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Functional Effects of Shoes

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  • First Online:
Handbook of Human Motion

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Abstract

Shoes are an outer covering for the foot, consisting of a more or less stiff sole and a lighter upper that does not extend above the ankle. Shoes have been worn throughout history to protect the feet from physical trauma and environmental extremes with the oldest known footwear being well-preserved leather shoes dating from around 3500 BC. While protection is the primary purpose of shoes, fashion and style considerations also influence shoe design with functional consequences on the foot and lower limb often neglected or of secondary consideration in shoe design and the purchase of shoes. All shoes have the function to protect against physical trauma. For normal daily footwear that is mainly against wounds while sport shoes have to protect not only the feet but also the joint and musculoskeletal tissue against injuries (acute and overuse injuries). In addition, in specific sports, they are also designed to improve performance (e.g., lightweight spikes). Besides protection, a lot of research has focused on two main functions of the shoe: shock attenuation and rearfoot pronation due to the assumed interaction with the development of musculoskeletal injuries. This chapter will discuss these functions in a broader framework, looking at the function of shoes in relation to loading, foot movement, and performance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Benedicte Vanwanseele

  2. Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Benedicte Vanwanseele

Authors
  1. Benedicte Vanwanseele
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benedicte Vanwanseele .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Motion & More, Barcelona, Spain

    Bertram Müller

  2. Klinik für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgi, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

  3. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brueggemann

  4. Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  5. ACRISP, FedUniversity, Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh

  6. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  7. Research, C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, USA

    William Scott Selbie

Section Editor information

  1. Movement Analysis Laboratory, Clinic for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery; Center for Orthopedics, Trauma Surgery and Spinal Cord Injury;Heidelberg University Hospital, Schlierbacher Landstr. 200a, 69118, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Vanwanseele, B. (2017). Functional Effects of Shoes. In: Müller, B., et al. Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_79-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_79-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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