One of the sounds of summer is the sound of flip-flops. However warm that makes you feel, it can eventually lead to pain and discomfort in your feet. Most flip-flop style sandals are poorly designed and can lead to chronic problems. Read on for the top four reasons why flip-flops are bad for your feet.

Four reasons why flip-flops are bad for your feet:

1. Flip-flops Lead to Excessive Toe-gripping
Since there is only a narrow strip of material holding your foot in place in the flip-flop, with every step, your toes will naturally start to grip on to the sandal to simply keep the flip-flop on your foot, to keep it from falling off.  Repetitively, over weeks and months, this can lead to inflamed tendons, or tendinitis.  Over a few summers, this can eventually lead to a condition called ‘hammer toes, which is associated with pain in the toes and sometimes the balls of the feet.

2.  Flip-flops Provide Little Cushioning and Shock Absorption
Flip-flops are inherently very thin on the bottom, so they provide very little shock absorption as you walk.  By constantly wearing sandals that have such little cushioning, you can develop stress fractures in the bones of the feet.

3. Arch Problems
You could easily call these sandals ‘flat’-flops since they are flat and provide no arch support.  This can promote the actual flattening of your arches, leading to what’s called ‘flat feet’ or pronated feet.  The flimsy flip-flops also can lead to “plantar fasciitis” – an inflammation in the thick band of tissue that runs from your heel to the balls of your feet…so guess where you can get the pain; between the heel and the balls of your feet.

4. Burning Blisters
Flip-flops provide very little material to hold the foot in place while you walk.  This means that the foot moves quite a bit as you walk, rubbing against the base of the flip-flop.  The resulting friction creates a burning feeling or even blisters on the underside of your feet.

For more information, or to book an assessment, contact us at one of our two locations: 519-623-3000 (Cambridge), 905-878-6479 (Milton) or visit us at www.ontariofoot.ca.