How bad can foot eczema be?

I remember hearing a woman interviewed on the radio a few years ago. She was claiming income support (welfare) and lamented that she was unable to attend job interviews because she was allergic to shoes. This was at a time when the press were vilifying any unemployed people who appeared ‘undeserving’ of welfare payments. In the prevailing mood, it was difficult to accept the foot condition as a valid excuse.

At the time, even though I had already succumbed to severe hand eczema, foot eczema was just an abstract idea, something for my imagination. I felt thankful it was only on my hands, bad as that was. But I did develop eczema on my feet, and it was only a matter of months after that radio interview. And it turned out, I had become allergic to my shoes.

Foot eczema

It was bad. The itching was intense. Tense blisters appeared, making it impossible to put shoes on. I had to sleep with my feet hanging over the edge of the mattress, as I couldn’t stand even the weight of my feet on the bed.  I was thankful that I was able to work at home for several days, as it was impossible for me to leave the house.

Toe detail

Sole of foot

Eventually, I had some patch testing. It revealed that I was allergic to two rubber accelerator chemicals (vulcanisers), which commonly occur in the rubber found in the soles of shoes. I still remember studying the vulcanisation (creating a polymer) of rubber in A level chemistry.  These substances can also be found in the adhesives used in joining leather.  As shoes become worn in and are exposed to moisture, the chemicals leach out and come in contact with the skin. Step number one – know your enemy!

Translating chemical names into which shoes you can wear is something else entirely. Shoes don’t come labelled conveniently with things such as ‘contains thiuram chemicals’ or ‘contains carbamates’. The dermatology advice was to ‘wear all-leather shoes with no inner sole (like moccasins), plastic shoes or wooden clogs. If you have difficulty acquiring shoes without rubber insoles, remove the insoles before wearing and replace with those cut from piano felt, cork, or plastic.’ Try going into a shoe shop and asking what their insoles are made of! Try removing the insoles from women’s shoes.  As I suspected that simply sweating was also a likely factor in my eczema, I was keen to avoid plastic shoes too. The advice was also to discard old socks, as they can harbour the harmful chemicals.

I bought some wooden clogs online, and discarded all my socks. Hobbling around with my sore, bare feet (not yet able to go sock shopping) in wooden clogs, I began my campaign to find wearable shoes.

I contacted Satra Technology, a company based in Kettering, UK, known as a ‘leading technical authority for footwear and leather’. They advised me on alternatives to leather or plastic soles. Interestingly, thermoplastic rubber (TR) and crepe are not vulcanised, so they were safe. Also, I could look out for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PU) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) soles. Try going into a shoe shop and asking what their soles are made of.

Some shoe retailers were more helpful than others. I was very relieved to find that my recently acquired Trespass walking boots could get the thumbs up – the only rubber component was the outer sole – the midsole and insoles were fine. I discovered that many shoe manufacturers source the leathers and various components from all over the world. It was almost impossible for them to vouch for the exact materials used, especially the glues. Even craft shoemakers relied on glues/cements to keep their leathers in line.

The only assurance I could obtain on leather adhesives was with Gore Tex.  Clarks informed me that glues were not used in joining the uppers and linings of Gore Tex shoes. I was also very thankful when I found Easy Wellies, who made it extremely easy to search their stock for PVC boots and garden shoes.

I eventually had to give up on asking about the cements in leather shoes. My life was slipping away week by week, with one manufacturer after the other unable to give assurances on this. I was becoming tired of existing in PVC wellies and wooden clogs (and my hefty walking boots).  Step number 2 – avoiding the enemy – was proving very hard.

These days, my first stop for shoes is Hotter. Many, but not all, of their styles use polyurethane for soling. Yes! Quite a few of their styles contain elastic (made with rubber?), so I avoid those. Their customer services department is very helpful and will bend over backwards to research the various materials in their shoes. I buy their leather shoes on the understanding that one day I might have a reaction to the leather cement, although apparently they use it sparingly. I just try not to sweat.