Following the wildly popular previous post (giggle) about preventing boot leather from cracking, this is post #2 about tips for boots — about boot fit on the legs.

What do you do if you have boots that are tight on your legs? Can boots be stretched, or is something else going on? Do boots shrink? Why in the heck are boots that have always been comfortable for me seem to feel tight on my legs now? What can I do about that? More after the jump…

A lesser-known secret, but there is no standard calf circumference. And please, please, don’t call it “boot width” or worse, “boot diameter.”

Traditionally, width is how wide the foot is, with letter designators such as D, EE, and so forth. Boot circumference is the distance around the shaft of the boot which covers the calf of the lower leg.

It isn’t “boot diameter” either. See the diagram for a pictorial explanation of these basic mathematical terms.

How is calf circumference measured? Use a soft measuring tape, and hold it inside the boot and run it around the inside until it touches the end. That is the “inside circumference” which is the measurement you need to know, because when you run a tape around your leg, it will indicate if you have enough space for your leg to fit inside the boot, and allow room for air to circulate.

Back to the subject of this post — what do you do if the boot shaft feels tight on your legs?

Two ways to deal with that — reduce your leg’s circumference — or increase the boot’s calf circumference.

Your leg’s circumference: I am not advocating for chopping off huge parts of your skin. However, legs are where your body will carry water in the form of swelling. Especially as a man ages and circulation isn’t as good as it once was, lower leg edema (swelling) is much more common.

The best way to deal with that outside of getting medical attention (required for cases of severe lower leg edema or asymmetric swelling where one leg is more swollen than the other and may be an indicator of a life-threatening blood clot)…

• Walk
• Exercise
• Keep the blood flowing
• Reduce salt in the diet because salt increases fluid retention
• Eat less carbs
• Elevate your legs when you can, especially when at a desk whilst working or when sleeping

I have found from my own experience that my lower legs will swell by as much as a half-inch (1cm) as I go through a day where I was more sedentary than I should be. In the not-so-distant past, in the morning when I pulled my boots on, they felt fine. In the afternoon when I got home from work, my boots felt hot, my feet were sweaty, and it was a pain to pull the boots off. Both of my legs were swollen and hurt.

I fixed that by installing a 30-minute timer on my computer at the office. Every 30 minutes, I hear “ding ding ding” and it reminds me to get up off my butt and walk around. I will go to the stairwell outside my office door, walk up five stories, then walk down the hallway on that floor to the next stairwell, and walk down 10 floors. Then I will walk back to the first stairwell on that floor, and walk back up five floors to the floor where my office is.

Five minutes or less every 30, I walk and “stairclimb.” Amazing how much that reduces, and now eliminated, lower leg swelling, and helps me feel sharper and more invigorated. (And I am even getting faster at it, averaging now 3 minutes per stairclimb cycle.)

Adjusting (stretching) calf circumference of the boot: Again, something we don’t want to hear but is reality — boot calf circumference does not get smaller as boots age. The problem is your own legs getting larger. But it IS possible to adjust most boots circumference a little bit by stretching.

Begin by dampening the interior lining of the boot calf with a solution of 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol mixed with 1/2 cup of water. That is “boot stretching liquid.” (Don’t be duped into buying “boot stretching liquid” which is exactly this mixture. But a bottle of rubbing alcohol for $1 at the drug store instead of $6 or $10 for a bottle the snake oil salesman wants to sell you.)

Then insert something inside the boot to apply outward pressure. I have owned a premium boot stretching device for years, but you can also just use blocks of wood, such as 2 x 4s. Just apply “from inside to out” pressure and leave it that way for two or three days. Once is enough. You can only stretch leather so much before causing the collagen bonds to break and created cracking, tears, or breaks in the leather.

Most boots can be stretched using this method by about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch (6 to 10mm), but not more. Some boots like police patrol boots made with synthetic material (aka “Dehcord”) can’t be stretched wider at all because the material from which the shafts are made is a type of plastic — not protein-based collagen whose bonds are somewhat pliant (“stretchable.”)

In summary, since boots don’t shrink with age, then focus on what gets larger — your legs. While it is unpleasant to consider, exercise to increase circulation as well as control of diet (calories and salt intake) really does make a difference. Consider “adjusting yourself” before “adjusting the boots.”

Life is short: face reality and continue to enjoy wearing boots comfortably life-long.