Designer Shoes

Posts Tagged ‘sketchers’

Curved-sole shoes have always looked like a gimmick and now experts are saying that’s exactly what they are.  According to the Sketcher’s Shape-Ups campaign, their shoes help you “get in shape without going to the gym” – which is a nothing-claim from the outset.  It doesn’t matter what shoes you wear, or even whether you bother wearing shoes; if you walk ten miles every day, you’ll probably get in better shape.  Putting on some shoes is not going to make the slightest bit of difference – it’s what you do in them. 

So, what are you meant to do in them?  Well, apparently the idea is that the rocking soles make it harder to stand upright – working your muscles harder and burning more calories when you walk around.  However, as podiatrist Marlene Reid points out, “The shoes limit normal motion in the foot.  So you may be under-using some muscles and overusing others.”  Exercise physiologist Pete McCall from the American Council on Exercise adds to this, saying the effect on weight or muscle tone is likely to be negligible. 

Sketchers have refused to publish their small surveys, saying they are currently doing a larger study.  However, shouldn’t the studies have been done before they started making insane claims about the effects of their shoes?  Does it not seem that, once again, we have a major business leading the way in the distribution of totally inaccurate information?  As a personal trainer, advanced fitness instructor and strength trainer, here is my opinion: will walking around in these shoes promote weight loss, strengthen the back, tighten the abs, firm the muscles in the legs and improve circulation?  Yes, it will.  However, so will walking around in any trainers, or even barefoot; the health and fitness benefits these shoes claim are benefits of walking – they are nothing to do with these silly designer shoes.  How can the public be expected to make sensible, well-informed decisions about their health when the people they look up to and respect in the field tell them nothing but nonsense?