Toning shoes

In my former life I spent my days visiting running specialists with a bag full of performance running shoes, running apparel and accessories. I would explain the features and benefits and any new technology, take orders, organise promotions and generally support the sale of the product I had sold in. I'm not sure when it was exactly, but in the early noughties a curious product began making it's way onto the shoe shelves of running specialists with an enormous price tag attached. The MBT or Masai Barefoot Technology.

These shoes were ugly to say the least. They were either black or white with no colour pops and had a huge platform shaped like the bottom of a boat. A few of the running specialists were prepared to take the risk though because the claims were about toning muscles, eradicating cellulite, improving posture, burning calories and improving well being - and this was just by walking and standing in them - no need to run!

They are based on a theory that walking on an unstable surface (hence the curved sole) has amazing health benefits. There was a video in the box (probably a DVD now) with instructions on how to use them and the staff were trained to teach the customer how to walk in them (striking on the heel and rolling through) and how to stand in them (on the pivot, knees slightly bent, rock gently back and to).

Time passed by and those that had taken them soon achieved good turnover. It appeared that something really did work. Most found the market to be female 40 somethings. They could afford them and the appeal of losing cellulite whilst just walking around doing everyday things appealed.

Last week I met up with a friend, Tim, who worked in running specialist retail and sold MBTs successfully. We were talking about running injuries, in particular plantar fasciitis. Tim said that he sold a lot of MBTs to men with this injury and had repeat orders off the back of it because they reckoned that their MBTs helped clear up it up. It just so happens that my other half is finally making a bit of progress in getting rid of a very stubborn bout of plantar fasciitis and so my ears pricked up and I have been keeping a bit of a look out since. There are quite a few "toning shoes" on the market that claim to do the same job as an MBT but are they to be trusted?

If you look on the MBT website you will see that they put out a strong warning:"Watch out, there are fakes about!" They warn of companies offering consumers cheaper, lesser quality fake MBTs. MBT claim that these fakes can actually damage rather than help strengthen the body and strongly recommend customers purchase MBTs only through approved retailers and dealers who are trained. This is all well and good of course if your wallet can take a hit of three figures but it's very tempting to go for the cheaper option. The unique selling point is the geometry of MBTs and the way it effects your gait biomechanically. The type of support you would find in a running shoe isn't there (as this would make the shoe stable and go against the philosophy) and the cushioning appears to be standard EVA so the expensive components that are in most running shoes are not in the equation. So if companies, such as Aldi and Sketchers to name just a couple, have taken this concept and started producing look-a-likes or shape-a-likes, what is it that makes MBT more desirable? They may well use richer materials than others that will offer superior comfort and MBT put time and resources into training the staff that give us the correct advice so that we will get the best out of our MBTs but I might just pop down to Aldi on Thursday anyway to see them in real life.