Perils of Wearing Skecher Shoes
When you first put on a Skecher shoe you feel like you have placed your foot on a pillow and doesn’t it feel so comfy and wonderful. The price seems right, and everybody is wearing them, so they must be good, but have you ever bought a very spongey cushioning mattress and then developed back pain? Cushioning does not always equate to being good for you. If you have great biomechanics and no issues then you will be okay, but if you haven’t then you could be heading for developing problems. Perversely, wearing a Skecher could inadvertently identify that you aren’t biomechanically sound!
The memory foam in Skechers is only a thin layer of low density polyurethane which soon compresses. It simply loses it’s memory and in effect develops ‘Insole Alzheimers’ whereby it doesn’t know what it should be doing anymore, which isn’t good or beneficial for the wearer. As a consequence, Skechers can cause ligament and muscle stresses and strains. The memory foam could take on the ‘memory’ of a poor gait style causing destabilising foot, ankle, knee, hip and lower back pain.
At our clinic we have many patients who have attended us with lower limb and foot pain which has been exacerbated or caused by wearing Skechers. People genuinely believe an ultra-soft, flexible and spongey sole will be good to wear to alleviate their sore feet and legs. It is then the role of a podiatrist to identify any biomechanical issues and advise the wearing of a stiffer more stabilising shoe type which properly activates the correct muscles in the foot and controls range of motion. It is about putting the right mattress type on your feet. There is then the important factor, that if a patient must wear an orthotic insole, it has to work as a ‘system’ with the shoe for optimal results. No point putting a stabilizing insole on a destabilising broken down base.
Finally, have you ever noticed that Skecher shoes get very pongy?
