Making Sure Your Shoes Stay Put!

We all love shoes!  Heels, platforms, mules and wedges - it doesn't matter as long as they make our legs look great and make the outfit!  But it's important to make sure they fit properly.

I was walking down Oak Street the other day and spotted this very fashionable young woman and while I was admiring her outfit, I happened to notice that her heels were flying off her shoes!

If you look at her right heel, you will see that her shoe is not supporting her right leg - the heel is falling toward the inside of the shoe!  The 4" platform creates a dangerous ledge that can easily cause significant damage if she were to slide even slightly off that shoe.

Given she is almost 50% off the shoe, this woman is at great risk to literally falling off her shoe (especially if she hits the sidewalk crack wrong).    She is at risk for not only injuring her ankle bones and ligaments, but also for tearing the main tendon that is responsible for supporting her arch.  Injury of this tendon could cause chronic pathology and the damage could it impossible for her to wear her shoes of choice later in life.

Please make sure you test your shoes fully before you purchase any new shoes.  Get off the carpeted area and really walk a test run before committing to that really great pair of shoes.  Unless they are what Oprah once called "dinner shoes" and aren't meant for walking.

Recently, Mattel made big news: Barbie's got a brand-new bod.  As a mother (who is more curvy than many), I am excited to know that there are now Barbie doll options other than those that I grew up with - bodies that reflect body types other than those I had always dreamed of having!  While my daughter is too old to benefit from Mattel's attempt to characterize young women more accurately, I know she will share in my excitement of acceptance of multiple body types. 

But what REALLY excited me was to read that Mattel had already modified Barbie with

removable feet so that she could wear heels and flats!

To me, these will always be Barbie's favorite pair of pumps!

How did I miss that news!!  Can you imagine - feet for flats and feet for heels! 

For evening, we would switch out our flexible flat feet to be able to put on high arched feet to have the stability to actually walk from our Ubers to the restaurant for dinner - without worrying that you might fall off your heels or worse yet, be seen wobbling in those heels.

For day time running errands with the kids (as a mom) or for the kids (as a teacher because when I was a kid all my Barbie's were teachers or secretaries), Barbie can kick off those high arch feet which lack shock absorption and put on her more flexible feet to allow proper foot function and rid her of her back pain.   

Or she can put on the feet that are bunion free (bunions BTW - are usually a result of those flexible flat feet) to put on flats that won't hit right across the bunions and cause direct pain.  Or she can put on the feet with a slight arch to make up for the lack of an arch in most flat shoes.

 

The boots, of course provide the best of both worlds, unless Barbie does have a bunion.

 

Then Barbie may need to go to Barbie Shoe Maker to have them stretched until she is ready to have surgery to correct the bunion.  Which of course, would be the best decision Barbie mom, Barbie teacher or Barbie secretary could make to ensure her future foot health and avoid Barbie arthritis in the unlikely event that she ages.




We won't talk about Barbie platforms!

 Now if only we can come up with a Barbie foot to make those sling backs stay on!

 

How High is Too High??

After watching the Grammy's and watching so many beautiful women try to walk in their heels - I felt compelled to ask this question!  Well, compelled to give a simple answer.

Too high is when you are not walking properly.  So many of the women I saw presenting or accepting a Grammy were walking with their posture changed, their gait changed and their hips, knees and feet not working as they should!

High heels not only put pressure on the feet but also on the knees and the back.  If you are wearing heel and it does not feel like you are walking heel to toe, standing straight and having your normal stride (length and rhythm of each foot step) - the shoe you are wearing are too high!!

And by the way, platforms are not much better!  Many people thing that the height of the platform negates some of the overall heel height, but I can tell you first hand that you do not have a normal walking pattern when wearing platforms.  Often, walking in platforms does not absorb shock like walking in regular shoes do and back pain becomes a problem.