21December 2021
(wall crashing) – This is my new favorite sneaker. The Birchbury Bramford. I'll tell you why it's the favorite. It's got a couple of great unique features and it's a pretty high quality shoe. But I'm gonna tell you why it's good. What I hate about most
casual leather sneakers and why this one's good and
how it can save you some money and effort in the future. Especially if you have foot pain. That's why you're watching this channel. Guys, thank you so much
for watching this video. We appreciate your likes,
your subscribes, your comment. We really love hearing
if this stuff helps. It really makes a big difference for us. So, thank you. So a lot of casual shoes,
they're pointy in the front. And what happens is, that
squeezes on your toes. That can create some bunion
pain, some hammer toe pain. And number two, there is generally
minimalist shoe type stuff. And what happens is, it's too flexible. It doesn't have a lot of support.
The heel's not very supportive. You want some good features
in your shoe that support it, but at the same time, you want that freedom to
have your toes moving around. So a couple basic features
I look for in a shoe are, it basically needs some support. See how this casual shoe
does not support you at all. See how the back's not supporting you. In the Birchbury shoe, stiff back. See how it's pretty stiff. It doesn't twist too much. So when I grab it, I'm
really trying to twist. And see how it doesn't bend in the middle. And what happens is when you land, see it bends just at the big toe. Whereas in another casual shoe, see how it bends in the middle. And I know I'm being
kind of hard on this guy. But Oxford dress shoes, for
example, have a heel lift, this has no heel lift. The heel sits at the
same level as the toes. It's not driving the
pressure into your toes. Most casual dress shoes or
dressy shoes have a pointy front. See how it creates a V.
These guys right here, it's more of a curved one. And I'm gonna show you in a graphic why that's not crushing your toes. So two factors crush your toes, the pointy front, plus
when your foot twists out. Your foot gets wider and flattens more. So this one, because it doesn't bend and it's got the stiff heel, your foot doesn't flatten out as much. And the toes don't spread out as much. And it's not crushed by
the V point in the front at the same time. So those two factors really
help your toes during a long day when you're walking, when
you're at a nice dinner, when you're at a nice meeting. I'm not a huge material guy, but it is a leather
shoe, it's pretty nice. Personally, see these insoles right here. They brag about them on
the website a little bit. I'm not a huge fan of the insoles. Are these anything special? They're a little bit nice.
They get a little bit cushion. But what happens is, here's
why I really like these shoes.
Right here. An over-the-counter insert. If I can get an over-the-counter
insert into a shoe and it can relatively fit in there because the toes aren't pointy, then you can fit a nice
over-the-counter insert. And my favorites are
down in the show notes. But for my money, if you can get an insert that's pretty low cost and
put it in a dress shoe, there's no reason you can't stand all day with relatively little pain. Whereas if I stood in a shoe like this, this would absolutely obliterate my foot in like half an hour.
So you have all the
factors you need in a shoe, the stiff heel, the flexibility, the lack of crush up here. You can fit an orthotic in there and that's gonna really
take a lot of pressure off your foot. So, one thing I always say
is, if there's no orthotic, look at how the foot flattens out. And we know in the other shoe, it already crushes in the middle. Whereas in an orthotic, now granted I'm giving
the shoe too much credit, but the fact that it
fits an orthotic is huge.
See how it's not flattening out there? That is huge for me. That is a number one criteria for me when getting a casual or a dress shoe. The next thing I really like is check out the laces right here. Self-lacing plus you can pull
the tongue out, it comes down. Easy to slip on. Especially if you're an older person, if you need to use a shoe horn, it's already taken care
of, another nice feature. What does zero drop mean? This is not a zero drop. See how much lift you have here? And then up here, it's a little bit less. Most normal running shoes are like an eight to 12
millimeter lift in the heel compared to the front.
That takes a little bit
of pressure off the heel. These guys kind of go
with the barefoot element because it's equal at the
back and as the front. Generally, younger people
tolerate that well. If you're older, like 60, 50, 70, I know that's not the usual YouTube crowd, but you generally want to get a little bit more of a heel lift. Whereas if you're younger,
go with the zero drop, unless you have like Achilles tendinitis or something like that. Because that will keep you flexible, that will keep your muscles working. The whole debate of barefoot
shoe versus non-barefoot shoe, I can talk about that all day.
And in fact, we have a video
right here to talk about it. There's a lot of factors. Generally, if you're
younger and healthier, go with more of a barefoot. If you're older and have more problems in your knees, your hips and other places, go with something with a
little bit more of a heel lift, a little bit more cushion,
a little bit more support. That's a general rule
that I see work well. As much as I'm raving about
these, this is not sponsored. I'm not getting paid to do this. But I like this because it
has a lot of room in the toes. It's not pointy. It's stiff through the mid sole. It's stiff through the heel. It's easy to get on. It has zero heel drop, which
is good for younger people.
And it fits an orthotic. So I'm not a huge fan of these, even though they brag about
them on their website. I get another over-the-counter insert or my custom insert in here. Not a lot of dress shoes
can fit the custom inserts. So that's why I love these. If you do have a dress shoe,
like an Oxford tennis shoe, you know, some people have
to use a shoe stretcher. I go over a video how to
use the shoe stretcher. But see this guy doesn't need that.
It's already done for you.
There's room in the toes. So there's a link in the bottom. These are called the Birchbury Bramfords. They kind of range a
hundred dollars to $150, depending on what time you get them. But check out the link down
below and see if you agree. They give a 30-day refund policy
so if you don't like them. – [Voiceover] Hit the subscribe
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