Walk and roll: Popular toning shoes stir debate

Lindsay Ross, of Louisville, knows about posture. She has been teaching

Pilates for about 25 years, and has been a fitness instructor for 33. Ross also knows about pain. She suffers inflammatory plantar fasciitis in her feet.

So when she slipped into a pair of Sketchers Shape-ups and felt relief in
her feet, she was sold. Since she started wearing the so-called "toning
shoes," Ross says her pain has decreased about 80 percent, her alignment
is better and she feels significantly less fatigued.

"I call them my tippy shoes," she says. "I love them. I hardly ever wear any other shoes."

Other people anecdotally back up Ross's story, and the shoe companies
themselves claim the products burn more calories, tone muscles, improve
posture and reduce joint stress. Football bigwig, Joe Montana, promotes
Shape-ups.

In fact, toning shoes are the fastest-growing segment of the athletic shoe scene.

But as the popularity surges -- beyond Sketchers, there are FitFlops, Trim
Steps, Reebok EasyTones, New Balance Rock N Tones, Avi Motion iTones and even SmartSole Exercise Insoles to stick inside your regular shoes --
increasingly more doctors and fitness folks are speaking up against them.

Some warn that the claims are just fluff. Others say the shoes are potentially dangerous.
Toning shoes change the wearer's walking gait, using either rounded soles
or extra cushion. The premise: The unstable soles force the body to constantly work to achieve balance, thereby helping tone butts, legs and abs by simply walking around.

This makes the shoes especially popular among people who spend a lot of time on their feet, in restaurants, schools or retail stores.


Lisa Stout, of Berthoud, bought Shape-ups after her friend, a server at a restaurant, swore by them. Stout says she needed closed-toe shoes for
work, so she figured she would try them.

"I was mostly taken with how comfortable they were," Stout says. "My knees
didn't hurt, even after walking 12 miles on hard cement."

Gradually, she says, she noticed her glutes became stronger. "By strengthening your posture, you're overall more toned," she says.

Sketchers, the market leader, which range from about $100 to $125 per pair, cites four clinical studies that show the shoes increase muscle activity and energy consumption.