Author: William A. Rossi, DPM Published: Podiatry Management, October 2002
Note: This is an original summary, not the full article. The complete text and all figures remain copyright of Podiatry Management.
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Summary
Rossi argues that the foot problems adults carry through life are, in most cases, manufactured in childhood by faulty footwear — and that the professions meant to guard children’s feet (podiatry, orthopedics, pediatrics) have largely perpetuated the problem. By age seven or eight, he says, the average shoe-wearing child’s foot already shows visible loss of natural form, which practitioners wrongly blame on “ill-fitting” or “outgrown” shoes rather than on the inherent design of nearly all children’s footwear.
Much of the article systematically dismantles long-held “rules” of children’s shoe fitting, which he treats as myths:
• Grow room — the half-inch toe allowance actually misaligns the foot’s joints with the shoe’s flex line, creating a built-in misfit.
• Support — the idea that a growing foot needs arch, instep, ankle or heel “support” is, he argues, baseless; he points to the strong, healthy arches of habitually shoeless people (rickshaw runners, barefoot dock workers, children in paved cities) as evidence the foot supports itself.
• Snug fit, ankle support, heel support, pronation control — each, he says, restricts the very movement and exercise the developing foot needs.
He devotes a large section to arguing that sneakers are not the solution: imprecise sizing, high-traction soles that brake the foot and jam the toes, an unventilated “hothouse” interior, exaggerated toe spring, and surprising heaviness all make them as foot-negative as conventional shoes. He is especially critical of heels on children’s shoes, noting that a one-inch heel on a seven-year-old is, relative to body height, equivalent to a two-inch heel on an adult, and that no children’s shoe should have a raised heel.
He also recounts the history of “corrective” children’s shoes, the 1948 FTC investigation that found no evidence behind their health claims, and Dr. Lynn Staheli’s influential 1981 paper against corrective footwear — while noting the official podiatric association stayed notably silent throughout.
His recommendation is direct and, for its venue, radical: advocate shoelessness for children — keeping infants shoeless through the first three years and adopting a shoeless-at-home habit through age 12. He frames this as the single biggest available gain for child (and future adult) foot health, comparing its potential impact to what fluoride did for dental health.