Two favorite brands are 9 West and Eddie Bauer. Janet Brown, a waitress for the past 20 years, has a favorite brand, too, Rockport. She can hardly believe it when she sees younger women wearing heels to work when she's tried both heel and arch pads to relieve the fatigue of rushing around the Lizard's Thicket on Broad River Road in Columbia. That's because running shoes lose their shock-absorbing quality with use. A lot of runners risk injury because they don't replace their shoes as often as they should, he said.
Shoes really are very different in terms of the way they're built.
That echoes Hovancsek, the podiatrist, who could tick off potential benefits for any product going. The new Earth Shoes have potential, as long as the person wearing them has a regular Achilles tendon. If the cord that runs along their heel is short, Earth Shoes would force them up on their tiptoes, since the shoe's heel is lower than the footpad. As for magnets, Hovancsek says the jury's still out. As dress codes relaxed in the workplace, it became easier for people to put comfort first, said Corritori, at Florsheim.