Hot spots in shoes? Specifically carbon super shoes

This is a problem that pre-dates Carbon plated shoes, and relates to the fit of a shoe to the anatomy of a given person’s feet. Hot spots typically happen because a shoe is touching the foot somewhere that it shouldn’t, or not touching the foot somewhere that it should. It’s not that there’s something wrong, or better about one pair of shoes to another, but it’s that some shoes are better or worse fits for your feet, which on top of other ailments (chaffing, numbness, etc.) can manifest itself as hotspots. Depending on the particular spot and issue, there are some hacks that sometimes can relieve certain hotspots, but may be of little assitance elsewhere. The first and obvious culprit is how tightly the shoe is laced. I tend to get most hot spots when a shoe is too tight in the forefoot area (I have a particularly wide foot, that gets wide at the base of the 5th metatarsal, so extra tension/compression there is often the culprit for me. In some cases it’s cause by the shoe’s last or the materials, and there’s no way around it, but the first thing I will try is to lace the shoe looser in the lower parts and tighter in the upper eyelets of the shoe to secure my foot, without over tensioning that area (often using the heel lock lacing technique at the top too). The other alternate solution could be the use of elastic laces which may relieve some of this (but could also be the culprit in some other cases of hotspots). Ideally you would figure this out and if you can mitigate it prior to buying, but if you already have the shoes, you can play around with these mitigations and see if they may help, If not, they may be destined for the donation bin…

For me I don’t get hotspots with Nike shoes, because my feet don’t even fit inside of them (their lasts are too narrow). I have had good success with the Metaspeed Sky/+ shoes, but my foot is obviously different from those who have success with the Nikes…