Hi, I'm a 49 year old woman who made a typo earlier and claimed to be 40. I started wearing orthotics in 1992 while I was still in the USAF. I'm retired now. I've recently had 2 operations on my left foot and one on my right. While I was stumbling around with the surgery shoe and a pound of bandages, I got lots of $5 cotton tennis shoes to wear. I wore them after the bandages came off too. Orthotics rip right through them, so I quit wearing them "for now."
They really didn't work so great, so I tried moccasins. Since my feet were so wide to begin and now amazingly swollen, I had to make them. I would buy cheap leather clothes from charities and make the Viking or Iron Age shoes shown on Instructables.com. Of course that kind of leather with no sole only lasts a short while on the sidewalks.
Its been 2 years since they operated on my right foot and it still isn't 'level' on the bottom. They offered me a new orthotic. It hurt. I have been putting sheepskin in my moccs. That fixed it but I have to wear it all the time. There are worst things.
Here's a couple things I just made. No idea what I'm going to do this winter because I live in Ohio and I'm not putting my current snowboots back on,
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5279/7383709376_91b6f5560d_m.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8005/7356462514_de4dc2c834_m.jpg
Those are great! There are a few others around here who are into making their own shoes as well... I love seeing photos of people projects like this!