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The shoe last, a 3D mould for making a shoe, is, generally speaking, not well understood by shoe designers. A shoe last not only influences style and fashion, but also comfort and fit. This chapter discusses the design of shoe lasts, including definitions and shoe last main design curves. Additionally, shoe lasts of different heel height and orientations are provided, to enable designers to create new shoe lasts and eventually design shoes.

Congenital talipes equinovarus is a musculoskeletal pediatric foot deformity, which is characterized by midfoot cavus, forefoot adductus, hindfoot varus and equinus (CAVE). A standardized objective assessment is essential to measure the severity of the clubfoot. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a three-dimensional assessment method to evaluate the clubfoot severity.

© 2016 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. Clubfoot, known as congenital talipes equinovarus, is one of the complex paediatric foot deformity with the incidence of 1 in every 1000 live births. It consists of four complex foot abnormalities such as forefoot adductus, midfoot cavus, and hindfoot varus and ankle equinus. There are a number of surgical techniques (soft tissue releases, arthrodesis) used to correct clubfoot. However currently the conservative management (manipulation, serial casting, and braces) of clubfoot is considered as the best choice and it is widely accepted among orthopaedists. Clubfoot treated with surgical techniques might suffer various complications such as soft tissues contractures, neurovascular complications, infections, and shortening of the limbs. Although conservative method is generally considered as an effective method, it is still challenging to cure clubfoot in advance stages. Also, the classification of the initial severity of clubfoot is essential to evaluate the outcome of the treatment. In this review, the aim is to review the different types of conservative method and the assessment of clubfoot severity.

Background: Congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV) or clubfoot is a common pediatric congenital foot deformity that occurs 1 in 1,000 live births. Clubfoot is characterized by four types of foot deformities: hindfoot equinus; midfoot cavus; forefoot adductus; and hindfoot varus. A structured assessment method for clubfoot is essential for quantifying the initial severity of clubfoot deformity and recording the progress of clubfoot intervention. Aim: This study aims to develop a three-dimensional (3D) assessment method to evaluate the initial severity of the clubfoot and monitor the structural changes of the clubfoot after each casting intervention. In addition, this study explores the relationship between the thermophysiological changes in the clubfoot at each stage of the casting intervention and in the normal foot. Methods: In this study, a total of 10 clubfoot children who are

Flip-flops may change walking gait pattern, increase muscle activity and joint loading, and predispose wearers to foot problems, despite that quantitative evidence is scarce. The purpose of this study was to examine the lower limb muscle co-contraction and joint contact force in flip-flops gait, and compare with those of barefoot and sports shoes walking. Ten healthy males were instructed to perform over-ground walking at self-selected speed under three footwear conditions: 1) barefoot, 2) sports shoes, and 3) thong-type flip-flops. Kinematic, kinetic and EMG data were collected and input to a musculoskeletal model to estimate muscle force and joint force. One-way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to compare footwear conditions. It was hypothesized that flip-flops would induce muscle co-contraction and produce different gait kinematics and kinetics. Our results demonstrated that the musculoskeletal model estimation had a good temporal consistency with the measured EMG. Flip-flops produced significantly lower walking speed, higher ankle and subtalar joint range of motion, and higher shear ankle joint contact force than sports shoes (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between flip-flops and barefoot conditions in terms of muscle co-contraction index, joint kinematics, and joint loading of the knee and ankle complex (p > 0.05). The variance in walking speed and footwear design may be the two major factors that resulted in the comparable joint biomechanics in flip-flops and barefoot walking. From this point of view, whether flip-flops gait is potentially harmful to foot health remains unclear. Given that shod walking is more common than barefoot walking on a daily basis, sports shoes with close-toe design may be a better footwear option than flip-flops for injury prevention due to its constraint on joint motion and loading.

© 2017 Ganesan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background: Congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), also known as clubfoot, is common congenital orthopedic foot deformity in children characterized by four components of foot deformities: hindfoot equinus, hindfoot varus, midfoot cavus, and forefoot adduction. Although a number of conservative and surgical methods have been proposed to correct the clubfoot deformity, the relapses of the clubfoot are not uncommon. Several previous literatures discussed about the technical details of Ponseti method, adherence of Ponseti protocol among walking age or older children. However there is a necessity to investigate the relapse pattern, compliance of bracing, number of casts used in treatment and the percentages of surgical referral under two years of age for clear understanding and better practice to achieve successful outcome without or reduce relapse. Therefore this study aims to review the current evidence of Ponseti method (manipulation, casting, percutaneous Achilles tenotomy, and bracing) in the management of clubfoot under two years of age. Materials and methods: Articles were searched from 2000 to 2015, in the following databases to identify the effectiveness of Ponseti method treatment for clubfoot: Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL), PubMed, and Scopus. The database searches were limited to articles published in English, and articles were focused on the effectiveness of Ponseti method on children with less than 2 years of age. Results: Of the outcome of 1095 articles from four electronic databases, twelve articles were included in the review. Pirani scoring system, Dimeglio scoring system, measuring the range of motion and rate of relapses were used as outcome measures. Conclusions: In conclusion, all reviewed, 12 articles reported that Ponseti method is a very effective method to correct the clubfoot deformities. However, we noticed that relapses occur in nine studies, which is due to the non-adherence of bracing regime and other factors such as low income and social economic status.

In spite of ill-effects of high heel shoes, they are widely used for women. Hence, it is essential to understand the load transfer biomechanics in order to design better fit and comfortable shoes. In this study, both experimental measurement and finite element analysis were used to evaluate the biomechanical effects of heel height on foot load transfer. A controlled experiment was conducted using custom-designed platforms. Under different weight-bearing conditions, peak plantar pressure, contact area and center of pressure were analyzed. A three-dimensional finite element foot model was used to simulate the high-heel support and to predict the internal stress distributions and deformations for different heel heights. Results from both experiment and model indicated that heel elevations had significant effects on all variables. When heel elevation increased, the center of pressure shifted from the midfoot region to the forefoot region, the contact area was reduced by 26% from 0 to 10.2 cm heel and the internal stress of foot bones increased. Prediction results also showed that the strain and total tension force of plantar fascia was minimum at 5.1 cm heel condition. This study helps to better understand the biomechanical behavior of foot, and to provide better suggestions for design parameters of high heeled shoes.

Customization and e-commerce are the new trends in footwear manufacturing and marketing. These methods of business have been promoting the increasing importance of footwear fit and comfort in addition to footwear fashion and style. Some methodologies have been established to quantify footwear fit, however much is needed to make the fit assessment usable. This paper presents a method for the error calculation between the foot and the shoe-last based on the modification of previous research. The proposed technique is very useful for the prediction of footwear fit related comfort. The first step in this method is the selection of a shoe-last based on the foot anthropometric data. The selected shoe-last was then converted to shoe shape by using algorithms proposed in this paper. For ease of interpretation, the errors between the foot and the deformed shoe-last were presented as mean, standard deviation and error mapping plots. The proposed method seems to be promising as it provides an improved an effective a...

Shoe-last, a 3D mould used for making footwear, influence the shape, size and fitting of footwear. Current shoe-last design software has focused mainly on reverse engineering of existing shoe-last and modification. Shoe-last designers have generally preferred to design the shoe-last manually due to limitations of design software. In order to solve these problems, a new software based on CATIA platform was developed. The shoe-last model is based on foot shape measurement data and foot biomechanics. Using the existing shoe-last design standards and the sections from existing shoe-lasts, design tables and relationship equations enables the design of shoe-last with different toe type, heel height and custom shoe-last. The design includes comfort and fit aspects as well as design aspect, therefore enables design of aesthetical comfortable shoes. Since the design can be modified instantaneously, the designers could visualize design changes leading to a reduction in shoe-last design cycle.

Footwear fitting and comfort is an important customer need which involves multiple factors. It includes both objective measurements and subjective perceptions, and can be influenced by shoe materials, weight and styles, foot shape, inside shoe climate, even colour and fashion. However, the influences of other design factors are still not clear. This research investigated the relationship between footwear design factors and footwear fitting and comfort. Two-level fractional factorial design analysis was used to evaluate the effects and find the vital factors. The results indicated that heel height has relatively significant influences on footwear comfort. High topline, low heel height, soft material, round toe, open toe, open heel and thin platform can provide better fitting and comfort.

The chapter begins by discussing customized footwear and mass-customized footwear design. it then reviews processes in shoe-last mass customization, including shoe-last design, shoe-last manufacture, shoe-last design framework, design of styling curves for shoe-lasts, and development and selection of shoe-last design. This chapter also introduces shoe-last selection based on fit rating.

Shoe last is an aided model for shoemaking. In modern footwear industry, shoe technology consists of three parts: the design and manufacture of shoe last, the design and manufacture of upper pattern, and the design and manufacture of sole and other accessories. The design and manufacture of shoe last is the core of shoe technology. First, the design of a shoe last decides the styles of the upper and other accessories. For example, the shape of an outsole is determined by the shoe last bottom pattern, the pitch of a heel must match a shank curve of the last, the design of the toe shape of a last will influence the design of the upper, etc. In manufacturing process, shoe last is the mold and support for uniting the upper, soles, and other accessories. Therefore, the shoe last can influence not only the styles and aesthetics but also the fit and comfort of the shoes.

Part 1 Fundamentals of footwear anatomy: The anatomy of the human foot Foot biomechanics and gait Foot development in childhood and adolescence Foot models and measurements Foot problems and their implications for footwear design. Part 2 Footwear design: Shoe design development Foot sketch templates and footwear design Footwear drawing templates and shoe design. Part 3 Shoe lasts and other aspects of footwear manufacture: Design and manufacture of shoe lasts Sizing and grading of shoe lasts Shoe-last design templates Shoe-last design for mass customised footwear Footwear business and advertising The environmental impact of footwear manufacture. Part 4 Applications: Footwear for cold weather conditions Textiles for protective military footwear Textiles and other materials for orthopaedic footwear insoles Design issues in geriatric footwear.