By: Sara John, C.Ped (C)., C.Ped Tech (C)

When the warm weather sets in, many people tend to replace their shoes with sandals or flip flops.  While the flips are easy to slide-on, they can cause damage to the feet and legs due to their lack of support.

When you walk with the flips, the legs end up overcompensating and work harder to get the person walking.  They cause the toes to contract making the muscles in the front of the leg work when they should be at rest – this results in shin pain.

The strain in the arch can lead to pain under the foot leading to plantar fasciitis. Due to the lack of arch support in the flips, the feet will start turning toward the middle of the body instead of staying straight leading to an unstable gait pattern. This can result in twisting the ankles, ankle sprains, knee pain and back muscle strains.

To keep the flips on the foot, the toes have to curl and grip. This can become permanent resulting in hammertoes which can start rubbing the inside of the shoes and develop corns.

With a normal closed shoe with arch support, the foot naturally steps from heel to toe, rolling along the ball of the foot. In a pair of flip flops, you step flat hitting the ball of the foot hard on the ground. If this is done constantly, there will be irritation in the ball of the foot.  The person will experience pain and a bit of swelling in the forefoot from the injury. This condition is called metatarsalgia.

To find the perfect sandals, style need not be sacrificed. Always look for sandals with deeper heel cup. This helps to increase the heel stability and help prevent ankle sprains. Solid strapping helps to hold the foot in place. Orthotic friendly sandals allow the custom made orthotics to be fit. Supportive, light weight outer sole on the sandals helps to provide shock absorption. Flips with strong supportive foot-bed can be used for regular use and the non-supportive flip flops for beach.