Only the best for your feet!
Healthy shoes – and why they are so important for our overall well-being
Feet are truly magnificent performers: they can balance our entire body weight day after day on a footprint of just some 100 square centimetres each, they cushion three times our weight with each step – and they carry the average human a total of four times around the earth in the course of a lifetime! This makes it all the more important to take as much care of them as possible – either with a deliberate barefoot break, or by wearing anatomically correct footwear that spreads the load on our feet as evenly as possible and generally improves our well-being.
More than one sole issue…
People’s health consciousness has increased: they not only want to look good in their shoes, they also want to walk comfortably in them. Many shoe manufacturers have therefore devised soles with cushioning properties and invested considerable time in development so as to produce lasts that are anatomically correct in form. The image of the once-scorned “eco-slipper” has fundamentally changed in recent decades – people from all walks of life now happily wear functional shoes that are both chic and modern.
THE right shoe? There’s no such thing!
Buying shoes is all about finding the right shoe for the right person – because every foot is different and needs the right shoe to fit it. A shoe will of course fit best if it is made to measure. However, bespoke shoes, usually handmade, are always expensive and thus hardly within the range of the average consumer. So, in order to provide as many people as possible with affordable shoes, these are produced industrially: one last is used as a model for thousands of identical shoes that can fit the maximum number of feet. The trick is to be as specific as possible when it comes to individual foot shapes so as to guarantee a good fit. To produce good footwear and find a compromise between attractiveness, price and fit, a manufacturer must know all about the feet for which the shoes are being made.
NaturalLook works with shoe manufacturers who achieve just that:
What makes a shoe healthy?
A shoe that fits is always longer than the foot that is to wear it: the toes must have enough space in front of them to permit a rolling motion. However, a foot – as a three-dimensional body – is not only measured in terms of its length, but also of its width. This measurement specifies the volume of the foot for which the shoe is to be made, defining where the shoe has to provide support without pinching. The ideal shoe size is therefore given by the combination of length and width. A shoe that is too wide cannot hold the foot steady and the toes will bump up against the front of the shoe with each step; if the shoe is too tight, on the other hand, the toes and the front of the foot are squeezed at each step, with resulting pain or damage such as hallux valgus or hammer toes. The rule of thumb for every shoe purchase is therefore never to compensate for excessive width with a shorter length – it is better to look for a narrower model as, if the shoes are too big, this will mean an unnatural gait and unnecessary strain on the joints. In basic terms, a shoe has to be able to adapt flexibly to the foot when walking and follow every movement, yet without constricting the foot or preventing it from rolling. At the same time, however, the shoe has to provide adequate support. It is always best to get advice from qualified sales staff directly in a shoe shop, to have your feet measured and only to buy shoes that actually fit while in the shop. And, should the right size not be available, all of NaturalLook’s partner shoe shops can order the desired model via the dedicated B2B Portal.
As an international distributor of healthy footwear, NaturalLook is fully aware of its customers’ requirements and is an equally firm believer in the philosophy of its international sales partners: that of maintaining a healthy posture and increasing physical well-being in a natural way.
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