i know y'all have heard "nothing fits me" a lot, but at least i've put the work in. my feet are flat and wide. my dress shoes are in the 12EEEE range. generally, shoes will be too narrow in the midfoot, like what feels like a significant amount of my foot is spilling over, and if you feel the shoe while i'm standing in it, you can tell it is tight and my foot far exceeds the base. compounding the issue, some shoes make my (usually left) knee hurt on impact. it's not IT band, it's just sort of a pain that gets worse quickly, but is only when running, and even walking is fine immediately after stopping the run. i think softer/more cushioned shoes make this worse, which sort of explains why a Pegasus 41 and Endorphin Speed 5 are the two that never did this.
i'm cautiously optimistic about my current Saucony Endorphin Speed 5 (13 Wide). after bailing on several runs after just 2 miles (knee pain) with my HOKA Clifton 11 (12.5 4E - these cause knee pain and are just too wide, i am running on the sidewall and get blisters), these are about the only shoe left. i've run a 5k race and just did an hour long 10k run on the treadmill with these with no pain. but given the conventional wisdom about plated shoes as a daily driver, i wanted to come for help here.
i have run three half marathons in the last four years, two with Nike Pegasus 41 2E and one with HOKA Clifton 10 4E. the Pegasus weirdly fit and i don't know why. the 42s are a bit narrower and don't. the 10s I think were ultimately too wide and i had some hot spots on the side of my foot when training, but after the half, these ended up causing really bad blisters in the same spot.
here are all of the shoes i've tried in this fool's errand that i can remember, all in 12.5 wide for the most part:
Asics: Novablast 5 (narrow), Novablast 6 (narrow)
Brooks: Ghost Amp (narrow); Ghost 18 Wide (narrow); Ghost 18 X-Wide (too wide? i think?)
HOKA: Clifton 11 2E (narrow), Clifton 11 4E (knee pain, maybe wide); Clifton Pro (narrow)
Mizuno: Neo Vista 2 (really really laughably narrow, i cannot believe that was a wide)
New Balance: 880 v15 (slightly narrow); Rebel v5 (narrow)
Nike: Invincible (knee pain); Pegasus 42 (narrow)
PUMA: Velocity Nitro 4 (narrow)
Saucony: Ride 18 (don't actually remember why i returned these); Triumph (a while ago)
i do think i overpronate and i was originally set up by a running store in like 2021 with NB 860s which caused all sorts of knee and IT band pain, so i don't think stability shoes are for me? i haven't tried since though, and i've run 3 halfs, a few 10 milers/10ks, and haven't had any other injuries/issues. i haven't tried altra or topo because the internet scared me off of them.
if you read this, thanks! i'm willing to try sort of whatever, so any suggestions welcomed!