Flip-Flops: Hazardous to your Health?

[His Divine Shadow]

I hate sandals and flip flops both, they don't feel scure to walk in. I only got one pair of sandals I use very rarely, they've lasted 10 years without any real wear or tear. But I got this pair of really worn in leather shoes (7 years old), they are so comfortable and they never ever get warm in the summer. Sorta like a cowboy boot, except short as a shoe and a normal sole.

[Dahak]

Flip-Flops are a pest.
I did wear them when I was a little kid, in holidays, on the beach, but after a while I changed for real shoes mostly because these things never seemed to cover my foot properly.
And nowadays, I really rather not have to see peoples ugly bare feet in broad daylight...

[Ford Prefect]

Ever tried walking on a sidewalk barefoot when it's 90+ degrees outside?

People in Australia do this all the time. In the parts of Queensland where I lived, it was the done thing to walk around in bare feet, and 32 degrees Celsius is the lowest it ever gets to in that God forsaken wasteland.

It boggles me. I tried walking on the sidewalks barefoot in Denver before when it was 100+ and it was so fucking hot I could barely tolerate it.

They grow up in bare feet (even Stark, seriously). Because I live in iced Tasmania, walking barefoot is basically asking to be instantly killed, so I never got used to it, and I was expected to walk across roads after they'd been baking in the 30+ degrees all day. They looked at me funny when I insisted that I put on shoes.

[Wyrm]

So are flip-flops worse than high heels now? Because I see

"Flip-flops have singlehandedly caused more problems with people's feet in the last couple years than probably any other type of shoe,"

and I wonder if there's not some exaggeration involved for the sake of a story, considering how messed up people's feet can get from years of wearing heels.

For all their problems, at least high heels are proper shoes, if shoes designed for a mastochist. You don't slip out of them, and they provide some protection for your poor big toe should you accidentally kick the door in them.

Plus there's the fact that many more men wear flip-flops than high-heels. Almost doubles the number of injuries.

Fortunately, no one has found fault with my tevas, and my ingrown toenail has not returned wearing them at work. (No good on wet, soppy days, though, and a bitch when you get a stone in it.)

[Darth Wong]

Doctors define high heels as those with a heel higher than 2 inches, which is pretty steep. I'd venture to say that heels higher than 2 inches are a downright rare shoe type compared to flip flops and sandals, which would easily explain the disparity in reported injuries.

Also, even among wearers of such high heels, I have to imagine that they don't wear them all the time; only when they want to make an impression.

[chitoryu12]

WTF are you talking about?

You are advocating walking barefoot everywhere, he disagrees. And yes flip-flops are useful for running outside to take out trash or whatnot, because frankly there are a lot of things I don't want touching my feet.

Now if you think walking everywhere barefoot is a good idea, you don't do enough walking yourself.

Grats on reading comprehension? "most normal people don't in public", why don't you point out where I advocated walking around barefoot everywhere. I'm simply saying that it really should not HURT to walk barefoot, and if it does his feet are fucked up. He makes it sound like it's some horrible torture to walk on "your own flesh and bone". But by all means don't let what I actually said get in the way of what you wanted to reply to.

I once decided, just for the hell of it, to walk from the rooms to the main pool at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort. The temperature was in the 90s (Farenheit), and the ground was burning hot in any place without shade. It also didn't help that there were no smooth parts of ground to be had. There was concrete, wood that was maintained just enough to keep you from getting splinters every other step, and cobblestone paths. I couldn't walk on the grass, either, because it was littered with pinecones, needles fallen from trees, rocks, and massive amounts of pointy shrubbery.

Now, walking down the street barefoot is fine, as long as it doesn't have the sun shining down on it all day, but go ahead and try walking on the road in the middle of a summer day.

[Adrian Laguna]

Doctors define high heels as those with a heel higher than 2 inches, which is pretty steep. I'd venture to say that heels higher than 2 inches are a downright rare shoe type compared to flip flops and sandals, which would easily explain the disparity in reported injuries.

That's interesting, in the fashion world 2 inches are considered low heels. Specifically, anything lower than 6 cm (2.5 in) is a low heel, between 6 cm and 8.5 cm (3.5 in) is a mid heel, and higher than 8.5 cm is a high heel.

[Tinkerbell]

I just did a quick inventory of the shoes I took to school with me for my month-long summer class.

2 pairs of "thong" style wedge/heel flip flops.
6 pairs of "thong" style flat flip-flops.
1 pair of the flat kind of flip flops that wrap around the top of your foot with velcro.
1 pair of the wedge/heel wraparound flip flops.
2 pairs of high heels for work.

So my feet are fucked?

[Tinkerbell]

I just did a quick inventory of the shoes I took to school with me for my month-long summer class.

2 pairs of "thong" style wedge/heel flip flops.
6 pairs of "thong" style flat flip-flops.
1 pair of the flat kind of flip flops that wrap around the top of your foot.
1 pair of the wedge/heel wraparound flip flops.
2 pairs of high heels for work.

So my feet are fucked?

[Molyneux]

What precisely defines a flip-flop? Does it apply to any sandal that doesn't include some kind of heel fastening? Does it have to have that weird strap-thing between the first and second toe?

I go barefoot or wear sandals as much as possible, as it's the best way for me to avoid athlete's foot. Hell, my feet just plain feel better when I have them relatively unencumbered.

[General Zod]

What precisely defines a flip-flop? Does it apply to any sandal that doesn't include some kind of heel fastening? Does it have to have that weird strap-thing between the first and second toe?

I always just figured flip-flops were just shower shoes, with really thin rubber padding and a thing for your toes to hold them on without the heel. Otherwise they're thongs if they're made of thicker material.

[Darth Wong]

Doctors define high heels as those with a heel higher than 2 inches, which is pretty steep. I'd venture to say that heels higher than 2 inches are a downright rare shoe type compared to flip flops and sandals, which would easily explain the disparity in reported injuries.

That's interesting, in the fashion world 2 inches are considered low heels. Specifically, anything lower than 6 cm (2.5 in) is a low heel, between 6 cm and 8.5 cm (3.5 in) is a mid heel, and higher than 8.5 cm is a high heel.

I'm not particularly concerned about what they call it in the fashion world. The doctors think a heel is "high" when it's higher than 2 inches, which means that's where you have to start being concerned about injuries if you wear them for long.

[Darth Wong]

What precisely defines a flip-flop?

I thought it just meant the kind of shoe which is so poorly secured to your foot that it literally flip-flops as you walk, hence the name.

[Stark]

Yeah, they're pretty much designed by their poor design; a piece of wood or rubber, a thong of some sort to hold it to the ball of your foot, and nothing else. More primitive than footwear from thousands of years ago.

But hey, fashion, right?

[Darth Wong]

Yeah, they're pretty much designed by their poor design; a piece of wood or rubber, a thong of some sort to hold it to the ball of your foot, and nothing else. More primitive than footwear from thousands of years ago.

But hey, fashion, right?

More like laziness than fashion. Flip-flops are popular because you just stick your foot into them; no need to secure anything, tie anything, clasp anything, etc.

[Stark]

That's how people use them in AU (well, until relatively recently) but nowadays (since the American appropriation) there are seriously boutique brands of 'classy' thongs people don't feel uncomfortable 'wearing out'. Once upon a time they were made by rubber companies, now they're label merchandise. It's crazy.

[Plekhanov]

I just did a quick inventory of the shoes I took to school with me for my month-long summer class.

2 pairs of "thong" style wedge/heel flip flops.
6 pairs of "thong" style flat flip-flops.
1 pair of the flat kind of flip flops that wrap around the top of your foot with velcro.
1 pair of the wedge/heel wraparound flip flops.
2 pairs of high heels for work.

So my feet are fucked?

That's amazing, 12 pairs of 'shoes' (which is incidentally more shoes than I have at all) and not a semi decent set of footwear that you could run or go on a decent walk in amongst them.

[Darth Wong]

I've actually tried flip-flops before, although I don't own a pair. I can understand where the injuries might come from: they force you to change the way you walk, and (in my case, at least) it was quite perceptible. I couldn't walk in my normal style because my foot rolls from the heel toward the toe as I walk, and if I land on a flip-flop that way, it's uncomfortable as hell.

High heels must do the same thing: it's obvious that they force you to walk in an unnatural way.

[Stark]

That's amazing, 12 pairs of 'shoes' (which is incidentally more shoes than I have at all) and not a semi decent set of footwear that you could run or go on a decent walk in amongst them.

For a single month, no less. Eight pairs of thongs!

Even if I owned thongs, I could never use them much; my feet have really high arches (apparently) and anything faster than walking needs heaps of support or it messes up my calves.

[Beowulf]

This is why I wear Tevas or Chacos. They're sandals that actually attach to the foot, so they don't go flip flopping about. Takes an extra second to get them on (Tevas need the front ankle strap to be velcroed down, the Chacos have a different fastening system). You still end up walking normally.

[Plekhanov]

This is why I wear Tevas or Chacos. They're sandals that actually attach to the foot, so they don't go flip flopping about. Takes an extra second to get them on (Tevas need the front ankle strap to be velcroed down, the Chacos have a different fastening system). You still end up walking normally.

Unlike flip-flops Tevas (and their equivalents) also have decent soles which support the foot and provide decent grip.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Do Japanese slippers fall under the same category as flip flops? Judging from the descriptions, they seem to.

[Adrian Laguna]

I'm not particularly concerned about what they call it in the fashion world. The doctors think a heel is "high" when it's higher than 2 inches, which means that's where you have to start being concerned about injuries if you wear them for long.

That much was obvious from your post. I was trying to illustrate that as far as shoe designers are concerned 2 inches is nothing, and by that imply that there is a certain disconnect between them and more practical minds, especially since you said 2in is "pretty steep".

Incidentally, I found the worst of both worlds:

[aerius]

Hazardous to my health? Damn right. Damn flip-flops made me fall down a set of concrete steps when I was younger. Stupid things came half off my feet and caused my foot to slip off the step, when I tried to get my foot down on the next step the damn things got in the way then slipped some more so I ended up rolling my ankle and falling down the stairs. It hurt like a motherfucker.

[Spin Echo]

Doctors define high heels as those with a heel higher than 2 inches, which is pretty steep. I'd venture to say that heels higher than 2 inches are a downright rare shoe type compared to flip flops and sandals, which would easily explain the disparity in reported injuries.

Depends on where you are, I'd imagine. I've seen more far more high heels in most of the places I've lived than I have flip flops.

With regards to high heels versus flip-flops, I was trying to dig up any info regarding injury rates between the two and I found this page. What caught my attention is they claim that it's natural for people to walk heel first down stairs. Is that right? I walk toe first down, even in bare feet. I tried walking up and down heel first some stairs and it felt downright ungainly. Maybe it's just a side effect of all the years of ballet training I've had.