What types of shoes work best with the Bracehorn, and are there any it struggles with?
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Short answer: Dominic explains that boots and work boots are the hardest footwear for brace wearers because of their height, and that this difficulty is compounded by the loss of dorsiflexion. Someone wearing a brace cannot point the toe up and down, which removes the motion normally used to work a foot into a tall shoe. He extends this beyond boots, noting that athletic shoes, walking shoes and dress shoes are all difficult to put on without some kind of shoehorn when a brace is involved. He also raises an important point that many people do not anticipate: slip-on shoes generally do not work with braces at all, because a brace wearer needs footwear that opens up and can then be locked down. Boots remain the category where users struggle the most.
In Dominic's words
Mainly, a lot of times work boots or boots are really hard because of how high they are, and with braces you do not have that mobility. It is called dorsiflexion. You cannot point your toe up and down. So a lot of times it is hard to put on regular shoes without some kind of shoehorn.
So boots, or any athletic shoes, walking shoes, dress shoes, are very difficult. So really any type of shoe. But a lot of times people do not realize that with braces, slip-on shoes just do not work.
Because you need some kind of shoe that opens up and that you can lock down. So it works with any type of shoe, but boots especially are where people struggle quite a bit. That is the category where the Bracehorn makes the biggest difference, because the height of the boot combined with no dorsiflexion is the hardest combination there is.