Best Shoes for Hammer Toes and Claw Toes: Depth, Not Width

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The short answer

If you want the most measured headroom, it is the Brooks Glycerin 23. An independent lab recorded 27.7 mm of toe-box height, the tallest figure on this site, and noted the 23 gained roughly 4 mm of height over the 22. It also has the softest midsole on file at 29.2 on the Asker C scale, a 4.4 mm insole that lifts out, and four widths. $175.

If you need support as well as headroom, it is the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25. 26.6 mm of lab-measured height, a 4.9 mm removable insole, GuideRails, four widths, $155. A millimetre less room than the Glycerin and considerably more structure under the arch.

If your toes are rigid and sore and you want the upper to give, it is the Orthofeet Coral. The only shoe here that Orthofeet sells as extra depth, with a stretchable knit upper that moves over a raised knuckle instead of pressing on it, four widths from A to 2E, and a quarter-inch insole that comes out. $119, women’s.

And do the cheapest thing first: pull the insole out. Taking out a 4.4 to 6.35 mm footbed buys you more clearance over the knuckle than any upper material on the market. If that fixes it, you have saved yourself a shoe.

Hammer, claw, mallet: three names, one shoe problem

All three are toe deformities in the lesser toes, and they are named for which joints bend. The distinction matters less for shoe shopping than you would think, because all three produce the same two pressure points.

• Hammer toe. The middle joint of the toe bends down, so the knuckle rides up into the top of the shoe and the tip of the toe points at the insole.
• Claw toe. The toe lifts at the joint where it meets the foot and then curls down at both joints beyond it — so the toe claws into the insole. Claw toes travel with high-arched, cavus feet and with some neurological conditions, and they often come in a set rather than one at a time.
• Mallet toe. Only the last joint bends, so the tip and the nail take the pressure and the knuckle is spared.

Whichever you have, the shoe has two jobs: keep material off the raised joint on top, and take load off the ball of the foot, because a toe that is curled is no longer helping to carry weight and the metatarsal head behind it carries more. Those two jobs are why depth and a metatarsal pad do more here than width ever will.

Why toes buckle: the causes that change the plan

A hammer toe is the visible end of an imbalance. The small muscles inside the foot that hold a toe flat lose the contest with the long tendons that curl and lift it, and over months the toe settles into the bent position until the soft tissues around the joint shorten to match. What sets that off matters, because some causes keep acting after you have bought the right shoe.

• Family and foot shape. In the Framingham Foot Study, lesser toe deformities such as hammer and claw toes turned out to be highly heritable, alongside bunions. A long second toe, which has to bend to fit into the same shoe as its neighbours, is a common starting point.
• A bunion crowding the second toe. As the big toe drifts across, it pushes the second toe up and over, and a hammer second toe and a bunion often arrive together. See shoes for bunions.
• A failing plantar plate. The ligament under the joint at the base of the toe stretches or tears, and the toe begins to lift and drift. That is covered in its own section below, because it is the stage at which the most can still be done.
• A high, rigid arch. A cavus foot pulls the toes into a claw, often all of them at once. The useful work is then under the arch rather than over the toes — see supination and high arches.
• Nerve and joint disease. Diabetic neuropathy weakens the small muscles of the foot and is a classic cause of claw toes; inherited neuropathies and some neurological conditions do the same, and rheumatoid arthritis can dislocate the joints at the base of the toes. A deformity that appears quickly, affects several toes at once or comes with numbness or weakness deserves an examination before a shoe.
• Short, narrow or high-heeled shoes. Years in a shoe that is too short or too pointed, or that slides the foot forward on a heel, hold the toes bent for hours a day. Footwear is not usually the only cause, but it is the one you can change today.

The practical point is simple. If the toe is still flexible and the cause is still acting, the shoe is part of slowing it down. If the toe is rigid, the shoe is about comfort. The flexible-or-rigid test further down tells you which you are dealing with.

Why width is the wrong measurement, and everyone sells it anyway

Go into a shop with a hammer toe and you will be offered a wide fitting. It is the only lever most retailers have, and for this deformity it is largely beside the point: a 4E shoe with a shallow toe box still presses on the knuckle, because the knuckle sticks up.

What you actually need is one of three things, in this order:

1. Vertical clearance. Height between the insole and the underside of the upper, at the point where your toe knuckle sits.
2. An upper that gives rather than resists. A stretch knit with no stitched overlay crossing the toes. A seam over a knuckle will rub whatever the shoe measures.
3. A footbed you can remove. Every millimetre you take out of the bottom is a millimetre added at the top.

Width helps only when the toes are also splayed, or when you are dealing with a bunion or a tailor’s bunion at the same time, which is common. If you are wide as well, you want both — but buying width alone and expecting the rubbing to stop is the commonest mistake in this condition.

The measurement this page needs barely exists

We went through every one of the forty-five shoes on this site looking for a vertical figure. Here is the whole of it:

Two things follow from that table. The first is that the Glycerin 23 and the Adrenaline GTS 25 are the only two shoes anywhere on this site that you can buy on evidence rather than on feel for this particular problem, which is why they lead the page. The second is that for every other shoe, your hands are better evidence than any spec sheet, and the test below takes about twenty seconds.

The twenty-second depth test

1. Take the insole out and stand on it, on the floor, in your socks. Trace around your foot or mark where your longest toe ends. Put the insole back and look: if your toes reach past the insole’s own shape, the shoe is too short, and a short shoe jams the toe tips and makes a hammer toe worse.
2. Put the shoe on and press down on the top of the toe box with your thumb, right over the raised knuckle. You should feel air, not bone. If you can feel the joint through the upper while standing, you will feel it on a walk.
3. Run a finger inside across the vamp. Hunt for a stitched seam or a synthetic overlay crossing the line of your toes. That seam is what wears a hole in your sock and then in your skin, and no break-in period softens a seam.
4. Pinch the upper over the toes and let go. A knit that moves and comes back will accommodate a knuckle. A coated mesh or a leather panel will not.
5. Now take the insole out and try the shoe again. If that is the version that feels right, buy the shoe and buy a thinner replacement insole, or none. This is the single most useful thing you can do in a shoe shop with this deformity and nobody ever suggests it.

Flexible or rigid: the thing to check before you spend anything

Sit down and try to straighten the bent toe with your fingers.

If it straightens, the deformity is flexible, and more than footwear is on the table — taping, splints, toe separators and a metatarsal pad can all hold ground, and the shoe’s job is simply to stop re-provoking it. This is the stage at which to be most careful about what you wear, because the deformity is still negotiable.

If it will not straighten, it is rigid, and nothing non-surgical will change its shape. That is not a counsel of despair — a rigid toe in a shoe with real headroom and a soft upper is comfortable, and the goal becomes accommodation. It does mean that splints and separators are a waste of money at this stage, and that corns over the knuckle will keep coming back until the pressure is removed, by a deeper shoe or by surgery.

Claw toes behave slightly differently, because they are often driven by the arch rather than the toe. A high, rigid, cavus foot pulls the toes into a claw, and in that case the useful intervention is often under the foot — see shoes for supination and high arches — rather than over the toes.

When the second toe starts to drift: the plantar plate stage

Many second-toe hammer toes begin as a quieter problem underneath. The plantar plate is a thick ligament under the joint at the base of the toe, and it is what stops the toe lifting off the floor. When it stretches or tears, the warning signs come in a recognisable order:

1. Pain and sometimes swelling under the ball of the foot, just behind the second toe, often mistaken for a neuroma.
2. The toe stops touching the floor when you stand, or no longer grips a sheet of paper you try to pull from under it.
3. A gap opens between the second and third toes, or the second toe starts to drift towards the big toe and, eventually, to cross over it.

This is the stage worth catching, because the toe is still flexible and the ligament is still there to be protected. The footwear rules change slightly: a stiff-soled shoe or a rocker that stops the toe bending upward at push-off, a metatarsal pad placed just behind the sore joint, and taping that holds the toe down are the usual first steps, and a crossover toe is much harder to manage than a toe that has only begun to lift. Our guide to shoes for a plantar plate tear covers this stage in detail. If the second toe is visibly moving, see a podiatrist rather than waiting for it to settle.

The other half of the problem is under the ball of your foot

A curled toe does not carry its share of weight. The metatarsal head behind it does instead, and that is why so many people with hammer toes arrive complaining about the ball of the foot rather than the toes. The callus under the forefoot and the corn on top of the toe are the same problem seen from two sides.

So the complete footwear answer here has three parts, and only the first is a shoe:

• Headroom over the toes, as above.
• A metatarsal pad, placed behind the painful bone rather than under it — the mistake almost everyone makes, and it is the difference between relief and making it worse. Our metatarsal pad guide covers placement properly.
• A tall forefoot stack or a rocker, to reduce how hard the metatarsal heads are pressed in the first place. That is the whole subject of our page on ball-of-foot pain, and the two conditions are so often found together that it is worth reading both.

Which shoe for which foot

Where to start, by situation

Dress shoes, heels, boots and sandals

Most people with hammer toes can find one comfortable trainer. The trouble starts with everything else, because dress shoes are built on lower, more pointed lasts and the upper is usually leather or a stiff synthetic that will not give over a knuckle.

Dress shoes

Look for a round or square toe rather than a point, a soft leather upper with no decorative stitching across the toes, and laces or a strap so you can adjust the volume. A shoe repairer can stretch leather locally over one knuckle with a ball-and-ring stretcher, which is cheap and works better than most people expect. Taking the insole out helps a dress shoe in the same way as a trainer, but many dress shoes have only a thin, glued-in sock lining, so there is less height to gain.

Heels

A heel slides the foot forward and drives the toes into the front of the shoe, which presses the tips of the toes down and the knuckles up. The higher the heel, the more of that. If you wear heels, keep them low and broad, choose a strap or a lace that holds the foot back in the shoe, and save them for shorter occasions. A heel with a deep, rounded toe box is far kinder than a lower heel with a pointed one.

Boots

Boots have the same problem as dress shoes plus a higher, stiffer toe cap. Western boots with a pointed toe are among the hardest shoes to wear with a hammer toe. A boot with a round toe, laces to the toes and a removable footbed is the one to try on, with the sock you will wear in it.

Sandals

Sandals are often the most comfortable shoe of all for a hammer toe, because nothing presses on the top of the knuckle. The exceptions are a strap that runs straight across the knuckle and a flip-flop that makes the toes grip to keep it on, which is exactly the clawing movement to avoid. Choose a sandal with a back strap and front straps that sit behind the knuckles, and see our sandals guide for the footbed.

At work and in sport

Safety toes

A safety toe cap is a rigid ceiling over the toes, and a hammer toe knuckle that touches it will rub on every step of every shift. Toe caps differ in height and shape between makers and materials, so the only reliable test is to try the boot with your work socks and press down over each bent toe, as in the depth test above. Removing the footbed buys height under the cap as well as under a soft upper. If no standard boot clears your toes, extra-depth safety footwear exists and is worth asking a specialist retailer about.

Long shifts on hard floors

Feet swell through a shift, so a shoe that clears the knuckle at nine in the morning can press on it by mid-afternoon. Buy for the end of the day, and rotate two pairs so each has a day to recover its shape. See nurses and standing all day.

Running and sport

Running shoes are often the best-tolerated shoes for hammer toes, because many have soft, seamless knit uppers; racing shoes, with their low, close-fitting toe boxes, are often the worst. Downhill running pushes the toes into the front of the shoe, so lace firmly across the instep to hold the foot back. A bruised, blackened toenail on a bent toe usually means the toe tip is hitting the end of the shoe, which is a length or lacing problem; a dark mark you cannot link to a shoe, or one that does not grow out with the nail, should be examined. Court and field sports with quick stops do the same, and cleats and court shoes tend to be built narrow and low, so check depth over the toes before width.

Hiking

Long descents are the hard part. A hiking boot with a roomy, round toe box and a lacing system that locks the heel, trimmed toenails, and seamless hiking socks prevent most of the trouble. Our guide to hiking with plantar fasciitis describes a shop test for hiking footwear that applies here too.

Socks, sizing and lacing

• Measure both feet, standing, late in the day. Toe deformities are rarely symmetrical, and the worse foot decides the size. Length is measured to the longest toe, which with a bent toe may not be the one you expect.
• Leave room in front of the longest toe. A shoe that is too short jams the tips of the toes and pushes the knuckles further up. A thumb’s width of space at the front, standing, is the usual guide.
• Socks matter more than people expect. A thick or seamed sock takes up height over the knuckle and puts a ridge right where the corn forms. Thin, seamless socks give that height back. Tight socks pull the toes down into the bent position; a sock with room in the toe is better than one that grips.
• Lace to take pressure off the toes. Lacing that starts at the second pair of eyelets, rather than the first, leaves the toe box looser. If one knuckle is sore under the front of the lacing, skip that eyelet. And lock the heel with a runner’s loop at the top eyelets, so the foot cannot slide forward into the toes.

What to put away

• Anything with a stitched overlay across the toe box. This is the single most common cause of the corn, and it is visible from the outside.
• Shoes you buy half a size too small because they “feel snug”. A short shoe jams the toe tips into the end and drives the middle joint further up.
• Dress shoes with a tapered toe. The taper happens exactly where the deformity needs room, and no amount of stretching fixes a last that is the wrong shape. A cobbler can spot-stretch a leather upper over a specific knuckle, which is a real and underused option.
• Thin, flexible, minimal shoes, particularly for claw toes. A shoe that gives no support asks your toes to do the stabilising, and a clawing toe is a toe that has been asked to stabilise for too long.
• Toe-separator socks and spacers for rigid toes. They do nothing to a joint that will not move, and a tight separator on a numb foot can cause its own pressure sore. For flexible toes they are reasonable — see toe spacers.

What footwear cannot do

It cannot straighten a toe. A hammer toe is a joint contracture, and the structures holding it bent — the plantar plate, the tendons, eventually the joint capsule itself — do not lengthen because of a shoe. Splints and taping can hold a flexible toe straighter while they are on, and that is worth doing, but no shoe reverses the deformity.

It also cannot stop the deformity progressing if the cause is still acting. Hammer toes commonly follow a long-standing imbalance — a bunion crowding the second toe, a plantar plate that has failed, a cavus foot, an inflammatory arthritis, or a neurological condition. Footwear removes the pressure; it does not remove the cause, which is a reason to have a new or worsening toe deformity examined rather than simply accommodated.

And the honest limit on the numbers here. Two shoes out of forty-five have a measured toe-box height, from one independent laboratory, and no brand publishes the figure. Everything else on this page about depth is a design claim, a material description or a test you can do with your own hands — and we have labelled which is which throughout. If anyone hands you a ranked list of the deepest shoes on the market, ask them where the measurements came from.

Corns, calluses and the pads that help

A hammer toe usually announces itself through the skin before the joint. The pattern of corns and calluses is a map of where the shoe is doing the damage:

• A hard corn on top of the knuckle. The upper is pressing on the raised joint. The fix is height and a softer upper, not a stronger plaster.
• A corn on the tip of the toe, or a thickened nail. A claw or mallet toe is pressing its tip into the insole or the end of the shoe. Length, and a pad that props the toe up, help here.
• A soft corn between the toes. Two bent toes pressing against each other, often between the fourth and fifth. It stays soft because the skin there is moist, and it is easily mistaken for athlete’s foot.
• Callus under the ball of the foot. The curled toe no longer carries its share, so the metatarsal head behind it takes more. That is the half of the problem covered in the section on the ball of the foot.

Pads that help: a silicone gel sleeve or cap over the knuckle; a toe crest, a small cushion that sits under the bent toes and props them up so the tips stop digging in; a gel or foam separator between two toes that rub; and a metatarsal pad behind the sore bone for the callus underneath. Each one takes up room in the shoe, so try them in the shoe you will wear, not in your hand.

Pads to be careful with: medicated corn plasters contain an acid that does not distinguish between a corn and the healthy skin around it. The NHS advises people with diabetes, circulation problems or a weakened immune system, and older people, not to treat corns and calluses themselves at all. For them, a podiatrist should reduce the corn and pad the toe. For everyone else, a corn that keeps coming back is telling you the shoe has not changed.

Exercises, taping and splints for a flexible toe

None of this changes a rigid toe, and the evidence for exercises in particular is thin. For a toe that still straightens, though, these are low-risk, cheap and worth a few weeks alongside the right shoe.

• Strengthen the small muscles of the foot. Picking up a towel or marbles with the toes, spreading the toes apart and holding, and pressing each toe flat into the floor in turn all work the muscles that hold the toes straight. A few minutes a day is enough.
• Stretch the tendons on top. Gently bending the toes downward by hand, and holding for half a minute, stretches the tendons that pull the toe up at its base. Stop if it hurts.
• Tape the toe down. Strapping the toe flat, either on its own or to its neighbour, holds a flexible toe in a better position for the day. It helps most in the plantar plate stage. Change the tape daily and check the skin underneath, especially if sensation is reduced.
• Splints and straighteners. Over-the-counter loops, crests and straightening splints hold a flexible toe straighter while you wear them. They do not reshape a joint permanently, and on a numb foot any device that presses between or under the toes can cause a sore of its own.

If a toe that used to straighten is getting harder to straighten, the exercises are not keeping up, and that is the point at which an examination is worth more than another device.

Diabetes, numbness and hammer toes

For most people a hammer toe is a nuisance. With diabetic neuropathy it is a common place for a foot ulcer to start, because the two pressure points it creates — the top of the knuckle against the shoe and the tip of the toe against the insole — are exactly where a numb foot cannot feel trouble building. Three things change:

• Check daily. Look at the top and tip of every bent toe, and between the toes, when your shoes come off. Redness that lasts more than a few minutes, a blister or a dark spot under a callus needs attention that day.
• Do not treat corns yourself. No blades and no medicated plasters; a podiatrist should reduce them.
• Ask about therapeutic shoes. Medicare Part B covers extra-depth shoes and inserts each calendar year for people with diabetes who meet its criteria, and a foot deformity such as a hammer toe can be one of them. The doctor managing your diabetes has to certify the need. Our shoes for diabetics page covers the benefit and what to look for.

A small operation can also help here. Where a toe tip keeps breaking down, a podiatrist or foot surgeon can sometimes release the tendon that curls the toe through a tiny incision, which straightens a flexible toe and takes the pressure off the tip.

When surgery is the answer

Surgery is worth discussing when a hammer toe is painful despite deeper shoes and padding, when corns or sores keep coming back, when a second toe is crossing over, or when you simply cannot find shoes you can wear. The choice of operation follows the flexible-or-rigid test.

• Flexible toes. Releasing or lengthening the tendons that hold the toe bent, sometimes by transferring the tendon that curls the toe so that it holds the toe straight instead. A simple tendon release can be done through a very small incision.
• Rigid toes. Removing a small piece of bone at the bent joint so the toe can lie straight, either leaving a flexible joint or fusing it straight. A pin or a small implant often holds the toe while it heals.
• A drifting or crossing second toe. Repairing the plantar plate, often with a procedure to shorten the metatarsal behind it, and treating a bunion at the same time if it is crowding the toe.

Recovery usually means a stiff post-operative shoe for the first weeks, and swelling in the toe that can take months to settle completely. Plan to buy new shoes only once the toe has settled, and expect the shoe rules on this page to apply afterwards: a toe that has been straightened still does best with room above it. Your surgeon’s protocol overrides anything here.

Five things people believe about hammer toes that are not true

• “A wider shoe will fix it.” The knuckle sticks up, so the pressure comes from above. Width helps splayed toes and bunions; height is what helps a hammer toe.
• “Toe straighteners will straighten it.” They hold a flexible toe straighter while you wear them. They do not change a rigid toe, and they do not permanently reshape a flexible one.
• “A corn plaster will sort it out.” A corn is the skin defending itself against pressure. Remove the corn and leave the pressure, and it grows back; for people with diabetes or poor circulation, acid plasters are a risk in their own right.
• “Only women get hammer toes.” Narrow, high-heeled shoes make them more likely, but family history, foot shape, a long second toe, a high arch and nerve problems affect everyone.
• “Once it is bent, nothing can be done.” A rigid toe will not straighten in a shoe, but it can be made comfortable in the right one, and surgery is an option when it cannot.

Where to buy

Disclosure: the links below are paid links. If you buy through them Amazon pays us a commission at no cost to you. Commissions never influence a score, a ranking or the seal, and nothing on this page is scored because none of these shoes has been tested by us — see our independence policy.

Before any of them: take the insole out of the shoes you already own and walk around the house. If the rubbing stops, the cheapest fix in this whole condition is a thinner insole, and a metatarsal pad behind the sore bone.

Questions patients ask

What are the best shoes for hammer toes?

On measured evidence, the Brooks Glycerin 23 at 27.7 mm of lab-measured toe-box height and the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25 at 26.6 mm — the only two shoes on this site with a published vertical figure. If you want an upper that stretches over the knuckle rather than a measured gap above it, the Orthofeet Coral, which is sold as extra depth in four widths. For the ball-of-foot pain that usually comes with hammer toes, the HOKA Bondi 9 for its forefoot stack.

Do I need wide shoes for hammer toes?

Only if your toes are splayed as well as curled. The pressure from a hammer toe comes from above, and a wide shoe with a shallow toe box still rubs the knuckle. Depth is the dimension that matters, width is the one shops can sell you, and the two get conflated constantly. If you are genuinely wide, get both — our shoe width chart lists what each brand offers and how to tell whether you are wide shows how to check.

Can shoes straighten a hammer toe?

No. A shoe can stop a flexible toe being pushed further into the deformity, and a splint or tape can hold it straighter while worn, but neither reverses it. Once the joint is rigid, shape is fixed and the goal is comfort. The reason to act early is that flexible becomes rigid, not that footwear corrects anything.

What is the difference between a hammer toe and a claw toe?

A hammer toe bends at the middle joint only. A claw toe lifts at the joint where the toe meets the foot and then curls at both joints beyond it, so the whole toe claws down into the insole. Claw toes usually come in a set, often with a high arch or a neurological cause behind them, and they respond more to what is under the arch than to what is over the toes.

Why do I have a corn on top of my toe?

Because the knuckle is being pressed by the shoe. A corn is skin thickening in self-defence at a point of repeated pressure over bone, and its position is a map of where your shoe is too shallow or has a seam in the wrong place. Paring it down treats the symptom; the shoe is what creates it. If you have diabetes or any loss of sensation, a corn in that position needs professional attention rather than a pumice stone.

Are toe spacers or hammer toe straighteners worth it?

For a flexible toe, they are a reasonable thing to try alongside a deeper shoe — see toe spacers. For a rigid toe they achieve nothing, because the joint does not move. And on a foot with neuropathy any device that presses between the toes carries its own risk of causing a sore, so that is a conversation to have with a clinician first.

Which is better for hammer toes, a running shoe or an orthopaedic shoe?

Whichever is deeper, and that is not predictable from the category. The two shoes with the tallest measured toe boxes on this site are both mainstream running shoes, not orthopaedic ones — and the orthopaedic brand in this list wins on a stretch upper and four width fittings rather than on a measurement, because it does not publish one. Judge the shoe, not the shelf it came from.

Will taking the insole out damage the shoe or my feet?

Not the shoe. Whether it suits your feet depends on what the insole was doing: in a cushioned trainer the footbed is mostly a thin layer of foam and removing it costs you very little, while in a shoe whose support comes from a contoured footbed you will lose that support. The practical approach is to try it, and if the shoe then feels unsupported underneath, replace the removed insole with a thinner flat one rather than going back to the original.

What causes hammer toes?

An imbalance between the small muscles inside the foot, which hold the toes straight, and the long tendons that curl and lift them. Family history and foot shape play a large part — lesser toe deformities are highly heritable — and a long second toe, a bunion crowding the toes, a failing plantar plate, a high arch, nerve damage and arthritis can all set it off. Short, narrow or high-heeled shoes add to it.

Can hammer toes be fixed without surgery?

A rigid hammer toe cannot be straightened without surgery, but it can usually be made comfortable with a deeper shoe, a softer upper and the right pads. A flexible toe can often be held in a better position with taping, a toe crest and exercises, and the right shoe keeps it from being pushed further. What non-surgical care cannot do is permanently reshape a joint.

Do hammer toes get worse over time?

Often, yes, if the cause is still acting. Flexible toes tend to become rigid as the soft tissues around the joint shorten, which is why the flexible stage is the one to act on. Taking the pressure off and dealing with the cause, such as a plantar plate injury or a bunion, gives the best chance of slowing it.

Are HOKA shoes good for hammer toes?

The Bondi 9 is on this page for the ball-of-foot half of the problem: it has more foam under the forefoot than anything else here, comes in widths up to 4E for men, and the insole lifts out. HOKA publishes no toe-box height, so check the depth over your knuckles with the thumb test before you rely on it.

Are Skechers good for hammer toes?

The GO WALK Arch Fit 2 Slip-ins has two real advantages: a knit upper with no overlay across the toes, and hands-free entry, so you do not have to bend down and push the toes into the shoe. Skechers publishes no toe-box dimensions for it, so it is a shoe to try on rather than buy on the numbers.

Can I wear heels with hammer toes?

Occasionally, and low. A heel pushes the foot forward into the toe box and presses the knuckles up against the upper. A low, broad heel with a strap that holds the foot back and a round toe with room over the knuckles is the least-bad option; save higher heels for short occasions.

What socks are best for hammer toes?

Thin, seamless socks with room in the toe. A thick sock or a seam across the toes takes up height over the knuckle and adds a ridge exactly where corns form, and a tight sock pulls the toes down into the bent position.

When should I see a podiatrist about a hammer toe?

When a corn keeps coming back, when the toe becomes painful despite a deeper shoe, when a second toe starts to lift or cross over, or straight away if you have diabetes, numbness or poor circulation and see redness, a blister or a sore over a bent toe.

Sources

The shoe figures on this page come from the brands, the independent laboratory and the retailers named against each one above and on each shoe’s review page. The clinical points draw on:

1. Hannan MT, et al. High heritability of hallux valgus and lesser toe deformities in adult men and women. Arthritis Care & Research. 2013. The Framingham Foot Study.
2. NHS. Corns and calluses. The advice that people with diabetes, circulation problems, a weakened immune system, and older people should not treat corns and calluses themselves.
3. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Part B coverage of therapeutic shoes and inserts for people with diabetes.

Related guides and reviews

• Shoes for ball-of-foot pain and metatarsal pads — the other half of this problem, and the cheapest part of the fix.
• Shoes for a plantar plate tear — the failure that often precedes a hammer toe, and the stage at which it is still reversible.
• Shoes for bunions · tailor’s bunion · Morton’s toe — the neighbouring deformities that crowd the lesser toes.
• Shoes for supination and high arches — the foot type that drives claw toes.
• Shoes for diabetic feet · Charcot foot — when a corn over a toe stops being cosmetic.
• Toe box width chart · wide toe box shoes · shoe width chart — every published figure on this site.
• Brooks Glycerin 23 · Adrenaline GTS 25 · Orthofeet Coral · HOKA Bondi 9 · Altra Torin 9 · Skechers GO WALK Arch Fit 2
• Shoe spec database — every published number on this site, and who published it.