Strange fitting in LS shoes

Something odd struck me the other day when I was trying on new shoes at my local gym, where I was trying on various LaSportiva shoes, specifically the Kubos, Theories, Solutions, and Skwamas. The Skwamas, Kubos, and Theories fit me very tightly in my normal size, and was digging into my heel lots and causing lots of pain on my upper foot. However, the Solutions, the shoe with the most aggressive downturn out of all the others, fit me like a glove, with no pain in my achilles or anywhere on my foot. I even went down half a size knowing the solutions stretched a little bit, and felt like a normal shoe requiring a break in period. no sharp pains or aches anywhere. Did anyone else have this same issue with the shoes mentioned above?

SOMETIMES, Achilles pain when trying on aggressive shoes is caused by not downsizing enough which is counterintuitive to most folks. Because aggressive shoes are designed to hold so much tension, the top part of the heel rand can dig in to the achilles if your heel is not being forced down into the heel cup the way it is supposed to be. It could also just be the particular shape of your heel, some folks feet are pickier on the heels of shoes than others, particularly if you have shallow/square heels.

Additionally, pain in the top of the foot could be many things but all those shoes mentioned above are on the lower volume end for toe box height.  you might want to try some shoes from other brands that give more height though the toe box, but it’s hard to know without knowing where you are having pain.

One last thing on the point of the Solution being the most aggressive but the most comfortable, Downturn in shoes does not automatically make them uncomfortable (although comfort is highly subjective). The most comfortable shoe is the one that fits you best, and in this case it sounds like the solution was your winner.