An international sensation began in 2009 with the release of Skechers Shape Ups – toning shoes became a fad that still has no end in sight. There have been similar products before, but Skechers Shape Ups caused a stir, making them the most popular in the category. Practically every other company that manufactures athletic shoes has released a toning shoe line since then – and there are new speciality companies that have cropped up and garnered huge success (like the popular Fit Flops).
The premise behind the design of toning shoes is that wearing them everyday should improve your health and body. The sole is generally thicker than usual, and in some models has a curve, and the insoles are designed to mould to your foot and provide extra cushion.
Despite the fact that this trend has hit only recently, the first body-firming footwear was released in the seventies, named Earth Shoes. They sported a sole that gave the impression of walking in sand, improved your posture and activated more muscle groups than normal footwear. They called their innovation Negative Heel Technology. And after thirty-some years, this technology has returned, massively overhauled and improved with third millennium technology.
Today’s firming footwear sport three kinds of soles: rocker bottom soles, which are built to improve spinal alignment, minimize pressure and stimulate a natural gait; curved soles, designed to give lateral instability, and; the collapsible heel, which simulates walking in sand. Rocker bottom soles come in three additional varieties – flexible, semi-ridged and ridged.
Collapsible heel soles are intending purely for walking. Curved soles can be used for walking or jogging, but not activity that uses lateral movement, given the built-in instabilities. Ridged rocker bottoms are for walking only, and improve posture. Semi-ridged rocker bottoms allow jogging as well as walking. Flexible rocker bottoms are true to their name, allowing you to walk, jog, run and cross-train. One, or a combination, of these soles is found on all toning footwear.
There is a big range of brands and styles of firming footwear – from the ever-popular Skechers Shape Ups to the slyly casual-looking Fit Flops. Skechers Shape Ups were found to be used by one in four athletic-footwear-wearing American women in a study released in May 2010 – easily making them the most favored choice.
What attracts most people to this kind of footwear appears to be the concept of enhancing everyday activities that they already do – no extra time needed, whether you run five miles a day or just do laps to your office coffee machine.
So get a pair of toning shoes if you want to tone up, develop a better posture, minimize joint stress or back pain, activate unused muscle groups, improve your gait, or all of the above.

January 31st, 2011
Theo Orlissian
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