When you have heel pain in the foot, it may be due to plantar fasciitis, the condition in which the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot becomes inflamed, often due to a stress injury or sports injury. The pain is usually worse in the morning or after rest - heel pain after sitting is a common complaint. A plantar fasciitis treatment will involve doing a number of therapies and using specialized inserts and insoles, bandages, arch support, splints and braces, and shoes, with the end result that the foot is allowed to heal. This may take as long as one year. If you're suffering from heel pain and your podiatrist or doctor has determined an inflamed plantar fascia is the cause, you're probably wondering what are the best shoes for plantar fasciitis to treat the condition.

Although I am not a doctor, and this is not meant as medical advice for plantar fasciitis treatment, I did have plantar fasciitis and spent a good amount of time figuring out the best way to "heel" it (pun intended!). The problem's long gone now, but it took me almost a year. It's recurred a few times, but each time I treated it right away and it went away right away. Here are some recommendations for athletic shoes for plantar fasciitis, as well as walking shoes and dress shoes.

The reason to find the best dress shoes, walking shoes and athletic shoes for plantar fasciitis is simply that your feet need the proper arch support in order to heal. If you're a runner or play racquetball - which is the sport that gave me the sports injury that caused my plantar fasciitis - or tennis or do any high impact activity, correct arch support is essential.

The arch support you need depends on your foot arch - do you have a flat arch or high arch? - whether your feet supinate as you walk (when the inner foot turns out) or pronate (when the inner foot turns in). Your podiatrist can tell you whether you're a supinator or over pronator, or if there is anything irregular about your stride.

Your podiatrist might recommend custom orthotics. I, personally, have used the cheaper option - heat moldable orthotics. These inserts fit into shoes after the removable insoles that come with the shoes are removed. Whether or not you need orthotic inserts, plantar fasciitis is helped by good arch support. The shoes you pick will decide it.

I wore the Brooks Adrenaline for athletic walking to help my foot with plantar fasciitis. The American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine recommends that you get the proper shoe for the kind of motion control you need to correct overpronation or oversupination.

Check with a physical therapist or occupational therapist about what kind of motion control you need, as not everyone needs the very stiff motion control of some shoes, and the light motion control of others is insufficient to do the job.

Some models they recommend with extreme motion control include:

• New Balance 1123
  
• Asics Gel-Foundation 7 WSC or Evolution 3
  
• Brooks Beas
• Saucony ProGrid Stabil

Models with moderate motion control include:

• Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8
• New Balance 90
• Ecco RXP 1660
• Mizuno Wave Alchemy 7 WSC

Light motion control models include:

• New Balance 1010 / W / S
• Asics GT-2130
• Mizuno Wave Nexus 2
• Saucony ProGrid Echelon Score - 35

I also read that Ecco has designed the Ecco Women’s RXP 3060 to treat plantar fasciitis to help take the pressure off the heel. Reviews at FootSmart were very positive - 21 reviewers gave the shoe 4 1/2 stars. There is also a men's version that got a 5-star review from one user.

The CrocsRX Cloud clog for women and men has great ratings by users, although it's not always indicated whether or not the users have heel pain. Shoe makers such as Clarks, Dansko, Birkenstock, and other European comfort shoe manufacturers regularly produce shoes with above-standard arch support.

I, personally, wore Birkenstocks for dress, work, and walking almost the entire year, and they helped a lot. Note that I worked in a casual environment, so the style was right. Birks have a contoured cork footbed that molds to the natural contours of the feet.

I have a normal arch - not high, not flat - and I supinate slightly. I wore Birkenstocks Florida style sandals, and Paris style shoes. The Boston clogs never fit me properly, but I also wore Haflinger clogs, which were as good as Birkenstocks. I would not necessarily recommend the Birkenstock Footprints collection, as these often have a lower arch, but shoes in the Classic collection do very well. For plantar fasciitis sufferers with a high arch, the Tatami line may be the answer.

When you choose the shoe, make sure the width is correct and the shoe feels comfortable at first wearing.

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