Shoes are Ruining Our Feet



Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa compared the feet of people from different cultures plus 2,000 year old skeletons. The skeletons had the healthiest feet (at least when they were alive), followed by the modern population that normally goes barefoot.

“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.

Walking barefoot may be best, but it’s difficult to do in the modern world. Designers are working on shoes that have less padding, fewer features, and simulate the act of walking barefoot. New York magazine looks at this and other ways we can learn to walk healthier. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Tom Schierlitz)


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Posted on April 22, 2008 at 9:57 am by Miss Cellania
Category: Fashion, Medicine

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34 comments to "Shoes are Ruining Our Feet"

  • Parker
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am

    I think the wave of ballerina/slipper shoes..which started at least several years ago..would be a good alternative according to this article. I know that after wearing ‘regular’ shoes and then wearing an almost sole-less show with no padding has got to be the closest thing to walking barefoot because it hurts like hell initially. Crocs on the other hand are probably the exact opposite.

  • tim
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am

    I bought these neat shoes called “five fingers” that simulate barefoot walking but protect one’s soles. They feel great!

  • DrJones
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am

    How do flip-flops do on the feet? I would assume they’re better than shoes, but not quite as good as the natural barefoot.

  • sigh
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am

    omg! What a major problem! And yet, billions of people still are able to walk! … comfortably!

    Is this that big of a deal? And what about all the evidence that low impact exercise is better for you?

    “The skeletons had the healthiest feet.” LOL, but they’re still dead, Jim.

  • cuimhne
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am

    I wonder what these scientists think of MBTs? I have a pair and wear them most days. They’re supposed to simulate walking barefoot on soft ground.

  • yudonomi
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am

    More evidence that we should all (still) be wearing Converse Chuck Taylor high tops. Those things have no padding at all.

  • bean
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 am

    DrJones-
    Thong sandals or flip-flops are famous for causing damage to the arches of our feet, as are shoes with no padding like Chuck Taylors.

    It’s stupid to compare just the feet of Ice Age men to our feet, because the rest of our bodies are fundamentally different. We are all much taller, putting more of our weight directly down onto our feet. Our ancestors did not walk as upright as we do.

  • Thespian24601
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Tim- where would I be able to acquire said shoes? I love walkin barefoot, but I can’t do it everywhere on campus. If they would let me, I would walk barefoot all the time. It’s just so much more comfortable.

  • raymond
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    I, too, own a pair of vibrams and I can’t get enough of them. The only downside is that after a while they do hurt but I talking like 9 hours of running around and being on your feet the whole time.

  • Benny Lava
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Cavemen also had no sense of style. Feet be damned; give me a sexy pair of heels any day over those hideous ballet slippers.

  • l'elk!
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    a friend of mine always wears split-toe ninja boots or whatever the formal name for them is in japan. really easy on the feet. feels like you’re barefoot. good for running, climbing and flipping out and killing people.

  • Tom
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    I tore the soles off of a pair of old sandals I had laying around (they were falling off already). Without the soles (just the pad part), I found walking around a lot more comfortable.

    I might get a pair of those five fingers types, even if they look ridiculous, just to work out in the yard.

  • sparge
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    So: without shoes, our feet get dirty, callused, scratched, punctured, frostbitten, infected, etc. With shoes we might develop chronic skeletal problems. Sounds like a wash to me.

    Maybe it’s just that I’m so used to wearing them, but I find that I walk differently when I go barefoot, I go slower and end up with more muscle soreness. Unless I’m sitting or lying down, I always prefer to wear shoes.

  • Christophe
    April 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    The other day I stepped on something bad and smelly. I was glad I had shoes ;)
    yeaah go shoes!

  • Oomi
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    95% of the time I’m barefoot.
    4% of the time I’m wearing flip-flops or sandals.
    1% of the time I’m wearing shoes.

  • LMstuff
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    I like my shoes too! But enjoy running on the beach without them. I have really uncomfortable pairs and super comfortable ones. One thing I just can’t figure out why women go through so much pair to wear high heels and cowgirl boots. My girlfriend used to wear cowgirl boots quite a bit and her feet were sore just after a couple hundred feet! She would complain at night how sore they were. No she were comfortable sneakers most of the time.

  • stacyj
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    I realize this is just my own little ‘issue,’ but - ugh - there’s something about feet I find incredibly off-putting, I think I suffer from the opposite of a foot fetish … horrible flapping knobbly things with their calluses and sweat and thick skin and toe-hair - UGHH! Again, I know it’s just my little issue - I’m not saying ‘feet are gross’ so much as I’m saying ‘-I- find feet gross’ - but man oh days, am I ever glad modern society encourages those things to be more or less concealed most of the time (and don’t even get me STARTED on flip-flops ;))

  • Scooter
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    They are called Moccasins people, native Americans wore them, they are very comfortable and almost feel like you are barefoot. The world feels really different with only a single piece of leather between you and the ground.

  • Ali S.
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I enjoy shoes too, however, I always make it a habit to not wear shoes or socks at home.

  • J of The Sandhills
    April 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    the most comfortable shoes i ever had were combat boots..
    thick soles and perfect arch support for me.

  • Keudy
    April 22nd, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    Personally, I’d like to avoid hookworm and getting my feet cut by glass and metal.

  • matt
    April 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    Clothes are also ruining our bodies. Get naked, people!

  • Justin
    April 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Keudy, when I was in the galapagos, our guide would walk around barefoot on the incredibly sharp and rough lava rock. By the end of the trip though, I completely destroyed a pair of high end new balance sneakers walking on the stuff.

  • rachell
    April 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm

    i wear my chacos when i’m feeling like a hippy. which is fairly often, especially because the weather isn’t gross anymore.

  • Lindsay
    April 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    stacyj: I feel the same way! Feet are way gross, and I HATE flip-flops, both wearing them and seeing them. Who knew there was another like me? :)

  • Alannah
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    To save my feet from the horror of shoes, I’ve decided to hand walk everywhere. I need to know, tho, should I wear gloves?

  • Sondra
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    I used to go barefoot all the time when I was younger, but now it’s shoes every day :\ Check out http://runningbarefoot.org/ for more barefoot-craziness :D

  • Dave
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    When I broke my ankle a few years back, I spent a couple months on crutches and my foot wouldn’t fit into a shoe for three months. My foot shed the calluses it had and ended up as smooth as a baby’s butt. That is until it healed up and was able to get back into a shoe.

  • stacyj
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    *laugh* Woohoo, Lindsay, we’ll have to start our own foot anti-fetish club! We may be few in number but heck, surely we can stamp out barefootedness and flip-flops with our own “properly-shod” feet :)

  • Barbwire
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    When my girls were little, the doctor told me to let them go barefoot as much as possible. His reason was that the high-top baby shoes made for weak ankles, but at least my kids had the advantage of bare-footin’ more than most of their generation.

  • Jacques
    April 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 am

    flip flops are just evil, I would rather walk all summer in combat boots than have to suffer the frustration of clinging onto a pair of flip flops.

    We always went barefoot in the summer when I was a kid, I don’t think kids go barefoot anymore, not in my neighbourhood anyway.

    Why am I being accused of posting comments to quickly?

  • fsmarch
    April 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 am

    Men’s shoes are bad enough, but I am often amazed at the silly things that women wear on their feet. How do you even walk with high heels?

    I like wearing sneakers.

  • escapenguin
    April 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    I have two pairs of Vivo Barefoot Aquas. They were very expensive, and the sole wears out faster than I’d like, but they are extremely comfortable once you get used to them. You don’t realize how busted your gait is until you put a pair on and wear them for the first time. My posture is better now too.

    I’m sure everyone’s mileage will vary… a lot of people just can’t get used to wearing a shoe without a heel and give up. I adjusted after an hour or so. If you have “bad” feet, they’re probably not for you though I’ve heard some have toughed that out and been the better for it.

  • su.wei
    April 25th, 2008 at 2:55 am

    there’s a guy up here in Fairbanks AK that walks around barefoot all year long. even in winter where the temperatures are -20 to -50F for 5 months. i bet his feet are healthy. :)

    my keens are nice, i can feel everything i walk on. :)

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Neatorama » Blog Archive » Shoes are Ruining Our Feet
   
     
   
   

Shoes are Ruining Our Feet



Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa compared the feet of people from different cultures plus 2,000 year old skeletons. The skeletons had the healthiest feet (at least when they were alive), followed by the modern population that normally goes barefoot.

“Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.” In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.

Walking barefoot may be best, but it’s difficult to do in the modern world. Designers are working on shoes that have less padding, fewer features, and simulate the act of walking barefoot. New York magazine looks at this and other ways we can learn to walk healthier. Link -via Geek Like Me

(image credit: Tom Schierlitz)


Previous Post
Get Neatorama by RSS or email
 Next Post
this post? Please email a friend  +reddit  +SU 
Posted on April 22, 2008 at 9:57 am by Miss Cellania
Category: Fashion, Medicine

From our new online store:
» More fun T-shirt designs at our Online Store

34 comments to "Shoes are Ruining Our Feet"

  • Parker
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am

    I think the wave of ballerina/slipper shoes..which started at least several years ago..would be a good alternative according to this article. I know that after wearing ‘regular’ shoes and then wearing an almost sole-less show with no padding has got to be the closest thing to walking barefoot because it hurts like hell initially. Crocs on the other hand are probably the exact opposite.

  • tim
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am

    I bought these neat shoes called “five fingers” that simulate barefoot walking but protect one’s soles. They feel great!

  • DrJones
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am

    How do flip-flops do on the feet? I would assume they’re better than shoes, but not quite as good as the natural barefoot.

  • sigh
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am

    omg! What a major problem! And yet, billions of people still are able to walk! … comfortably!

    Is this that big of a deal? And what about all the evidence that low impact exercise is better for you?

    “The skeletons had the healthiest feet.” LOL, but they’re still dead, Jim.

  • cuimhne
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am

    I wonder what these scientists think of MBTs? I have a pair and wear them most days. They’re supposed to simulate walking barefoot on soft ground.

  • yudonomi
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am

    More evidence that we should all (still) be wearing Converse Chuck Taylor high tops. Those things have no padding at all.

  • bean
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 am

    DrJones-
    Thong sandals or flip-flops are famous for causing damage to the arches of our feet, as are shoes with no padding like Chuck Taylors.

    It’s stupid to compare just the feet of Ice Age men to our feet, because the rest of our bodies are fundamentally different. We are all much taller, putting more of our weight directly down onto our feet. Our ancestors did not walk as upright as we do.

  • Thespian24601
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Tim- where would I be able to acquire said shoes? I love walkin barefoot, but I can’t do it everywhere on campus. If they would let me, I would walk barefoot all the time. It’s just so much more comfortable.

  • raymond
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    I, too, own a pair of vibrams and I can’t get enough of them. The only downside is that after a while they do hurt but I talking like 9 hours of running around and being on your feet the whole time.

  • Benny Lava
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Cavemen also had no sense of style. Feet be damned; give me a sexy pair of heels any day over those hideous ballet slippers.

  • l'elk!
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    a friend of mine always wears split-toe ninja boots or whatever the formal name for them is in japan. really easy on the feet. feels like you’re barefoot. good for running, climbing and flipping out and killing people.

  • Tom
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    I tore the soles off of a pair of old sandals I had laying around (they were falling off already). Without the soles (just the pad part), I found walking around a lot more comfortable.

    I might get a pair of those five fingers types, even if they look ridiculous, just to work out in the yard.

  • sparge
    April 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    So: without shoes, our feet get dirty, callused, scratched, punctured, frostbitten, infected, etc. With shoes we might develop chronic skeletal problems. Sounds like a wash to me.

    Maybe it’s just that I’m so used to wearing them, but I find that I walk differently when I go barefoot, I go slower and end up with more muscle soreness. Unless I’m sitting or lying down, I always prefer to wear shoes.

  • Christophe
    April 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    The other day I stepped on something bad and smelly. I was glad I had shoes ;)
    yeaah go shoes!

  • Oomi
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    95% of the time I’m barefoot.
    4% of the time I’m wearing flip-flops or sandals.
    1% of the time I’m wearing shoes.

  • LMstuff
    April 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    I like my shoes too! But enjoy running on the beach without them. I have really uncomfortable pairs and super comfortable ones. One thing I just can’t figure out why women go through so much pair to wear high heels and cowgirl boots. My girlfriend used to wear cowgirl boots quite a bit and her feet were sore just after a couple hundred feet! She would complain at night how sore they were. No she were comfortable sneakers most of the time.

  • stacyj
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    I realize this is just my own little ‘issue,’ but - ugh - there’s something about feet I find incredibly off-putting, I think I suffer from the opposite of a foot fetish … horrible flapping knobbly things with their calluses and sweat and thick skin and toe-hair - UGHH! Again, I know it’s just my little issue - I’m not saying ‘feet are gross’ so much as I’m saying ‘-I- find feet gross’ - but man oh days, am I ever glad modern society encourages those things to be more or less concealed most of the time (and don’t even get me STARTED on flip-flops ;))

  • Scooter
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    They are called Moccasins people, native Americans wore them, they are very comfortable and almost feel like you are barefoot. The world feels really different with only a single piece of leather between you and the ground.

  • Ali S.
    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I enjoy shoes too, however, I always make it a habit to not wear shoes or socks at home.

  • J of The Sandhills
    April 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    the most comfortable shoes i ever had were combat boots..
    thick soles and perfect arch support for me.

  • Keudy
    April 22nd, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    Personally, I’d like to avoid hookworm and getting my feet cut by glass and metal.

  • matt
    April 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    Clothes are also ruining our bodies. Get naked, people!

  • Justin
    April 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Keudy, when I was in the galapagos, our guide would walk around barefoot on the incredibly sharp and rough lava rock. By the end of the trip though, I completely destroyed a pair of high end new balance sneakers walking on the stuff.

  • rachell
    April 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm

    i wear my chacos when i’m feeling like a hippy. which is fairly often, especially because the weather isn’t gross anymore.

  • Lindsay
    April 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    stacyj: I feel the same way! Feet are way gross, and I HATE flip-flops, both wearing them and seeing them. Who knew there was another like me? :)

  • Alannah
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    To save my feet from the horror of shoes, I’ve decided to hand walk everywhere. I need to know, tho, should I wear gloves?

  • Sondra
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    I used to go barefoot all the time when I was younger, but now it’s shoes every day :\ Check out http://runningbarefoot.org/ for more barefoot-craziness :D

  • Dave
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    When I broke my ankle a few years back, I spent a couple months on crutches and my foot wouldn’t fit into a shoe for three months. My foot shed the calluses it had and ended up as smooth as a baby’s butt. That is until it healed up and was able to get back into a shoe.

  • stacyj
    April 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    *laugh* Woohoo, Lindsay, we’ll have to start our own foot anti-fetish club! We may be few in number but heck, surely we can stamp out barefootedness and flip-flops with our own “properly-shod” feet :)

  • Barbwire
    April 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    When my girls were little, the doctor told me to let them go barefoot as much as possible. His reason was that the high-top baby shoes made for weak ankles, but at least my kids had the advantage of bare-footin’ more than most of their generation.

  • Jacques
    April 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 am

    flip flops are just evil, I would rather walk all summer in combat boots than have to suffer the frustration of clinging onto a pair of flip flops.

    We always went barefoot in the summer when I was a kid, I don’t think kids go barefoot anymore, not in my neighbourhood anyway.

    Why am I being accused of posting comments to quickly?

  • fsmarch
    April 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 am

    Men’s shoes are bad enough, but I am often amazed at the silly things that women wear on their feet. How do you even walk with high heels?

    I like wearing sneakers.

  • escapenguin
    April 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    I have two pairs of Vivo Barefoot Aquas. They were very expensive, and the sole wears out faster than I’d like, but they are extremely comfortable once you get used to them. You don’t realize how busted your gait is until you put a pair on and wear them for the first time. My posture is better now too.

    I’m sure everyone’s mileage will vary… a lot of people just can’t get used to wearing a shoe without a heel and give up. I adjusted after an hour or so. If you have “bad” feet, they’re probably not for you though I’ve heard some have toughed that out and been the better for it.

  • su.wei
    April 25th, 2008 at 2:55 am

    there’s a guy up here in Fairbanks AK that walks around barefoot all year long. even in winter where the temperatures are -20 to -50F for 5 months. i bet his feet are healthy. :)

    my keens are nice, i can feel everything i walk on. :)

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You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. We don't censor comment based on your point of view but comments that are abusive, use excessive profanity, or contain off-topic links may get edited or deleted. On some posts, it may take up several minutes for you comment to show up.


Stay updated on the comments in this post with Comment RSS