5 ms·

Fashion for pointy shoes unleashed plague of bunions in medieval Britain

41 points by Petiver 5y ago

joe_the_user 5y ago
It's interesting that fashion could do real harm long before advertising, since advertising is often blamed now for irrational choices.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  Before brand names, perhaps…
- icedistilled 5y ago
  Most shoes are sold in a single width. A study showed that at a given shoe length, offering single width means only 40% of people with that length can wear the shoe. This didn't even check how adding foot volume in the mix would decrease the number. Very few shoe companies offer a meaningful selection of shoes in multiple widths. And even when they do, they often aren't much different. It's nuts that something as simple as shoes is so ignored and so simple to do right if only people were aware they were wearing badly fitting shoes. People simply don't know, and even if they did, they couldn't act because they have so few options. Companies don't need to care because people buy the badly fitting shoes regardless. edit: citation: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55432-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55432-z
  - Scene_Cast2 5y ago
    I found that different manufacturers often have a different "default foot" profile. For example, Nike is consistently narrow. So that 40% number might be larger when you consider that people probably shop between brands for comfort as well. There are also some big brands that offer shoes in wide - e.g. New Balance & Cole Hann.
- slipframe 5y ago
  If advertising had no role in influencing people, then companies wouldn't spend fortunes on it.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    That must be why psychics went out of business thousands of years ago.
    - slipframe 5y ago
      How big is the psychic industry? Most psychics I've seen have very cheap shops in the shitty parts of town. They aren't making much money as far as I can tell. Advertising though? How much is spent on that every year? It must be trillions. I believe that "advertising doesn't actually work" is a coping mechanism from people who work in or adjacent to the advertising industry. This belief, that advertising is actually just about scamming corporations, is popular because it seems preferable to the reality that advertising is about manipulating the general public for profit (advertisers and psychics have this in common.)
      - hobs 5y ago
        Huge - because religion should be bucketed in the same realm of mediums, psychics, and general hucksters.
- gerdesj 5y ago
  I think you are confusing branding and advertising. Easy to do these days! A male baboon advertises his massive pink err ... please do a Google image search for: "baboon arse". Anyway - that's advertising: making a deliberate show of something, for a reason. Eg "here's my bum, which is bigger and redder than my rivals - come on down ladies!" Another example might be: "here are some teapots and they are cheaper than the store down the road" Nike is an example of a brand. Branding is a peculiarly human construct. There are loose parallels with red bums but branding has additional baggage. Baboons won't tell people with huge lips to lawyer up but anything that looks like a slug had better watch out for Nike's lawyers. Fashion is an unholy mix of branding AND advertising. Imagine a slug with a red arse ...
  - hollerith 5y ago
    OK, but the only baboons with red butts are fertile females, so a male with a swollen red butt would probably not be particularly impressive or intimidating to other males :)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Glucidio 5y ago
I have had bunions my entire life, and only I was recently told that the foundations for them start appearing as a kid, depending on the width of the feet. I discovered that I had wide feet out of the blue, searching for an specific brand that usually didn't hurt me. That brand was the only one I could use for hours, and then I saw that they made "wide shoes". Could that be the reason they didn't hurt me? From that moment on, I only buy wide or extra wide, and, surprisingly enough, my feet don't but hurt anymore. In hindsight, I should have thought about before, it as during summer I only wear sandals, and of course my feet don't hurt. I am ashamed to say it didn't click until my 30's. I now exercise my fingers, one of my bunions is getting better, the other will need more work. In my country you are only measured by length, so I guess that's the main reason for the bunions and hammer fingers appearing more and more. Please, if you are uncomfortable with your shoes, go to be properly measured. Your feet will appreciate it.
- Groxx 5y ago
  Sorta similar story here. Wide shoes + barefoot style have stopped my bunion growth completely, and fixed my terrible arches. Ever get home, take your shoes off, and notice how much better your feet feel? Mine haven't hurt at all in over a decade now, because I quit using shoes that make my feet feel like that. Pointy, narrow shoes are unbelievably stupid and human-hostile.
  - hobs 5y ago
    Yep, grew up with overly large feet (my foot size tracked my age from 10-16) and I deeply remember finding my first pair of skater shoes (Vans) that were size 14 and marked WWW - that and flip flops have been my saving grace, I have flat feet but I can walk 15 miles without pain in those setups.
    - Groxx 5y ago
      I'm quite lucky that my feet stopped at around size 13, so I could usually find a couple pairs in my size per store. 15+ seems like it'd be difficult :|
PostThisTooFast 5y ago
In the '70s, running shoes became fashionable as everyday shoes for some time. It's unfortunate that these relatively pointy shoes became the standard gym shoe worn all day by a generation of grade-school kids who were growing quickly and mashing their toes into the fronts of them. I think this messed up my feet a bit.

41 points by Petiver 5y ago

It's interesting that fashion could do real harm long before advertising, since advertising is often blamed now for irrational choices.

hprotagonist 5y ago
Before brand names, perhaps…
icedistilled 5y ago
Most shoes are sold in a single width. A study showed that at a given shoe length, offering single width means only 40% of people with that length can wear the shoe. This didn't even check how adding foot volume in the mix would decrease the number. Very few shoe companies offer a meaningful selection of shoes in multiple widths. And even when they do, they often aren't much different. It's nuts that something as simple as shoes is so ignored and so simple to do right if only people were aware they were wearing badly fitting shoes. People simply don't know, and even if they did, they couldn't act because they have so few options. Companies don't need to care because people buy the badly fitting shoes regardless. edit: citation: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55432-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55432-z
- Scene_Cast2 5y ago
  I found that different manufacturers often have a different "default foot" profile. For example, Nike is consistently narrow. So that 40% number might be larger when you consider that people probably shop between brands for comfort as well. There are also some big brands that offer shoes in wide - e.g. New Balance & Cole Hann.
slipframe 5y ago
If advertising had no role in influencing people, then companies wouldn't spend fortunes on it.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  That must be why psychics went out of business thousands of years ago.
  - slipframe 5y ago
    How big is the psychic industry? Most psychics I've seen have very cheap shops in the shitty parts of town. They aren't making much money as far as I can tell. Advertising though? How much is spent on that every year? It must be trillions. I believe that "advertising doesn't actually work" is a coping mechanism from people who work in or adjacent to the advertising industry. This belief, that advertising is actually just about scamming corporations, is popular because it seems preferable to the reality that advertising is about manipulating the general public for profit (advertisers and psychics have this in common.)
    - hobs 5y ago
      Huge - because religion should be bucketed in the same realm of mediums, psychics, and general hucksters.
gerdesj 5y ago
I think you are confusing branding and advertising. Easy to do these days! A male baboon advertises his massive pink err ... please do a Google image search for: "baboon arse". Anyway - that's advertising: making a deliberate show of something, for a reason. Eg "here's my bum, which is bigger and redder than my rivals - come on down ladies!" Another example might be: "here are some teapots and they are cheaper than the store down the road" Nike is an example of a brand. Branding is a peculiarly human construct. There are loose parallels with red bums but branding has additional baggage. Baboons won't tell people with huge lips to lawyer up but anything that looks like a slug had better watch out for Nike's lawyers. Fashion is an unholy mix of branding AND advertising. Imagine a slug with a red arse ...
- hollerith 5y ago
  OK, but the only baboons with red butts are fertile females, so a male with a swollen red butt would probably not be particularly impressive or intimidating to other males :)

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Glucidio 5y ago

I have had bunions my entire life, and only I was recently told that the foundations for them start appearing as a kid, depending on the width of the feet. I discovered that I had wide feet out of the blue, searching for an specific brand that usually didn't hurt me. That brand was the only one I could use for hours, and then I saw that they made "wide shoes". Could that be the reason they didn't hurt me? From that moment on, I only buy wide or extra wide, and, surprisingly enough, my feet don't but hurt anymore. In hindsight, I should have thought about before, it as during summer I only wear sandals, and of course my feet don't hurt. I am ashamed to say it didn't click until my 30's. I now exercise my fingers, one of my bunions is getting better, the other will need more work. In my country you are only measured by length, so I guess that's the main reason for the bunions and hammer fingers appearing more and more. Please, if you are uncomfortable with your shoes, go to be properly measured. Your feet will appreciate it.

Groxx 5y ago
Sorta similar story here. Wide shoes + barefoot style have stopped my bunion growth completely, and fixed my terrible arches. Ever get home, take your shoes off, and notice how much better your feet feel? Mine haven't hurt at all in over a decade now, because I quit using shoes that make my feet feel like that. Pointy, narrow shoes are unbelievably stupid and human-hostile.
- hobs 5y ago
  Yep, grew up with overly large feet (my foot size tracked my age from 10-16) and I deeply remember finding my first pair of skater shoes (Vans) that were size 14 and marked WWW - that and flip flops have been my saving grace, I have flat feet but I can walk 15 miles without pain in those setups.
  - Groxx 5y ago
    I'm quite lucky that my feet stopped at around size 13, so I could usually find a couple pairs in my size per store. 15+ seems like it'd be difficult :|

PostThisTooFast 5y ago

In the '70s, running shoes became fashionable as everyday shoes for some time. It's unfortunate that these relatively pointy shoes became the standard gym shoe worn all day by a generation of grade-school kids who were growing quickly and mashing their toes into the fronts of them. I think this messed up my feet a bit.