Well what can I say about flat ballet shoes, unfortunately I am not that fashion conscientious but since receiving your email I have been doing some observations of myself. My opinions therefore are purely based on my observation and not on any hard clinical evidence.
Many of the young girls and women that I have seen wearing such shoes have had a tendency to over-pronate (in layman’s terms ‘a rolling in of the medial aspect of the foot and ankle’) whilst walking. Unless the wearer has good foot mechanics in the first place, (ie strong foot arches and good ankle strength) it would appear that these shoes, especially the ones made from cloth as opposed to leather, give little support to the medial arch. The wearer then has a propensity to roll the foot in.
Due to this over-pronation and the excessive stresses and biomechanical changes in wearing this foot wear, this indeed could potentially lead to wide variety of structural and functional disorders. As well as the effects to the foot and ankle, there also could be an effect on the mechanic of the knee, hip and spinal column. These structural and functional changes could lead to ligament strain of the ankles and knees and cause back pain, if these shoes are worn constantly.
Another observation is the heavy planting of the foot itself – one could mistake an elephant walking behind you! This indeed could cause extreme shock and force which would penetrate through the foot and subsequently up through the lower limbs, leading to conditions such as heel spurs, plantar fascitis and shin splints.
As a trained dancer (who had good foot and ankle strength), who wore such shoes regularly for ballet classes, the thought of wearing ballet shoes all day as a fashion accessory, does not appeal to me. It was difficult enough walking from one dance studio to another without changing my normal gait pattern (way I walk) because they were so flat.
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