And it looks like wearers who believe that they're getting a good workout may be in for a surprise. Given Pat and Kara's experiences, toning shoes are not advisable-for any duration-for those with balance issues and nerve damage in the feet. If it were up to me, the shoes would be sold in a store's exercise equipment department-not in the shoe department-because they should be worn at most for a couple of hours to supplement your exercise routine, not for an entire day. Pat LaColla eventually gave up and Kara Lombardo went back to regular sneakers as well.
After failing to get used to them, I went back to regular sneakers. But nothing quite prepared me for my 48 hours with Skechers, an experience like walking on a flimsy suspension bridge. I've been known to take a few shoe-related risks in my life: wedges that wobbled, sandals that squeezed, and pumps that pinched so tightly that they reshaped my toes. The sneakers are part of a line in footwear that promises big changes just by walking in them. I recently spent a weekend in Skechers Shape-Ups myself after John Santa, M.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, challenged me to the task after he tried them. "I also noticed that when I walked fast, my toes kept getting caught," she said. The busy mother of a toddler liked the idea of working out while on the job, but knew she had made a mistake by her second patient of the day. Kara Lombardo, a 35-year-old orthopedic physician's assistant, says she suffered from two days of lower-back pain after wearing Skechers in the operating room all day. "I was reeling back and forth so badly, I was sure I'd take a fall," she said.It's not just the elderly who are having problems. Going down stairs was terrifying, even when gripping the banister, and she tried going to the store once and didn't dare leave the house again in them. From the moment Pat laced them up, she began to feel off-balance and was afraid she'd take a tumble. Toning shoes like those she bought are the newest craze in athletic footwear, projected to grow 500 percent to become a $1.5 billion market this year.Īlthough the designs vary, toners typically have strongly curved, thickened soles.
Grandmother Pat LaColla, 82, was lured by the hype-" get in shape without setting foot in a gym"*-when she bought a pair of Skechers last year, wincing at the $100 price tag.
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