Wyde Footwear

We never wanted to be just another shoe brand. We wanted to do more & make a bigger impact. That's why we decided to run the largest ever study on modern shoes effect on feet, together with My Foot Function & @Volumental. Give this a short read if you're open minded to a new perspective on footwear ___ Why is this study important and why should you care? A weak foundation = a weak body. Feet are important because they are the foundation of your biomechanical chain and posture. Any movement you perform will begin at the feet, so if they are messed up - nothing will work optimally. We chose to spend a month in Sri Lanka and we studied shoe wearers vs non shoe wearers, as Sri Lanka has both; many big cities where the population has adopted many western ways of life (including modern shoes) and then more rural people who had never worn shoes before. What did we find? The chart in the images below shows HVA (Hallux Valgus Angle) in the vertical axis and shoe wearing habits in the horizontal axis. HVA values of close to 0 are considered to be normal. Above 10 degrees is classified usually as Hallux Valgus (misalignment of the big toe). There is a statistically significant difference between the barefoot population and the shoe/sandal wearing population. The Cohen’s d effect size for the 3 groups were: Sandals/Flipflops vs Barefoot 0.78 Shoes vs Barefoot 0.91 Shoes vs Sandals/Flipflops 0.06 Well, now let's look at 3 of my favorite stories from the study: The Sisters On study day 5, we met a family who had 3 daughters, a mother and a father. They had put extra effort in sending the oldest daughter to school, meaning she was the only person in the family who had worn shoes. And look what happened after just a couple of years of mandatory shoe dress code - BIG HALLUX VALGUS. The other sister and the parents? Perfect feet. Genetics or environment? The Police As soon as we met with occupations where there was a dress code including shoes, we saw a pattern right away. Almost every single police officer had some sort of deformity that we see in the western world. Why are the feet shaped after the shoes? Tea Plantation Workers Here we met with people who worked barefoot outside all day. Super healthy and wide feet all around. Would their feet look like this if they wore normal modern shoes? My personal reflections from this are the following: 1. Modern shoes are horrible for your feet 2. Socks that squish your toes together are bad, be without them as much as possible (be completely barefoot always when you’re home) 3. Flip flops not as bad as I had previously thought 4. Shoe wearing during formative years seem to be most damaging. Help your kids with smart choices! 5. Genetics plays almost no role in Hallux Valgus and other foot related deformities. We will continue to push envelope when it comes to innovative footwear that actually promotes foot health instead of destroying it. What do you think? www.wydefootwear.com