Last week the Today Show did a feature about how bad flip-flops are, Here’s how to wear flip-flops without ruining your feet. They always hate flip-flops, and end up saying stupid stuff.
This one was no different.
Of course they tell us how horrible they are for our feet. But then they tell is that, in 2014, of “198,437 emergency room visits due to shoe-related injuries, 25,300 were associated with flip flops.” That’s a mere 12.75%. (Of course, that number is worthless unless we know the normal frequency of wearing flip-flops is.) And they tell us that “Podiatrists blame flip-flops for blisters, bacteria, viral infections, bad posture, shooting pains, bunion exacerbation (and formation!), hammertoe issues, athlete’s foot, and lack of arch support.”
Yeah, the usual ignorant podiatrists.
But they gave a link to a Consumer Product Safety Commission webpage that looks at Emergency Room visits.
So, I took a quick peek at footwear injuries.
The results were illuminating. Here are a few from the first 30 cases that came up:
51-year-old female had her shoe break while on the street and rolled her right ankle, fracturing it.
45-year-old male stepped on a nail that went through his boot and punctured his right foot.
35-year-old male stepped on a nail that went throught his sandal.
49-year-old female stepped on a nail that went through tennis shoe.
32-year-old man, possibly homeless, had worn wet sneakers for several days and developed trench foot.
31-year-old man got a puncture wound to his foot after stepping on a nail that went through his shoe.
37-year-old female stepped in a nail that went through her flip-flops giving a puncture wound to her foot.
8-year-old male in someone’s yard stepped on a piece of glass that went through his sneakers into his foot.
36-year-old male fell trying to take off his boot and fractured his right tibia. (!)
65-year-old female was walking in flip-flips when she tripped and fell, striking her face on the floor.
29-year-old female was wearing high heels and twisted her left ankle at home. Diagnosis: sprained ankle.
30-year-old female tripped going up concrete stairs wearing steel-toed shoes and hit knee on step. Diagnosis: contusion of the lower extremity and laceration to the knee.
68-year-old-female tripped over shoes on the floor at home injuring (spraining) her left foot.
And they think we are unsafe for going barefoot?
And that’s before you even get into stuff like what steel toecaps do to your knees (or even regular shoes)
I think I’m going to bookmark this and print it off to show people!
(By the way, you spelt ‘male’ as ‘mail’ a couple of times.)
Thanks. Fixed. I was in a terrible rush to get that out . . . you’ll see why.
Of course flip-flops are dangerous… they cover up the soles of your barefeet and interrupt contact with the Earth! Seriously, though – a long time ago, when I still wore shoes, I once slipped on the stone tiles of a shopping mall floor, coming in from the rain and wearing flip-flops because I did not “dare” to go barefoot in public. I had quite a fall and narrowly avoided breaking my arm. With naked feet this would not have happened. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay barefoot!
(Afterthought: Flip-flops should be banned for ecological reasons alone – they make up a substantial part of the millions of tons of plastic floating in the Pacific.)
But notice no matter how many negative presentations about flip flops there are, whether it’s on news reports or articles, the general population ignores this and continues wearing flip flops. Not so with bare feet. With that, the general population agrees that going barefoot is bad and they all stay glued to their flip flops.
Not necessarily related to your post, but this is ironic:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2014/05/barefoot-broke-my-foot-says-suing-woman
Though it does not say, I assume she was wearing some sort of shoe when this happened.
I saw this report on the Today show and it’s mind-numbing how many people still think that shoes are harmless devices. I, too, was astounded by the number of shoe-related incidents but business owners still want to argue that going barefoot is dangerous.
Would barefoot-related injuries even show up the the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s report? After all, there is no product involved.
Yes, shoes do not protect from every danger.
Maybe not there, but the data had to come from somewhere. I’ll see what I can find (when I find the time).