Welcome to the Podiatry Arena forums

You are currently viewing our podiatry forum as a guest which gives you limited access to view all podiatry discussions and access our other features. By joining our free global community of Podiatrists and other interested foot health care professionals you will have access to post podiatry topics (answer and ask questions), communicate privately with other members, upload content, view attachments, receive a weekly email update of new discussions, access other special features. Registered users do not get displayed the advertisements in posted messages. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our global Podiatry community today!

  1. Have you considered the Clinical Biomechanics Boot Camp Online, for taking it to the next level? See here for more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
Have you considered the Clinical Biomechanics Boot Camp Online, for taking it to the next level? See here for more.
Dismiss Notice
Have you liked us on Facebook to get our updates? Please do. Click here for our Facebook page.
Dismiss Notice
Do you get the weekly newsletter that Podiatry Arena sends out to update everybody? If not, click here to organise this.

Has Vivo gone too far?

Discussion in 'Biomechanics, Sports and Foot orthoses' started by N.Knight, Aug 1, 2015.

  1. N.Knight

    N.Knight Active Member

  2. Griff

    Griff Moderator

    Whilst there has been some misinterpretation/artistic license with the statements they make about the Wegener et al. systematic review, I do agree with some of their sentiment about children's shoes. The only shoes I let my 2 year old wear are Nike Free. Why not Vivobarefoot? Because they don't make them in his size.

    If they are really serious about showing people they care about their children's feet then I think they should make shoes for 1 year olds and upwards, and not charge 50 pounds+ per pair! The sensationalism and hyperbole do them no favours, but then that's just marketing I guess. What was it Bill Hicks said...?
     
  3. N.Knight

    N.Knight Active Member

    Thanks for paper, just added to the read pile.

    I suppose it is the way Vivo go about it that annoys me. Suppose as you said that is marketing.

    Nick
     
  4. Anette Thompson

    Anette Thompson Welcome New Poster

    In today's clamour and bombardment of messages from the media, there is no other way to make people sit up and take notice than by employing shock tactics for what is rapidly becoming a real problem. Not only chldrens' shoes but also adult shoes are being made to minimal toe box dimensions by manufacturers who are saving millions on literally cutting back on cost of leather and soles.
    Toes need room to grow, intrinsic and lumbrical muscles need space to develop and function - see Footwear Science Vol 1 S1, look at all the work published in the past 20 years on importance of toe function. Go see www.froggie.co.za and look at their range of school shoes. Go visit www.altra.com and how they've taken toe strength into trail and running while retaining cushioning at zero drop.

    Yes, it is important to make a fuss.

    I've done many workshops in nursery schools and primary schools at which outline tracings of children's feet are done and the children taught about where the ball of the foot is, how shoes must have room for toes, where the shoes should flex, how much should they flex (children on tippy toes at this point).

    As parents and custodians of the foot, we cannot sit back and watch while manufacturers insidiously change the forefoot biomechanics of the developing foot of a child by limiting intrinsic foot function. We have a responsibility also to educate the growing foot. After foot maturity (now seen as age 18 to 19) then they can choose risky (shoe or other) behaviour and suffer the consequences.
     
  5. RobinP

    RobinP Well-Known Member

    I have an inherant issue with kids shoes in the same way that I have for flat ballet pumps for ....well...anyone really.

    If you have the requisite strength in your plantar intrinsics and other foot structures to walk barefoot without exceeding the zone of optimal stress for all tissues in the foot, then fine, wear what you want on your feet.

    However, there are plenty of kids out there who wear ballet pumps and other very "minimalist" shoes who are symptomatic. If you are prepared to walk around barefoot like many aussies and south africans (and others I'm sure, just not in the UK because it is bloody wet and cold) for your formative years, the limitation to your walking abilities are probably not the tensile tissues being overloaded but the skin tissues being overloaded. Therefore, until your skin is tolerant of the friction, heat, stones etc upon which you stand, you probably can't do the miles anyway. So, commensurate with the skin tolerance build up, the critical foot strucutres(plantar intrinsics etc) adapt and are far more capable of not requiring external support.

    I don't think that this applies to many kids in the UK and other places. Also, I don't thin kwhat is true for a 2 year old is relevant to a 10 year old as ADLs are very different.

    As with many other practitioners, I'm sure, the most noticable time is the change from junior to senior school where, all of a sudden, lots of things change
    1. More walking between classes
    2. More sport
    3. More likely to walk/bus/train to and from school instead of being taken by car
    4. Increased body mass through adolescence
    5. Far less sensible shoe choices

    So, increased loading and tissue adaptation required and a swap from (usually) supportive shoes to (commonly) plimsoles/ballet pumps/astro trainers/converse style shoes

    I have no problem with what Vivo are doing in producing their range of shoes but like Ian, I think that education needs to be early and not financially punitative and that they are possibly going the wrong way about it
     
  6. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
    They going whole hog on this with a change.org petition:
    For shoes which actively damage children's feet to carry warnings highlighting the dangers
     
  7. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
  8. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
  9. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    Vivobarefoot have just launched a crowdfunding project:
    https://www.crowdcube.com/investment/vivobarefoot-20872
     
  10. BenLV

    BenLV Welcome New Poster

    Apparently, I cannot post links until I have 10 posts. What does everyone think of form-determines-function-forgotten-application-to-the-human-foot/ by Wilkinson?
     
  11. Griff

    Griff Moderator

    A journal with an impact factor of <0.2. And obvious conflicts of interest not declared within text. Not much to talk about really...

    Link for anyone interested: http://faoj.org/2016/06/30/form-determines-function-forgotten-application-to-the-human-foot/

    NB similar approach from them recently here too; another ‘opinion piece’ in an open access (fee paying I assume) low impact and non indexed journal...
    https://clinmedjournals.org/article...d-exercise-medicine-ijsem-4-090.php?jid=ijsem
     
Loading...

Share This Page