The Best Shoes for Kids with Overpronation – Keep Their Feet and Legs Healthy

Has your child been diagnosed with overpronation? Have you noticed your child’s feet and legs turning inwards? Is your child complaining about foot or leg pain? Overpronation in children is more common than you think, but you must take action now if you want to avoid bigger problems in the future. The best shoes for kids with overpronation help improve foot posture and walking gait, and I will show you a list of these shoes shortly.

When children overpronate they are putting pressure on parts of their body where they are not supposed to, and this is what usually leads to foot and leg pain, as well as future lower back problems.

The most common reason why children overpronate is from having flat feet, but there is also a large number of children who overpronate from having misaligned heels. Whichever reason it is that your child might be overpronating, the correct type of shoes can help improve your child’s walking gait and overall posture.

If your child is overpronating, a pair of supportive shoes can help improve your child’s foot posture, walking gait, and prevent foot and leg pain. By supportive shoes, I mean shoes that provide good arch and ankle support.

If you’re pressed for time, you can jump directly to the selection of the best shoes for kids with overpronation.

How Does a Child with Overpronation Looks Like?

Let’s take a look at the image below, does it look familiar? Do you notice how the child’s feet and ankles are collapsing and turning inwards?

The correct type of shoes is going to improve your child’s walking gait and overall posture, but don’t take my word for it, let me prove it to you!

Kids’ Shoes for Overpronation – What a Difference Supportive Shoes Can Make!

Let me prove to you how a pair of shoes with arch support and a firm heel counter can help straighten your child’s feet and legs. Let’s visualize what a tremendous difference a pair of supportive shoes can make for children with overpronation by comparing two different types of shoes.

Before Image: Child Standing Barefoot

The first image shows the feet of a child with flat feet standing barefoot:

After Image: Child Wearing Unsupportive Shoes

The second image shows the feet of the same child wearing a pair of unsupportive shoes. Do you notice how the child’s feet are still collapsing and turning inwards?

child-with-flat-feet-wearing-unsupportive-shoes

After Image: Child Wearing Supportive Shoes

Now let’s take a look at a picture of the same child wearing a pair of supportive shoes. Do you notice how much straighter the child’s feet are?

supportive-shoes-with-straight-lasts-for-children-with-flat-feet

Something so simple as providing your child with the correct type of shoes can have a tremendous difference in helping your child walk and run straighter, and improving your child’s overall posture.

As I mentioned before, supportive shoes with arch support can help prevent your child’s feet from collapsing but overpronation can come from the ankles as well. If your child’s ankles are rolling inwards or outwards this will affect your child’s walking gait. This means that we need to find a shoe that provides good arch support and that also comes with a firm heel counter – this is the back part of the shoe that provides ankle support.

What Makes the Shoes that I Recommend Effective for Kids with Overpronation?

1️⃣ Straight Lasts: Shoes with straight lasts help improve the child’s foot posture. If your child has strong pronation you need to stay away from shoes that have excessively curved lasts. Take a look at the image below for better visualization purposes:

children's-shoes-with-straight-lasts

2️⃣ Supportive Outsoles: Shoes with supportive outsoles provide shock absorption which helps attenuate the impact that your child’s feet take when they come in contact with the ground. This feature is ideal if your child is dealing with foot or leg pain. Take a look at the image below for better visualization purposes:

supportive-shoes-for-children-with-flat-feet

3️⃣ Firm Heel Counters: When children have flat feet you don’t only support the arch, you mechanically support all of the pieces that cause the foot to be flat, such as the heels.

Before you purchase a pair of shoes for your child, always press on the heel counter and make sure it feels firm and not soft. You should actually do this with your child’s current shoes to make sure they are providing the correct amount of support.

children's-shoes-with-heel-support

I am always emphasizing to parents how more expensive shoes don’t automatically translate into better shoes.

Below you can find the best shoes for kids with overpronation. These shoes are available in different widths such as medium (M), wide (W), and extra wide (XW), to make sure that they will fit any type of feet. Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links and we may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) when you click our links and make purchases.

The Best Shoes for Kids with Overpronation

Shoes with shoelaces provide better support and stability than shoes with velcro closure, as the shoelaces can “hug” your kids’ feet more effectively.

Are Any Other Shoe Choices Available?

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you are looking for a different pair of shoes to help treat your child’s overpronation.

How to Retrieve Your Child’s Exact Foot Length and Shape

If you want to be sure about what shoe size to order online, I suggest that you follow the instructions on how to measure your kids’ foot.

Keep in mind that in certain cases a pair of shoes might not be enough to correct the problem and in that case, the child might need extra support from an orthotic.

If after trying the shoes your child’s walking gait doesn’t improve and your physical or occupational therapist feels like your child needs extra support, then you should consider providing your child with an orthotic.

Orthotics for Kids with Overpronation – Extra Support for Your Kids’ Feet!

Orthotics are shoe inserts that are specifically designed to offer cushioning, support, stability, and relieve pressure in specific areas of the foot. If you start addressing this problem at a young age your child might not need orthotics for the rest of his/ her life.

The orthotics that I recommend in that article are specifically designed to provide firm arch support and cushioning. It will also provide biomechanics alignment by preventing overpronation and aligning your child’s ankles (making them straighter). Now that you know which are the best shoes and orthotics for children with overpronation, you are ready to make a better and more informed decision.

Best Shoes for Kids with Overpronation – Watch Video!

The video below will provide you with further examples of before and after images of children with overpronation. I hope this video helps you visualize what a difference the correct type of shoes can make in treating and preventing your child’s overpronation.

Do not hesitate to contact me directly at my email if you have any further questions or if you need a different pair of shoes for your child. My email address is:

[email protected]

I hope you had found this article useful and that the experiences of other parents can help in your case. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comment section below.