Given that FitFlops are toning shoes, and very popular ones at that, you might expect, if you were to talk to someone who owns a pair, that they would go on at some length about their toning properties.
Another feature about FitFlops is that, unlike many other toning shoes, they don’t look anything like exercise footwear. They are bright, colorful and fashionable – which means that you will be able to wear them in situations where exercise footwear just wouldn’t work. you will get more value for money – and you will get more toning benefits into the bargain. Therefore, you might not be too surprised if a FitFlop wearer was to tell you that they bought their FitFlops because they look great (they do).
However, the first thing that many FitFlop wearers will tell you about is how incredibly comfortable they find their shoes. Not the toning effects, not the fashionable good looks – the comfort. In fact, for a lot of people, the comfort seems to be the number one benefit, with toning and appearance almost being considered as nice additional bonuses.
It’s more than just an interesting snippet of information. If your toning shoes are extremely comfortable, and good looking into the bargain, you will tend to wear them more often and derive more benefit from them as a result.
It’s all thanks to FitFlop’s specially designed “microwobbleboard” sole. This provides increased support for your feet, especially in the area of the arch. The contact area between the sole of the foot and the sole of the shoe is increased, and this reduces the average pressure which your body’s weight exerts on your feet.
The pressure map below shows how ordinary “comfort” shoes (on the left) compare with FitFlops (on the right). Blue areas represent low pressure, red represents high pressure.
The above chart is the result of a pressure distribution study conducted at Salford University in the UK which looked at the pressure distribution in the feet of 20 different individuals when wearing standard flat shoes and FitFlops. The study concluded that there was an 8% increase in contact area between the sole of the foot and the shoe when wearing FitFlops and that this led to an average pressure reduction of 25%.
Which is very scientific of course, but if all you’re interested is in finding out just how comfortable FitFlops are to wear, then talking to some FitFlops owners is a good idea. Don’t be at all surprised to learn that many people own more than one pair as a result of how comfy they are to wear and to walk in.
If you don’t have the chance to speak to someone who already has a pair then there is some useful user feedback in the video below:
It’s a further testament to the comfort of FitFlops that, responding to customer demand, FitFlop recently released their Gogh Pro clog – available in black and white – specifically aimed at hospital workers and others who spend a long time on their feet each day.
