Search for ergonomic slippers – 3
This blogpost is a third in the series of our study on search for ergonomic slippers for domestic use. Click the thumbnails below to read the complete posts earlier in the series.
I have been doing a personally-driven study on ‘search for ergonomic slippers’ and have written my observations on three-part blog posts compiled over the last few months. The purpose of this study is to find physiologically suitable slippers for our ageing family and community members, and more such people in our reach.
The first post described the shocking morphological anomalies found in the feet of many of our elderly family members. These distortions in the shape of the feet were pronounced by poor choice of daily-use household-chappal (flip-flops) for domestic purpose. The second post described the mixed results obtained after a few months of use of a different brand of slippers, that were initially felt to be an appropriate choice and hence tried out. This third post highlights the better understanding developed during the course of this study and trials as well as conversations with an expert in the field of footwear.
Let us review following understanding formed through an interaction with Sharad Srivastava, who leads Quality Management Systems at Footwear Design and Development Institute, Noida; allowing a further deep dive in the right direction to the ongoing study:
1) The two feet among most humans are not identical in size and shape, usually one of the two feet is smaller than the other. Hence same size of a pair of footwear will have different fitting experience between the right and the left foot.
2) As people age, the usual upright walking shifts to a forward bend due to forward movement of shoulders and a bent spinal cord. Bone density reduces with ageing. Ligaments weaken the knee and ankle joints, as we age. A slow nervous response system of elders reduces our dexterity of movement. All these factors put together demand a better grip footwear even for casual walking as we grow old.
3) Pronation and supination must be considered when choosing the footwear for regular use. Children with improper weight distribution during walk, must be corrected upon using corrective footwear early on in their life, to enable their full participation in sporting and other locomotive activities.
4) A good choice of footwear and material of construction should allow for good compression ratio, abrasion and slip resistance. EVA foam based footwear (ethylene-vinyl-acetate) must not be used by elderly, since their body is unstable. A statistical study undertaken by FDDI has shown increased domestic accidents due to fall amongst aged people, due to inappropriate choice of footwear, especially when plying on wet floor surfaces like kitchen and washrooms. Glazed vitrified tiles also worsen the slippery situation. Rubber sole based footwear is a better choice. ‘Premium slippers from Relaxo with better rubber compounding may be suggested. Pure rubber footwear from Bata and Sketchers are better choices. Dual layer flip-flops with EVA on top and rubber on sole may still be ok.’
5) Gait analysis tools like Mocap (motion capture) by Qualisys may be useful in identifying movement of various individual in case of need for corrective or customized footwear. Such systems are likely available with mechanical engineering department and Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay; and at Central Leather Research Institute at Chennai. Marker-less AI based system for such study may arrive at the upcoming footwear complex at Rohtak, Haryana, that also has one of the campus of FDDI.
This understanding has helped focus the approach in choice of next footwear for our needs, that led to this study at first place.
Do you have thoughts on this study to share with, add your comments to this post or write to me at malani(dot)deepak7 at gmail.
(end of blogpost)
.
Deepak Malani 