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I only have a pair of Birkenstocks sandals (the Arizonas to be exact), but being that all Birkenstock shoes are made with their trademarked footbed tells me that I would have the same experience in any of their shoes.
Sole is Too Thick/Rigid
As with most shoes, the sole (footbed and cushioning directly under the foot) is simply too thick. This thickness forms a rigidity that cannot be compromised when you are moving in them.
Think about what a foot does: it crunches downward towards the ground. What does a shoe do? If you’re lucky, it bends back toward you slightly. The reason it barely moves is because it’s so thick and resistant to movement.
This is completely counterintuitive to how a shoe should function. It should allow the foot to make that crunching motion because that is how it gains strength.
Arch Support Takes Away Natural Strength of Feet
To continue on that same line of thinking, the sturdy arch support is another feature that disarms the foot.
A strong foot has the ability to hold itself upright in the correct position while barefoot. If you need a shoe with an arch support that holds it in place for you, then you have a weak foot.
Worse than that, the arch support will never allow your foot to get stronger. It is essentially a crutch that will handicap your foot until you get rid of it and build your own strength.
Hard Edge Around Shoe Forces Toes to Curl Under
This is the point that inspired me to make this article because I haven’t written about it anywhere else. If you’ve been wearing shoes your whole life, your toes have probably starting to curl under themselves. They most likely hold this position as their default now because of all that conditioning.
This has been bothering me lately because I noticed I have already fallen victim to this too and i’m only 24. In my Birkenstocks, I notice that my toes will hit the front edge of the shoe and fold under slightly. Something to watch out for is the development of hammer toes, mallet toes, and claw toes; all variations of unnatural bends forming in the toes.
When your toes hold the curled position, it is harder for them to grab the ground to gain traction. Ideally, your toes would be straight when they make contact with the ground and only curl as the grasp for traction. You can see how their ability would already be hindered by this.
Toe Box is Not Wide Enough
It’s hard to find a shoe without this problem but it’s important to cover anyway. Especially because Birkenstocks more often than not get credit for having a wide toe box. I still find the outside of my big toes and pinky toes pushing against the sides of the leather and being forced to stay more narrow.
Over the long term, this can contribute to the formation of bunions. These can be very painful and hard to reverse (although they are reversible with time).
The narrowness of your toes that a tight toe box creates gives you a harder time balancing and making lateral movements. Similarly to the problems with toes curling, toes that become too narrow lose their ability to spread wide and create more surface area for better control.
Conclusion
Birkenstocks have their purpose, that’s why I wrote it at the top of the article.
For me, that purpose was getting me out of terrible foot pain (plantar fasciitis) when my feet weren’t strong enough to deal with it. The sandals helped hold my feet in the proper position to avoid over-pronating (collapsed arches).
While I used them to keep me out of pain for a while, I ultimately had to take more progressive measures to actually solve my pain problem. This is what the shoes will never be able to do for me.
Today, I still wear my Arizona sandals as my easy, slip-on shoes and sometimes to give my feet a nice break if I’ve been on them all day. But they’re nothing more than that. I don’t expect them to make my feet strong or get me out of pain.
Here’s an example of what a healthy shoe looks like.
Edit – I no longer wear Birkenstocks at all. They were instrumental in allowing me to walk properly while I was in pain but I ultimately decided that I needed to fully transition from regular shoes to minimalist shoes, so that is all I wear now.
This decision has worked well for me now that I always move in a shoe with a wide toe box, zero-drop sole that is thin and flexible, flat footbed, and an interior that has enough room for my feet.
The fact that a Birkenstock holds your foot in the perfect position without you having to be engaged at all (like an orthotic) can be very important at the beginning of a recovery period, however, if you don’t address the root cause of your pain, you will never gain the ability to step out of the Birkenstocks without pain.
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