Shoe Care

We’ve all seen the Ugg shuffle, usually performed by a young woman in a

the ugly side of uggs

mall. Hair in a ponytail, she sports sweatpants or jeans with her soft, clunky boots, either true sheepskin Ugg boots or a knock-off.

Listen closely and you can hear the scuffing sound.

Now podiatrists say walking long distances in Ugg boots or knock-offs can be terrible for your feet, especially if you already have foot problems or if you’re young and your feet are still forming.

Dr. Ian Drysdale, principal of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, set off a mini media frenzy in the U.K. last week with remarks that the soft boots are “literally breaking” the feet of the young women who wear them.

He says he grew concerned after noticing tons of girls between eight and 16 in both original and knock-off versions of the boots.

“Because they’re so young, their feet, the bones of their feet and the ligaments of their feet haven’t fully formed, so they’re still quite plastic,” he says.

“And that means they’re deformable as well as formable.”

Drysdale says the boots lack support and a lot of walking causes them to collapse on the inside. This lets the foot and ankle roll inward, creating a flatfoot effect and stressing the ankle and knee joints.

“You get this slight knock-kneed effect,” he says. “That puts pressure on the low back and so on.”

Nobody expected these sheepskin boots to have such a long life after rising to notoriety several years ago when Pamela Anderson started wearing them with her red bikini on the set of Baywatch. Soon, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow joined in the clomping.

Despite being condemned as a fashion faux pas, the boots are still tremendously popular among women and girls.

Toronto podiatrist and foot specialist Hartley Miltchin of Accent on Feet owns an autographed pair of Anderson’s Ugg boots. He, too, is concerned about both the original brand and the many cheaper versions.

“Just walk behind a woman who’s wearing a pair of Uggs and see how distorted they can be in the heel area,” he says. “This is basically a slipper. It shouldn’t be used for walking.”

Ugg Australia says its product, which retails for $165 to $425 depending on the style, is most certainly intended to be worn outdoors. But podiatrists say the soft boots are better off as slippers.

Maria Ariganello has six pairs of knock-offs.

“Ten bucks!” she boasts, wearing a pair of soft beige boots. She realizes they don’t have much support and doesn’t wear them for long periods of time.

“The first time I wore these, my foot started to hurt,” she says, pointing to the arch.

Miltchin says many people have problems with overpronation, a genetic trait that causes the heel to roll in toward the centre of the body. He said walking in an “unconstructed” shoe such as a flimsy boot will not allow overpronation to improve, which could lead to sore feet, sore knees and low-back pain.

Marilyn Bradley, a chiropodist and podiatrist from Podiatry Associates, agrees.

“For anybody that has any kind of foot instability, a biomechanical foot instability — someone suffering from overpronation, anybody with bunions, anybody with heel pain — that definitely is not the kind of boot you want to be in.”

Instead, Bradley says, opt for a full shoe with a stable “counter” gripping the heel and “shank” supporting the arch.Submit url