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I am looking for a bit of advice and am fully prepared to get shot down in flames for this, so:

I was channel hopping a few nights back and one of the UK shopping channels had negative heeled shoes for sale, as 'designed' by an American fitness personality. (i think it was Tony Little)

The sales patter was that they will help give you a workout as you walk.

We all know as a society we want a quick fix to a solution and compliance with stretches is patchy at best, so it got me to thinking, has anyone or would anyone advise on the use of a negative heeled shoe as therapy for those who require stretching for the calf/achilles.

I looked into their website and that of the other negative heeled shoes manufacturers that i could find (Earth Shoes).

The information i found was that the negative heel inclines the forefoot by 3 degrees for the the cheeks and 3.7 degrees for the Earth Shoes.

I found the other thread on the Arena stating the 'possible' litigation of such footwear, which was very enlightening:
http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=23105

I couldn't find the reason for the specific degree of inclination of the forefoot, why 3.7 why not 3.8 or 3.3 or 4 or 10?
or why it was different in the two makes (possibly copyright/patent).

Does anyone have any information or opinions on negative heeled shoes?

The only research i could find on Negative heeled shoes:

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/isb-fw/Abstracts/MAO_THE_COMPARISON.pdf


So my extinguishers ready, flame on.