I'm definitely excited for spring and summer shoes! I also have fussy feet but I do OK with Naot, Born, and other comfort brands. Width is a problem (I have wide feet). My stock of footwear for these seasons is pitiful. Last year I mostly wore Havaianas. This year I know better! On my list:

Cherry red ballet flats, preferably patent
Red and charcoal converse (still deciding betwen hi and lo tops)
Gladiators or a sandal in the style of the Born Lillias that Maya already posteda multipurpose metallic (champagne, shimmery nude, pewter, bronze, or copper)
Low, walkable peep-toe wedges
Possibly some red sandals like these: http://canada.zappos.com/n/p/p/7411531/c/3661.html

Does anyone have experience with the Fitzwell brand?

In response to Maya, "Or if I could somehow keep my foot from slipping to the front. I think foot petals makes a product like that to prevent toe overhang in open-toe shoes, but I haven't tried it yet.", I swear by these inserts to keep feet from slipping forward. They have saved some heels and wedges for me that would be unwearable without them and give some cushioning to the ball of the foot.

For comfortable summer walking shoes, if Privo doesn't fit well (they are too wide for me and I don't have narrow feet), keep trying other brands that have a similar style. Hush Puppies that I've found at DSW are my 8-hour flats. I'm hoping for even more options in this style of shoe (athletic flat) this summer.

Maya, it sounds like your feet are narrow in the heel and wide at the foot bed. I wonder if it's possible to have the footbed on a pair of shoes that almost fit stretched professionally. I think someone mentioned that Nordies will do this??

Joy, my feet are extremely wide at the front. I have had my shoes stretched before, but it's not enough. I did a little experiment once where I just tried on all different sizes to see what size my feet are in width, and I had to go up to a 7.5 or 8 (my actual shoe size is only a 6 or 6.5). It's quite a task to get a shoe to stretch a whole size or more. I'm also not sure if they can do just the front of the shoe and not the heel. I guess we might find out because I'm out of ideas.

Privo might be a good bet for me then. I will also give the foot petals a try.

Maya, I have those white Sofft sandals too. They stay on my foot just fine, but after a day of wearing them, the top of my foot, where the metal circle is, becomes very tender, as if it is bruised! I have to give them a rest for 3-4 days before wearing them again. Needless to say, I don't wear them very often.

My feet are wide at the ball too, and I have a bunion on one foot, which makes fitting shoes difficult because essentially one foot is wider than the other. I do find that wide-widths are more comfortable, though this can be hit-or-miss fitting the bunion-free foot. I am somewhere between a regular width and a wide width.

I suspected the O-ring would irritate me after a while too, but it was hard to tell since it wouldn't stay on my foot!

Whenever I try wide widths, they never feel wide. Sometimes they feel even narrower than a medium. If you look at the reviews for a lot of Sofft shoes, they will be reviewed as "narrower than marked." I think they deliberately make the wide fit like a medium, medium fit like a narrow, etc. Why they do this is a mystery to me, but it seems like a common practice among all brands that offer a wide width.

Of course, I need a double wide (probably a triple wide if it existed). But those fall off my narrow heels. I own these flats and they were even more painful than my regular width ones.

http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/44225196/c/72.html

Besides slipping off my foot, the top of the shoe cut into my "bunion bone" (I don't know what it's called, but it's right where the big toe joins the foot, where you would get a bunion) and I was bleeding and bruised in that spot. It hurt so much that I actually considered taking it off and walking barefoot on the streets of NY! With some careful limping and a box of emergency bandaids, I managed to make it to the train and get home, but it was horrible...especially since I was wearing them to a followup job interview! I had to hide my immense pain from everyone. Not an experience I would like to repeat!