Why the chunky trainer trend might be bad news for your feet
Trainers are the rare combination of fashionable and practical. But with soles getting thicker, podiatrists warn: don’t mistake them for gym shoes
For those who have spent decades teetering in sky-high heels, wobbling on cobbled streets and sinking into damp grass, the current crop of on-trend trainers has come as a welcome relief. A comfortable shoe with high-fashion credentials? Ideal. Yet the vogue for increasingly bulky soles may also be problematic.
“Thick-soled trainers are heavier. This can give rise to pain up the front of the lower leg, known as shin splints,” says William Joyce, a podiatrist at City Chiropody and Podiatry in London. “This is because the extra weight can increase the demand on the muscles on the front of the shin.”