Edey:

Shoe companies really should do something about making shoes comfortable and nice looking too.  Easy Spirit tried this for awhile but I found their shoes to be more hype than practical and useful. There should also be more nice looking flats available.  All the pretty shoes seem to be in high heels only.  Edey

I've found Bates shoes to be the most comfortable I've ever worn. They are mostly for military/law enforcement but they do have some that are dressy in appearance. The are not cheap - I paid $140 for a pair of leather high-tops - but they required no break-in and are comfortable to wear if I have to be on my feet all day. So to me they're worth every nickel.

Sorry ladies, they are almost exclusively men's shoes but they do make some for women.

I teach at a middle school, and the floors there are horrible on the feet - linoleum over cement.  There's a dress code, but very few people follow it; most people wear jeans or Docker-style pants with casual shirts and shoes.  I wear sneakers most of the time; the rest I wear a pair of Danskos I looked at for months before I finally broke down and bought them.  They were expensive ($115) but are incredibly comfortable, which is very important when you stand up all day.  Dansko also sells insoles, and I bought a pair for my sneakers (also very expensive) - but they're also very comfortable, and, somewhat to my surprise, they are living up to their hype that the shoes I put them in will last longer, so both purchases were definitely worth it for me.

I second the Dansko's, I'm a nurse and stand long hours. I buy the clogs, but they also have other styles.They also have an outlet store on line, but often one can find good sales on other sites such as REI, Sierra Traders?, Zappos etc.

Tebaliah:

I need a medium width across the toes and a narrow heel width. 

They're called slingbacks :-)

I also worked for a "fancy" shoe store, I have a super narrow heel, but med everywhere else... My best fitting shoes are slingbacks.

 I had forgotten about slingbacks! It's been a little while (thankfully!) since I had that job. Also as I've been thinking, I do remember hearing about narrow heeled/medium width shoes. I think the brand may have been Naturalizer? You might call shoestores in your area and ask about combination widths.

 Also, we used to stretch leather shoes successfully for customers, but it actually works even better at home. If you find a shoe that fits your heel and is only a little too tight across your width, you might take it home and stretch it. Mix equal parts water and rubbing alcohol and get the inside of the shoe wet where you wish it to stretch. A squirt bottle works great. Applying the mix on the inside minimizes the chance that the dye in the leather will be affected. Wear the shoes until the mix dries, and the leather will be more form-fitted. Sometimes the leather will stretch well, but then tighten back up in the night. If that happens, then just apply the stretching mix again and wear the shoes again. In my experience, shoes that were resistant to stretching would finally relax into a stretch after several applications.

 This only works for genuine leather.

 People used to come in for us to stretch their shoes for them, but our commerical stretching spray was just water and rubbing alcohol, and although we had wooden foot forms, they obviously were general foot shapes and couldn't imitate the nuances of a customer's actual foot.

 

 

Joyous:

Mix equal parts water and rubbing alcohol and get the inside of the shoe wet where you wish it to stretch. A squirt bottle works great

 

That's good to know! I had no idea... you know they sell that "shoe stretch" stuff for a good price.  

 

All in the world it is is diluted rubbing alcohol. Some brands might add scent. We actually sold the labeled stuff at the register and mixed our own in the back.

 That's very close to a scam, isn't it?

 

Except I frequently advised customers that they would get better results at home because they'd be using their own feet instead of generic wooden feet, and told them how to mix the solution! :-)  They still would buy the bottled stuff or have us do it.

Joyous:

They still would buy the bottled stuff or have us do it.

 

In that case, I guess it's not a scam! LOL.. people are peculiar creatures.