Mittwoch, Dezember 12, 2007

Earth Boots


I treated myself to some winter boots last weekend. That's what -20 degrees do to you.


Earth boots were designed by a Danish yogini named Anne Kalso and have a negative heel. So far: two thumbs up! They keep my feet warm, and walking feels good - it almost feels like walking barefoot.



Not sure if party guest doggie mc doggerten loves his negative heel rubber boots though...

6 Kommentare:

Sarah hat gesagt…

I have been looking at footwear by this company as well...they seem to have a lot of good designs. I haven't seen them in stores here...did you get them online?

Anna hat gesagt…

I got them at Gravity Pope. They have a sale right now! My spine definitely loves them. I think i might get summer earth as well :)

Ursula hat gesagt…

I too have been looking for a good walking boot. Since my last pair died I wasn't able to go out in the cold to walk the dog, now you've peaked my interest :)

Vik hat gesagt…

What's the theory and benefit of a negative heel?

Anna hat gesagt…

You can find a good summary on the history of Earth Shoes here: http://www.earthfootwear.com.au/anne-kalso.php

Basically, us shoe-wearing-westerners tend to lean forward. Negative heels shift the weight of the body back over the heel and help the body to get into an upright alignment, so that the bones are stacked perfectly, and the big action muscles can relax and don’t have to compensate for a misaligned skeleton.

I found two studies done on negative heel shoes, both were done by researchers of the Chinese University of Hong Kong:

One study is pointing out that negative heel shoes change the orientation of the lower extremities, particularly the ankle joint.

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/isb-fw/Abstracts/HONG_GAIT_FULL.pdf

The other study proved that wearing negative heel shoes moves the center of mass backward.
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/spe/hmlab/20030709/abstract/MAO_THE_COMPARISON.pdf

Fashionista Social Club hat gesagt…

Gorg boots. Glad you like the negative heel. I tried a negative heel sandal a while back and couldn't get used to it. Maybe I should try again :-)