’There is substantial and incontestable evidence that no commercial footwear fits properly, regardless of type, brand, style, or price. This is because of a combination of inherent faults in the lasts, shoe design and construction. Even the shoe sizing system itself is riddled with faults (we are, incredibly, still using the “system” introduced 630 years ago and “updated” 117 years ago.’
(William A. Rossi, Doctor of Podiatry Medicine, shoe industry advisor)
Table of Contents
How did regular shoes develop?
It didn’t happen so that a scientist woke up one day and asked himself: ’Has evolution done a good job with human feet?’, then carried out a number of studies, found that evolution had been long but inefficient, failing to introduce the ever so necessary elevated heel & thick, inflexible sole, and letting our toes splay far too wide. Finally, he enlightened the shoe industry which in turn started producing narrow, stiff, heel-elevated footwear to alleviate the aches and pains of poor people.
No.
It rather happened so that high heels came handy as status symbols and similar long ago in our history, and we simply inherited them from the past as such. Narrow toe boxes are also a mere inheritance, a crazy fashion that disregards its effects on foot health. And shoe soles are becoming more and more thick because a, this is a nice fashion tool that humanity loves playing with and b, it does in fact reduce the force of landing – unfortunately, in the heel only, while the effects still do reach our bodies in the knees and above.
Science is a great tool, but it requires us to set the frame of a topic well before it can function properly. Alas, the ’modern’ shoe industry works within an outdated, irrational framework that does not allow for posing the right questions.
Books about the connection between narrow shoes and bunions had been written as early as the 19th century, but they were ignored. Just think, though: how much more difficult is it to do push-ups with closed fingers than with widespread ones? Our feet, although relatively tiny, are capable of bearing the entire body weight, and even elevating it through jumps. For this, they need a free splay of the toes. The ’aesthetics’ focused on a narrow football are nothing but a habit, a social consensus, just like skinny or flared trousers, for instance. I know it by experience how fast and easy it is to switch to a beauty standard that is not based on pain. It’s a basic choice we are free to make!
Elevated heels make our bodies walk downhill all day, every day. Can we adapt to that? Yes, in the short and medium run definitely, however, it comes at a price. Our balance is compromised and our spine is forced to introduce unnatural curvatures to compensate and keep us from falling on our faces.
Arch support, in addition, renders the remaining micro muscles that would still be active in our restrictive modern footwear, motionless, and therefore weak. Like a plastered leg: that which does not move, starts deteriorating. Yes, this ’plaster’ is not that stiff, but neither do we wear it for a few weeks only……
Our feet are supplied with thousands of nerve endings and micro muscles, which should all contribute to keeping our balance on any surface – if only we let them do their job. But we don’t. What do you think: can a muscle can stay strong without being in constant use?
All in all, the shoe industry is currently dominated by tradition, not science – and I am not the only one to say this. I speak from experience and from my own empirical evidence, but here’s what the scientist says.
William A. Rossi D.P.M.’s expert opinion
In the March 1999 issue of Podiatry Management William A. Rossi, Doctor of Podiatry Medicine, shoe industry advisor explains at length and in very clear terms how modern shoes prevent our feet from natural and healthy functioning.
The main problems in short
- Raised heels change the natural body balance, resulting in
- overstressed bones, joints, ligaments and tendons
- chronic fatigue and pain
- misplaced organs
- overpronating ankles
- enormous extra load on the metatarsals
- a compromised gait
- shortened Achilles and calf muscles, with further negative effects on compensating body parts
- Toe spring (5-20%) results in
- the toes losing connection to the ground
- further extra load on the metatarsals
- the hallux losing its dominant role in the push-off
- Stiff soles also strongly compromise the natural gait, preventing correct push-off
- Overweight shoes inflict enormous load (several tons / day!) on the feet
- Narrow toe box (in 90% of the footwear) results in a strongly reduced foot tread, leading to a number of dysfunctions
- Sensory restrictions because of the thick soles influence our connection to the ground, our balance and our gait.
Main takeaway
At the time Dr Rossi’s article was written, there were no barefoot shoes on the market yet. How lucky we are to have a steadily growing choice of stylish & healthy footwear that will not compromise our biomechanics!