The Fitflop
It looks like a regular flipflop to me, but they (Darren James and Dr David Cook, the developers) call it The Fitflop.
There is a footwear phenomenon in the last years that promises far more than just comfort and style. I don’t know what happened to Fitness, Pilates or weight lifting, but it seems like now all you have to do is change your shoes.
The most recent sensation is the FitFlop, whose producers try to convince the public that it gives you longer and leaner-looking legs. The website is even apologising for the sandal’s “out of stock”, which is due to its “selling out faster than you can say gluteus maximus”.
On the producer’s site you can read that the sandal’s “uniquely built mid-step is designed to tone thighs, activate muscles and tone the calves and gluteal muscles” as well as to reduce joint strain by “recreating the gait of barefoot walking”. The way the sole is shaped, say its promoters, makes the foot unstable, thus encouraging more movement than usual. And by raising the middle of the shoe, it helps to prevent collapsing arches.
Trevor Lewis, a consultant physiotherapist specialised in feet and lower limbs at Knowsley Primary Healthcare Trust in Merseyside says that there is no evidence to suggest that FitFlops are better for the feet than any other flip-flop, and that, in fact, both can cause problems. Because of their flatness, they can cause Achilles tendonitis, for example, as well as pain in the lower leg and calf muscles.
Would you want to be in those shoes?
RSS Trackback URL 27. September 2007 (18:19)
Filed under: Exercise, Strange Diets