banana last

[bengal-stripe]

Taken from the German firm Eduard Meier in Munich:

The right shoe is a banana shaped last (they call it peduform) while the left is a standard type last. They believe their last to be superior to others (they would, wouldn't they) and go on to explain why (in German only). http://www.edmeier.de/von_schuhen/peduform.html (their range of shoes is actually made by C&J) Traditionally the banana shaped last has been (and probably still is) most popular in Vienna and is the trademark of the most traditional Austrian firm Rudolf Scheer & Sons.

 

[shoefan]

So, if I can stand up, and place a ruler against my inner heel, the inside edge of the ball of my foot, and big toe, as I've poorly but sort of diagrammed below, the banana last might be a good choice? (o = toes, b's = ball, x's is arch, empty space at bottom is the heel etc)

|oo
|i iooo
|bbiuu
ruler->|bbuuu <-- foot
|lxxxu
|lxxxu
|l |
|L__|

Perhaps. Certainly seems to me that such a last might work well for your feet. Of course, you really need to try on a pair made on the banana last to know for sure.

Bengal:

Thanks for the information. Note that in this pic, the foot has quite a sharp angle along the tops of the toes-- i.e. the little toe is well short of the big toe. Thus, with the depicted foot, the banana last gives plenty of room for the big toe while not pushing in on the little toe. Some people have much more of a 'square' toe line; for them, the banana last might well put alot of pressure or squeeze in the 4th and little toes. I also think that, perhaps, the non-banana last depicted is perhaps not true to most higher-end companies' lasts. However, as depicted, the banana last is clearly better for the feet that are shown (what a surprise.). What you can see is the apparent curvature of the banana last from which they derive their name.

 

[fritzl]

The banana last ist typical for the Viennese and Hungarian School of bespoke shoes.

All traditional shoemakers at this places have them in their programm.

Some of them named:

Balint, Maftei, Materna, Altenburg, Vass etc. etc.

Regarding the peduform i got an information. When you start with it. You'll have problems with "normal" shoes. Probably somebody made his experiences.

PS: As bengal-stripe got the information. Scheer rejected the use of the banana last in their entire history.