Our shoes have a perforated slab of thick leather inside below the insole to let it flex more at the toe.

Solution:

Don’t wear stiff shoes or shoes that have too thick of a sole for long periods of time or for consecutive days. Now and then is fine though. Do toe and foot exercises.

Cause of Pain #9: Too Much Weight

If a person is too fat or constantly carrying a lot of extra weight, it's like a pickup truck with a ton of bricks in the bed. It's okay to overload the truck now and then, but if it's everyday, the leaf springs will permanently flatten. To much constant weight on the arches keeps them extended and doesn’t let the arch to get back into its contracted resting position. That’s why standing is more tiresome than walking. It’s like keeping a bungy cord or rubber band fully stretched out for a year. When you finally let it relax, it’s weaker, longer and not as elastic as it was before.  

Solution:

Stop eating, live off the land in the Yukon until the weight is gone, ingest tapeworms, vomiting up your foot after eating or contract Dengue fever, all help with weight loss, but some would object.

My nephew was pushing 400 lbs. and is now only eating meals 3 hours apart that are the size of his fist, which is the size of your stomach, but he eats anything he wants. He's dropping lots of weight and says it's the first thing that he can live with. Eat very little after sunset or before sunrise because of the Circadian Rhythm.

Cause of Pain #10: Not Much Walking

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not enough to go to a gym and just hang out or to coast on a bicycle down the mountain on a 15 mile long downhill road. You have to use your muscles if you want to keep them strong. In the same way, it’s not enough to just put good shoes on your feet. You have to walk in them so your feet get the chance to push back and flex and resist the pressure and stress of your bodyweight so they stay strong. Even if they have all of the characteristics of a good shoe, which are: a wide toe box, a straight inner line to keep the big toe straight, they are long enough, have a low heel, don’t have too much toe spring, have no arch support, have no or minimal padding and they let the toes and foot muscles flex and move, but you don’t walk in them, then your arch will get weak and your feet will lean in toward the middle and your body will get out of alignment.

Solution:

Take the steps. Park far away from the front door. Walk in our shoes because they make you walk in a natural way as if you were barefoot. Get a friend to hold you accountable so you’ll go on any length of walk 5 days a week. Pay them $20 if you don’t go out 5 days a week to intentionally walk. But you can skip as many days as you want if you call them to ask because of something unavoidable. Commit to at least going around the block 5 days a week. You’ll go further, but the hardest part is just to start.

The Munson Last: Resculpted For Elegance

The Rarest and Healthiest Shoe Shape on Earth

The Munson Last is the most consequential and influential last in history. Hundreds of millions of boots were made on one of the 6 generatoins of The Munson last for all U.S. military from 1912 to 1970 and eliminated almost 100% of foot problems in the military. Unlike most modern lasts that prioritize aesthetics over anatomy, It was designed to mirror the actual shape of the human foot under motion, which is the reason these boots feel broken in faster and keep the body in healthy alignment.

The Start of the Munson Legacy

In 1892, Dr. Edward Lyman Munson graduated from Yale School of Medicine where he studied Physiology and the Biomechanics of the foot. He joined the Army in 1892 and In 1908, was tasked with developing a new shoe for the entire U.S. military to address the huge problem of foot pain among both enlisted and officers. Dr. Munson notes, “The army which marches best, other things being equal, is the successful army. Mobility is the key of military success…” The mililtary genius, Colonel Forrest, defined the art of war as "getting there first with the most men".

From 1908 to 1912, Dr. Munson and his Shoe Board nerded out on feet. They started their work by having a battalion of infantrymen march 8 miles, rest 24 hours and march back 8 miles. Dr. Munson recorded,  

“On the first day, 30 per cent, and on the last day 38 per cent, of the command were found to have severe foot injuries, some requiring hospital treatment. The feet of many others were reddened and sore from this short march, and a few more miles of marching would have converted these painful areas into blisters, and small blisters into large ones.”

Over the next 4 years, they X-rayed, examined and analyzed the feet of 2000 soldiers while barefoot, shoed, sitting, standing and with and without 40 lb. packs on their backs.

By the late 1800s, orthopedically shaped shoe lasts with various biomechanical shoe features had started to be developed in the New England area. Dr. Munson examined and tested thousands of the most physiologically correct boots of the time on soldiers to see what worked and what didn’t and then tweaked them to eventually come up with, what many say is the most comfortable, orthopedically sound and most physiologically correct shoe ever made. They were built on the Munson Last.

The Soldier's Foot and the Military Shoe

In 1912, to confirm their work, the Shoe Board sent eight companies (about 1137 soldiers) on a march of 120 miles over a 9 day period, but only 379 of the men wore the newly perfected Munson shoe. Of those wearing the new shoe, Munson wrote there were zero foot problems.

“The full equipment, with ammunition, was carried. Not a single man failed to complete each day's march as a result of foot injury…The feet of each man were inspected by the board after each day's march, and even the slightest pinhead blister was noted on the man's record card. Many of the injuries so reported were so trivial that at inspection on the following day they were not apparent and even their former location could scarcely be determined.”

Dr. Munson wrote several times in his book The Soldier’s Foot and the Military Shoe that not only did the newly designed boot help the soldier’s feet get back to their original strength, but they also corrected almost 100% of pre-existing foot problems from soldiers wearing ill-formed shoes that deformed their toes and flattened or weakened their arches and ankles. Dr. Munson wrote,

“Given a shoe as anatomically correct as the one last adopted… the problem of foot injuries should largely cease to trouble in our army.”

“But the Shoe Board, in its study of thousands of feet, had naturally arrived at fairly positive conclusions of its own in respect to the average amount of foot deformity present in American soldiers, and the extent to which its natural correction under favorable conditions might reasonably be anticipated.”

The Honor to the Man

This new boot was so successful that the U.S. military used it from 1912 to about 1970 because it gave them such an advantage in war and likely saved the lives of thousands of soldiers and clearly helped us get more soldiers to the battle lines to win. Every war movie or photo of a U.S. soldier you see from those years is wearing a Munson boot.

A little known fact, during WWII, the Germans sent spies into England to try to steal their military’s last, which was based on the principles of the Munson Last and shoe he shared with our allies there. In fact, the British Crown was so grateful for General Munson, they honored him with The Most Honourable Order of the Bath for his contribution to Great Britain, which is rarely awarded to a non-British citizen. The U.S. Government honored him with the Distinguished Service Medal back when that was rare. Where he did his work in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, they honored Dr. Munson by naming a hospital after him, The Munson Army Health Center.

Anatomical Shape And Biomechanical Features

Most lasts are shaped only for the shoe to look good and then expect the feet to form to the shape of the shoe, without concern for the anatomy - the shape of the ligaments, tendons and muscles as a whole, and biomechanics - the way the foot was designed to move. But Dr. Munson was not trying to win any fashion contests. He designed his physiological last to fit around the anatomical shape of the foot with a slight twist to mimic and encourage the natural movement of a barefoot step.

And since Munson designed the shape of the shoe to wrap around the form of the foot like a sock, it didn’t require a break in period and was comfortable from step one, except for, in some cases of soldiers with flat or high arches, Munson recorded that it took a little time for some of the soldier’s feet to correct back to their natural strength and shape, but once they did, the complaints went away.

The 9 Key Distinguishing Features of the Munson Last and Shoe

All of these intentional features kept the bones in perfect alignment and the foot and arch muscles strong. The last thing Dr. Munson wanted was for the ligaments, tendons and muscles to stretch out and become weak in the arch.

  1. A wide toe box for the foot to expand and contract.

  2. A straight inner line from the heel to the toe so the big toe is not pushed out of alignment.

  3. It is a twisted last that makes the foot step like it would when barefoot.

  4. A snug heel to lock in the foot to reduce injuries.

  5. A snug waist to work with the heel to fix the foot in place.

  6. A very narrow arch so leather wraps and supports the arch from above while allowing it get strong through exercise with every step.

  7. A low toe spring so it doesn't keep the foot in an over-extended state yet not so flat that it hits rocks and trips.

  8. Low heelstack so the majority of support would not shift forward to be over the fairly delicate arch.

  9. Zero arch support from below so the arch could still expland and contract all day long to stay strong.

Biomechanical Characteristics

But it wasn’t just the anatomical last that mattered. He was concerned with the interconnected movements (biomechanics) of the feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back that he had learned about at Yale School of Medicine. He knew the muscles, tendons and ligaments couldn’t be pushed or stretched out of their natural locations and they needed to stay strong by exercising and functioning, like they naturally do when we walk barefoot, and the toe bones needed to stay in perfect alignment with the foot bones. Dr. Munson was adamant that the sole not be too stiff and that the toe area be flexible so the muscles would not atrophe from lack of movement.

Dr. Munson wrote,

“It is quite apparent from the foregoing that the foot is not at all the rigid structure popularly supposed, to be carelessly jammed into any sort of container, irrespective of the size, shape, and character of the latter. On the contrary, it is seen to be a highly developed member of complex formation and intricate function, every factor of which needs thoughtful consideration in determining its proper covering.”

So, Dr. Munson built a biomechanically correct shoe around the anatomically correct Munson Last by incorporating the 8 key elements the Shoe Board confirmed make an orthopedically sound shoe. He documented these in his book, which, everytime I read it, I feel like I am reading the work of my long lost brother.

14 Reasons Why More Companies Or The U.S. Military Don't Use the Munson Last?

So, if the Munson last is so amazing, why doesn’t everybody use it? There are several reasons:

  1. We only found one single factory in Europe who was up to trying to make it a shoe on the Munson Last. They said it was the most difficult shoe they had ever worked on and was extremely difficult to shape a shoe around it. That's why there were 6 generations of it. They had to make it easier for manufacturing.

  2. There hasn’t been demand because the importance of its orthopedic shape has generally been lost until now.

  3. Because the lace up officers style boot was seen as an old man’s out of fashion shoe starting in the 1960s. That style was no longer in demand and so the factories that were tooled up and able to make them in volume shifted to making more en vogue dumbed down shoes and the information on how to rightly make these boots was generally lost.

  4. The U.S. Military shifted contruction to a "Jungle boot" which was more suitable for the wet and steamy Vietnam War where boots needed to dry out faster. When that war was over, the new style of boots were being easily made and the value of the anatomical shape and the biomechanical features had been lost. Foot problems have since returned to the military, along with all of the problems of the feet, knees, hips and lower back that the Munson boots had eliminated. Hopefully, someone in charge will read this and bring back the Munson Last to the Military.

  5. People think they’re ugly. There are six generations of the Munson last. Approx. 1912, 1920, 1931, 1943, 1949 and 1959. The first three generations of the last had a more elegant flatter toe to wear in battle and also to be polished and worn with a dress uniform. We know of no other existing early generation Munson Last anywhere. The latter 3 generations of the Munson last are the only ones that shoe designers can find to form shoes around and those lasts have a very round and bubbly clown shoe toe. They are good shapes, but were modified to fit thicker socks for extreme cold weather in WWII and the Korean War and were dumbed down for ease of manufacturing. Our shoes are based off of the attractive 1st and 2nd generations of the highly orthopedic Munson last.

  6. Greed. There is more money to be made by selling large volumes of low priced low quality shoes than small volumes of high quality shoes, so not many people offer them.  

  7. The last is asymmetrical and twisted to swing to one side unlike all other lasts that are nearly perfectly symmetrical for ease of manufacturing. Our shape requires a high level of skill for the leather to be formed around the last by hand (handlasted) instead of being quickly and inferiorly machine lasted and handlasting takes longer, which is more expensive to do. To read why technically handlasting makes a shoe stronger, click here.

  8. Not many factories know how to handlast even though it makes the leather look better for years longer. Because the firmness and elasticity of leather varies with each individual piece. It should not be uniformly stretched around a last because it may be overstretched and made thinner or not stretched enough, only to be stretched out later with use. But rather, the amount of stretch should be determined by the judgment of the craftsman with what he feels as he is tugging on the leather.  

  9. The last has a very necessarily narrow arch which requires high skill and expensive specialized machinery to sew with consistent quality.

  10. There is a part of the shoe that takes a lot of tedious concentration to build in for the twisted last to function as it was intended and very few people in the world even know it’s a thing.  

  11. Lasting machines are built for symmetrical lasts and ours is asymmetrical and curves from the outside in to the straight healthy inside line to keep the bones in alignment and is twisted, so the machines just can’t do it.

  12. Most designers create a foot box and then insert the shape into it while we create a leather sock to wrap around the foot.

  13. Machines won’t wrap leather around the arch like ours do.

  14. Our last was sculpted to be beautiful and curvatious so it would wrap the foot and that’s hard to build.  

Most just take a last that’s available and make it work. Historical lasts in their archive, none will be next level. Where are you going to find the orthopedic sculptor to carve you something beautiful. One in England. One in Germany. Some in Italy. They will pick you out one from their archive.

Our shoe is based off of the 2nd and 3rd generation military officer’s last, but Julian sculpted some slight adjustments to make the toe look more elegant while maintaining the all important orthopedic shape of the earlier lasts.

Our Beautified Elegant Shape Tried and True

Little did I know, my friend Julian, who was guiding me in our shoe designs, had been refining this most popular, tried and true and anatomically correct shoe last ever created to form our shoes around. He had resculpted certain parts of it over and over again from 2013 to 2025 to give it more elegance without detracting from the orthopedic magic. It is called the Munson Last and hundreds of millions of shoes and boots have been made on it for a reason. No other last even comes close to it for health and comfort.

Munson Family

Since my name is Dave Munson, I looked up my DNA ancestry and found that Brigadier General Edward Lyman Munson and I are relatives, traced back to his birthplace, New Haven, Connecticut. But he only had one son, who died in 1967 without having a son of his own. After all of that diligent and world changing work, Dr. Munson had no one to carry one his work. It immediately became clear that it was me who was destined to carry on the Munson legacy and remind as many people as I can of the hugely significant contribution he gave to the U.S. military and the world. Munsons around the world should be proud.