- Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee, wee.
Wee, wee--
- Wake your ass up.
(gasping)
You still dreaming about feet?
- What the hell were you thinking?
- I'm tired of you having these dreams.
Do you have a foot fetish or somethin'?
- No, no I don't.
- Well, I think you do.
Maybe you should go out and
find the perfect set of feet.
- Well, maybe I will.
- Do it.
(cup thudding)
- Now, I know what you're thinking.
Who the hell is this guy?
Laying around dreaming about feet.
Well, I'm Calvin Dwight Harris,
a Bahamian filmmaker who
lives in Denver, Colorado.
As a track and field runner in college,
my feet meant everything to me.
But it's more than that,
I just really like feet.
So join me on my quest to
find the perfect set of feet.
- I hope you find what you're looking for.
(door slamming)
(gate creaking)
We're gonna walk these
streets with funky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with stinky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with perfect feet
We're gonna walk
So callused, I need a foot stylist
Walking in the wonderland
like my name's Alice
No malice, spinning on my two feet
Staying mentally aware is a true feat
Only down by those who oppose change
The main thing is to maintain things
So go toe-to-toe and
let your heart heal
Get your high heels
out like your boy Peele
For real, we're gonna
walk these streets
Like, a break dance,
freelance with the bass right
It just might be the
road less traveled on
But walk a mile in my shoes
before the dawn breaks
Step by step to the top
Once we get started, can't stop
We're gonna walk these
streets with funky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with stinky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with perfect feet
We're gonna walk
- There are some feet that
we've encountered that
I think would be able to
get everyone in Guantanamo
to give up every secret they've ever had,
plus ones they just make up.
- Hardened criminals would
confess to crimes they
didn't even commit if they
were exposed to that smell.
- Don't keep the stinky socks
and shoes on all the time.
It's not cool, man.
- And when someone says, oh,
sorry, my feet must smell.
You go, no, no, no, they're fine.
Oh.
- Make sure there's not all that
stinky crud up underneath your toe nails.
- It was like week old
roadkill on a hot summer day.
- Um, there's some really
smelly feet out there.
We're gonna walk these
streets with perfect feet
We're gonna walk
Shout out to the warriors and
all those with exposed toes
You're victorious
We just wanna raise awareness
Your preparedness
allowed you to maintain
You began this journey unsure
Of what was in store for ya
Through this film we hope
to give support to ya
So keep walking these
streets with your feet
Never accept in defeat, come on
We're gonna walk these
streets with funky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with stinky feet
We're gonna walk these
streets with perfect feet
We're gonna walk
- The first stop on my journey was
to the Colorado Ballet Company,
because if anyone would need
to have perfect feet, it would
have to be a ballet dancer.
So, Sarah, let's get to
the heart of the matter.
Let's talk about the
challenges with your feet.
How did you get so good
at standing on your toes
and being able to perform as a ballerina?
- You're trained to do
that from a young age.
- Okay.
- So, there's a certain age
or a certain strength level where they
start putting you into pointe classes.
They have your first pair of
pointe shoes and when you're
that young, it's not so much like you
see us on stage nowadays,
where we're just dancing in
our pointe shoes all the time.
It's more just about exercises
and strengthening your
feet in the pointe shoes because
if you're not strong enough,
you will injure yourself.
When you get older, you do some variation,
so that's when you see somebody
doing a dance on their own,
and then when you get a little bit older,
you start doing partnering work.
It evolves and everybody
is very different.
There's some girls who
naturally have stronger muscles
or the muscles take to it very easily,
and that they'll get a
lot stronger quicker,
and then you have people
where you're a professional
and you still struggle
with weakness of your feet
because it's just like
you're more flexible.
So it just takes more
effort and coordination
and work to make your body
do what it needs to do.
- Do you folks do certain exercises
or certain things to continue
to strengthen your feet?
- I do, I do some like
TheraBand exercises or I'll wear
my pointe shoes in ballet
class and jump in them,
just 'cause they're harder
so it takes more work
for you to use your feet
while you're jumping.
- What is it about ballet that keeps
driving you to continue
in this profession?
- 'Cause you can never reach
perfection with ballet.
(light music)
- I see.
So if I can never reach perfection,
I figure why not give it a try myself.
Who knows, I may actually have
a second career ahead of me.
So let's see what you normally would do.
- I could show you how
we start class everyday.
- Okay.
- Get plie's in first.
- Oh, my gosh.
You're gonna kill me here.
That and that.
- Yeah.
- That's as far as I'm gonna go.
("Dance of the Sugar Plum
Fairy" by Tchaikovsky)
Woo, wow.
Yeah, I can see how this profession,
you have to be versatile and very fit.
- Mm hm.
- And I do not meet
either of those
requirements unfortunately.
(laughing)
(light music)
Okay, I'll admit, that was a
lot harder than I expected.
I guess that second career
will have to wait a while,
since I'm headed to the
Bahamas to visit someone
who truly has been hard on their feet.
But nobody ever said winning
Olympic medals was easy.
- My name is Jackie Edwards.
I went to Stanford University on a track
and field scholarship,
did well at Stanford.
I won NCAA championships twice
and that launched me into
a professional track and
field career and so I went
into five different Olympic
games consecutively; 1992,
'96, 2000, 2004 and then 2008
was my last one in Beijing.
I trained five to six days a week
depending on the coach I had.
Four to five hours a day.
10 1/2 months a year, for 17 years,
and now that I'm retired I look back,
I'm like, how did I do that for so long?
One thing that you do a lot
as a jumper or a sprinter
is you roll your ankles,
twist your ankles all the time
running through the sand
because the sand is so uneven.
So I would have to
specifically do exercises
to strengthen my feet and ankles.
So I would run barefoot on the grass.
We would do high knees in the sand.
All these things to strengthen
my actual feet without
my shoes on, so that
when my shoes were on,
my foot itself was stable and then
the shoe was just extra support.
So these are a pair of my long jump shoes
that I never got to wear.
You can see they're still brand new.
You can look at the bottom,
see how beautiful they are.
They're pretty gold.
I guess they were hoping that I would win
a gold medal if I had these gold shoes.
Specifically in long
jumping, you want your shoe
to be as snug as possible
without being tight,
because when you hit the
board with all that force,
you don't want your foot
to slide in the shoe.
So they really just want
your foot to be in place.
There's not a lot of torque.
Like a running shoe you
could probably bend it.
A long jump shoe is stiff,
there's no bending of the shoe,
you cannot do that, which is good.
But there was a period of time when,
sometimes I walk with my feet
out like this and they wanted
my foot to be more flat,
so I had these orthotics.
I was just trying to be,
listening to my coach,
and wearing the thing,
but when he was unaware
I would just 'em out
because I just didn't like,
it made my shoes so tight and as
I said before the long jump
shoe, it's so snug already,
to put that thing in there
and then try to fit my foot,
I felt like it was gonna explode.
It was not comfortable.
If you wanna do a sport for a living,
make sure you take care of
what you need to do that sport,
and for me, if my feet were
no good, I could do nothing.
- You know, you go to the gym
and you watch people work out.
They work out every muscle
in their body, right?
They're working on their
arms, their legs, you know,
even their lips sometimes right
when they're talking, right?
But the one part of their
body I've never seen
anybody in the gym workout is their feet.
- My name is Kara Dawdy,
I am 44 years old.
I grew up in Colorado,
I am married and I have three children.
I've always been interested in figure.
I've always been active in fitness.
I am what you would consider a gym rat.
The difference between what
I do and a fitness model,
is I'm actually a figure competitor.
I go and I compete against other women
in my same height class or age class.
I get up on stage and we do various poses.
These are your typical competition shoes.
These are what the judges
expect to see you on stage.
There are different versions of this;
some have the strap, some
have the one band across,
but they do have to be this plexiglass,
stripper looking shoe and I'm not exactly
sure why the judges want this.
But this is the typical height.
You do not see usually
any other competitor
with a larger heel or a smaller heel.
This is what they want
you wearing on stage,
and they're uncomfortable and they hurt,
and your feet swell up in
'em and you've got your tan,
and you've got your oil on top of that,
and so you're sliding around
on the stage and in your shoes,
and you're afraid you're gonna fall off.
So, yeah, these are your
typical competition shoes.
I used to train in the
most expensive gym shoe
like everybody else had.
My arches would kill me
by the end of the day
and I could not figure out why.
And finally I was talking
to one of my coaches,
I said, you know, my
feet hurt all the time.
And what he said to me was that your feet
have a natural arch in
them and so to train,
you put your foot in a shoe
that has an arch already in it,
you're breaking down that
natural arch in your foot.
So he said, go find the flattest
shoes that you can find.
I found that my feet stopped
hurting and I enjoyed
wearing them so much, that
I wear 'em all the time.
Cardio and weight training
is a big important
part of the figure fitness community.
If your feet are giving you
any problems during that time,
you're not gonna be able to
reach your competition goals.
- In the same way that somebody
does their work to build
their body up and to work
on their core strength,
and to work on their arms
or their quads or their hamstrings,
people need to train their feet too.
And what that means is you have
to put the miles on your feet.
- My name's Marshall Ulrich
and I've been running since 1978.
First I started doing marathons,
then jumped into ultra marathons in 1986.
Then it just progressed on
and on so I have run over
125 ultra marathons that
average over 125 miles.
My wife and I added it up,
about 90,000 miles of running.
One of the places that I made
a name for myself was running
across Death Valley from
Badwater, which is minus 282 feet
to the top of Mount
Whitney, it's 146 miles.
I set the speed record
for that back in 1992,
and no one's come within 6 hours of it.
My longest run was
across the United States
and it was 3,064 miles in 52 days.
So I was averaging just
under 60 miles per day
for 52 days straight.
It was a labor of love.
For marathoning, ultra
marathoning, even walking,
feet are just essential.
If you don't take care of
your feet when you're running,
you're toast.
As far as my toenails are concerned,
that's been a topic of
conversation and what I did
is I voluntarily had
them surgically removed
because I was running so many miles,
I'd get what is called black toe
and it would raise up
and fall off eventually,
and I was having such a hard
time keeping my toenails
on that finally I just had 'em removed.
So, I don't have 'em, they
don't grow back anymore
and I did that about 20 years ago.
The shoes I'm currently
running in are called
HOKA ONE ONE shoes and I like these shoes
because they have a lot of cushioning.
So they're sort of the opposite
of a minimalistic shoe.
There's a lot of cushioning here.
There's a lot of beef to it.
And so I prefer these
shoes and then what I do
is I pull the liner out
and I do wear an orthotic,
and that provides arch support.
It was very painful when
I was running across
the United States because I
didn't have the arch support
that I really needed
and what I developed was
a plantar fasciitis about
1,000 miles into the run.
So for 2,000 more miles I was running
with a plantar fasciitis and I still have,
you know, effects of that.
I've got a big lump in there right now.
- Plantar fasciitis is an
inflammation in the band of
connective tissue that runs
along the bottom of the foot.
So the band of connective tissue,
it's basically this pink band.
It connects heel to forefoot.
With lack of support in this area,
it's collapsing down
and overexerting similar
to a rubber band that you
stretch and stretch and stretch
until the point where it
develops little micro tears.
So, internally it's yanking on the heel.
- What amazes me about the
feet is how durable they are,
how much impact they can take,
how they can keep going mile
after mile, year after year.
To not take care of 'em is, you know,
it's not a smart thing
to do because, you know,
we'll have 'em the rest of
our life and good golly,
they've served me well.
- Well, your feet are
obviously very important
when you're running
those kinds of distances
and you can deal with a lot of issues.
When you have a good pair of socks,
you have a good pair of shoes,
the running is good and
you don't have to worry
about what's going to be
happening with your feet.
- When your feet hurt in a
race, it affects your overall
attitude and can really hinder
your ability to continue.
Every step you take your
foot hurts and so you've got
to take care of your feet
right from the start,
and a lot of people fail to do that.
They come into a run and they
have old shoes or they have
socks that unfortunately
have holes in 'em,
or their insoles inside
of the shoe are paper thin
and they don't provide the support.
So, going into an event,
you've got to figure out
what my feet need.
- My name is Nickodemus
Hollon, I'm from San Diego,
California, and I've been
doing ultra marathons,
extreme endurance events for
the last six years of my life.
Back in 2009, I did no foot maintenance,
I had no idea feet are something
that I run on, you know,
I mean obviously you
gotta have 'em to run,
but other than that, you know, whatever.
I ran Badwater in a pair
of ASICS from Walmart
and a couple pairs of
cotton socks from Walmart
and consequently I had huge blisters
by the time I got to mile 70.
So, Injinji's been a sock
that I've been wearing
personally for the last three, four years.
- So prior to wearing
Injinji toe socks, you know,
wearing what might be
considered conventional socks,
you know, I would continuously
get severe blisters
between my toes.
- The Injinji socks, I became
familiar with them about eight
or 10 years ago and I believe
it was out in Death Valley
before one of the runs and
I was looking for something
because I was getting
blisters around my toes
and I was looking for a sock
that would isolate the toes
and keep them from rubbing
against each other.
- Once I started wearing Injinji socks
I literally fell in love with them,
and as silly as it may sound
that a male would become
so passionate about an
article of clothing,
I told all of my friends about
it, anybody who would listen,
I became truly what was
considered a raving fan.
- [Calvin] Wow, with
so many people in love
with these socks, I just had to go see
what they were all about.
Off to San Diego to
find out if foot gloves
are really the future for our feet.
Hi, Christine.
- Hey, Calvin, welcome to Injinji,
home of the original performance toe sock.
(light music)
- So, Christine, tell me
what was the inspiration
behind the Injinji original
performance toe sock.
- Well, really athletes
and runners specifically,
and the anatomical
design of the human foot.
You know, we were given toes for a reason.
Toes help us to distribute our weight,
they help us with balance
and propel us forward,
and we didn't feel like
there was a performance sock
in the marketplace that
truly addressed the toes
and the feet and allowed
the toes to splay out
and function as they were designed do.
When we first came on the scene,
there was nobody else doing
performance socks with toes.
We did not invent the
concept of a toe sock,
they definitely have been cotton toe
socks available in Asia,
but we were the first company
to get out there and say,
no, this is gonna help you reach
the peak of your performance.
These are better for your
feet and they are really going
to work in running and
athletics in general.
We've gained a lot of
traction in the last,
you know, 10 to 12 years
in the running market.
We still think that running
is the ultimate testing
ground for our products.
I've seen our sock work in some
of the toughest foot races in the world.
135 miles with one or possibly
two at the most sock changes
and that's pretty much unheard of.
- I know several people who
have to change their socks
mid run, several times during a run.
Treat different feet
issues, hot spots, blisters.
I don't have any of those problems.
- You think of these ultra's as something,
oh, you're out there for 24 hours,
but those minutes that
you spend at aid stations
and stuff like that, that
stuff can add up over time.
The minutes you might spend, you know,
slipping on a sock or something like that.
- They feel weird at first.
The first wear is kind
like uh, this feels weird,
it looks weird, but after three wears,
most people are totally sold.
- The last thing we wanna do
is get any type of water
buildup on your feet.
You don't want 'em to be too moist
where they start macerating.
Anything that wicks the
moisture from the skin is great.
- How do you guys normally
encourage folks to try those on?
(laughing)
They look great.
I love the colors and it has definitely
that orange flair to it.
- [Christine] Yeah.
- Great.
- You know, ultimately what
we're trying to do is to change
people's mind is about how
they should wear a sock,
and it is still a pioneering
type of product where you
do have to go out there
and enlighten people to,
you know, why do I wanna
wear a glove on my feet?
I mean, even if you don't run,
having your toes separated will
provide the best foundation
for doing whatever it
is that you love to do.
Our feet are like the root
on a tree of our whole body.
So, anybody that comes to our socks,
I usually feel are somebody
that are kind of looking
for a better way, a
healthier way to wear a sock.
- Everybody has their naturally
genetic foot position,
but there's certain characteristics to how
your foot should be
positioned if it's functioning
in its most efficient manor.
So, first off, this is an ideal degree.
So this down here shows
an excessive high arch,
this shows a flat foot.
So, this is the angle in which your arch
should be positioned if it's functioning
with less fatigue than normal.
- My name is Eric Kaplan.
I'm the owner of Good Feet,
we've been in business since 2002.
- When somebody comes in
it's our job to assess
the situation without crossing the lines
of diagnosing or prescribing to them.
So, when they come in we'll
ask a series of questions
such as, what are your goals?
What ailments are bothering you?
What activities do you do?
What type of wardrobe do
you wear as far as footwear?
From there, we will take
prints, measurements.
You have a heel to toe measurement,
and then you also have a
heel to ball measurement.
So that's more specific to
the bone structure on where
an arch should actually
fit underneath your foot.
We specialize in a system
of three different types
of support that all work
together for different shoes
in various activities.
This device is called a classic.
This is referred to as an exerciser,
and basically the purpose
of this is to balance
the weight distribution
over the entire foot.
So it does help to take pressure
from the heel, the ball,
and inner and outer longitudinal
sides to limit rotation.
So, this device is the
core of the products.
It's the most effective
of everything that we do,
but with that said, it's not
the most comfortable device
as you first begin to wear it.
So that's where the other
two pair do come in.
So, this is referred to as a maintainer,
and it would basically retain
the change that this has provided.
It's much thinner and sleeker in design,
so it's used in a wider variety of shoes.
For ladies who like to wear
sandals, dress shoes, loafers,
various styles that are
more limited in space.
The third device that we recommend,
this is called a relaxer.
So it's the thinnest and
sleekest of the three.
The main purpose behind this is to limit
barefoot walking at home on hard surfaces.
So most people would use
this in a slipper to,
you know, provide minimal
support the last couple of hours
of the day, but still feel
like they're walking barefoot.
Basically, the system of
three will cover all shoes,
all activities and goals as
far as changing biomechanics
to the point where we can usually get
to the root of the problem
to make them feel better.
- Arch support is really important
because if we lose our arch in a sense,
if we start flattening the arch of our
foot, we start getting an
inward rolling of the ankle,
which in turn is gonna
start rolling in the knees
and the hips and we start
having knee, hip pain,
back pain, those kinda things.
So, there's a lot of importance
to the arch of the foot.
- It all starts with your feet.
So not only are we helping
people you know, feet problems,
it's their back problems
'cause it stems from your feet.
- Let's say somebody comes in
with ball of the foot pain.
By raising the metatarsal
arch, it'll take these bones,
slightly elevate them,
causing the toes to relax
and lay down, whether they're
dealing with hammertoes,
bunions, upper body concerns,
it's affective for all of those areas.
Same thing with the heel.
By lifting back here, it
takes pressure off of the heel
if they're dealing with the
plantar fasciitis symptoms
or heel spurs or various
forms of heel pain.
So, it's important to wear
arch support because naturally,
we put too much pressure in certain areas,
and those are usually the areas
that cause the biggest
fatigue and concern.
- The arch support is
the most important thing
that you can put in a shoe,
and our product has truly
changed so many lives,
not just here in Colorado,
but across the country,
as well as the world.
- The footwear industry
for the last 45 years
has been telling people a story,
and it's a very compelling story,
and the story is you need
support, you need motion control,
you need pronation control,
you need an orthotic,
you need things under your
arch, you need all these things.
And there's just not a lot of evidence,
like none, that it reliable works.
None.
My name's Steven Sashen,
I'm the CEO and Co-founder of Xero Shoes.
Six years ago I got back
into sprinting after
a 30 year break and I was
getting injured constantly,
and a friend of mine
suggested that I might wanna
try taking off my shoes
and running barefoot,
and then he also pointed me
to a book called Born to Run,
which talks about the Tarahumara
Indians in Mexico who run
for hundreds of miles in just
like a piece of tire strapped
to their foot and they run
totally pain free, injury free,
till they're in their 70s and 80s.
So, I took off my shoes and it worked.
I discovered when I was
running barefoot what kinda
form problems I had
when I was in my shoes,
and by being barefoot, it just
cleared those up and I became
injury free almost overnight,
and I made my first
pair of sandals inspired
by these Tarahumara tire sandals,
and the gist is that we
give you the closest thing
there is to a barefoot feeling.
Your feet can totally move naturally.
They can flex, they can bend,
they can grip, you can feel the ground.
It's just enough protection
so that you don't have
to worry about what you're standing on.
So our first product was
literally just a sheet of rubber,
some nylon cord and instructions about how
to make your own sandals,
the same way they've been
doing it for 15,000 years.
But we knew that the do it yourself thing
was intimidating for a lot of people.
So with the help of our
current product designer,
we cracked the code and came
up with the first redesign
of that basic 15,000 year
old sandal in 15,000 years.
First, we took the thousands of tracings
that we had of people's
feet and figured out where
that post is supposed to
go to handle most people.
We changed the shape a
little bit so that it doesn't
necessarily handle 99%
of all people, but 95%.
'Cause we don't want something too big
so that it doesn't work for people,
and we figured out a new
lacing system that allows
for really, really easy
and secure adjustment,
and you can just slide
your foot on and go,
and we added the heel cup
which is partly decorative,
and partly it helps keep stuff out,
it keeps your foot centered.
We raised the ankle holes so that
the lace never touches the ground.
We added this really
ultra soft TPU toe post
and we're using a 5.5 millimeter rubber.
So, it's just the perfect
among of ground feel
and the right amount of
protection for people.
The premise in the barefoot running world
is that if you use your
arches, you're fine.
When you put support in
something, there's no activity.
You're shutting it off and then expecting
it to somehow be strong.
But if you actually use your feet,
you can strengthen and use your arches.
I went from having crazy flat feet,
where I'd like get out of a swimming pool
and you'd see the shape of my foot,
it looked like a paddle and
now it looks like a foot.
- We support all kinds of the
body when they get injured.
You know, when you have an
arm injury, you get a sling.
When you have a neck injury you
get a neck brace, et cetera.
The only part of the body
that we permanently brace,
as far as I can tell, is the foot.
So when people get arch supports,
they get them for the rest of their lives.
- So, what we say about arch
support is that you are your
own support if you have the
ability to let yourself do that.
Whether you have flat feet or high arches,
the problem is almost always
an issue of strength and use,
not a question of needing
more or less support.
- If your shoes make
your foot muscles week,
and the arch supports
basically then sorta rescue
that arch from the weakness
of those foot muscles.
Putting in that arch will
alleviate the symptoms,
but doesn't treat the
cause of the problem,
which is the weak foot.
- It would almost seem
that the shoe companies
that make billions of
dollars selling shoes
and orthotics would have
some vested interest
in making barefoot seem like a bad idea.
Maybe.
(chuckling)
I mean, it really, I don't
know that it's that simple,
but I don't think that it's
that much more complicated.
- There's a debate that's going on, right?
People like shoes that have arch supports
and kinda cushioning.
- As far as the minimalist shoes go,
I and the majority of
the pediatry community
do not agree with it, we
don't think it provides
support to you, we don't think
it helps you walk any better,
it just looks fashionable and looks like
you're a healthy person.
- I think in general, my
belief is that they're gonna
cause more problems down the road.
- I'm a big proponent
of wearing supportive
shoes for your foot type.
Every foot is not the same.
What a flat foot needs,
a high arch doesn't need.
- If your feet can tolerate
it then that's fine,
but it's not for everybody and
it's been very interesting.
I've talked to pediatrists
who've said the advent
of the minimalist shoe has helped me
as a pediatrist because
it's sent me patients.
- One of my all time favorite
things is when some doctor
says I love this whole barefoot idea,
it's putting my kids through college.
(chuckling)
I'm seeing more patients than ever.
(chuckling)
Like, wait, wait, okay first
of all, you guys had the same
joke 45 years ago when
running shoes came out.
Secondly, when someone
comes in and they said
they tried being barefoot
and they got injured,
did you ask them if they
were actually barefoot?
Because the difference
between barefoot and being
in what most big shoe companies sell
as a barefoot shoe, is night and day.
Most barefoot shoes are about as barefoot
as a pair of stilts.
- I see a lot stress fracture
with people like this.
People break their foot because
there's not enough support for the foot.
- So the minimalist shoe
idea is a good concept.
You know, I like the idea,
but it's not practical.
If you've got perfect
feet everything's fine,
you know, for short periods of time.
Sure, yeah, they could do just fine,
but nobody is really going out
and buying a flip flop to wear everyday,
unless you live on the
beaches of California.
- Your feet are very adaptable.
Your body is very adaptable.
If you give it some
stimulus, it will change.
- To look at the human
foot to understand why
it is the way it is, you have
to understand how we became
first walkers and climbers
and then how we switched from
being walkers and climbers
to being walkers and runners,
and we have the feet today
of walkers and runners.
- Out of all the bones in your body,
almost a quarter of them are in your feet.
If you just think about it logically,
this is not rocket science.
Your feet have all these
bones and all these muscles
and all these ligaments and all
that sensation for a reason.
If you don't use it,
you're not only losing it,
but you might be losing a bunch
of other functions as well.
- We know that humans have been running
for millions of years.
In fact, we evolved to be
really phenomenal runners around
two million years ago, that
meant that for the vast
majority of human evolutionary history,
for millions years, we
were running barefoot.
It doesn't take more than
a few seconds of thinking
to realize Olympic athletes
for thousands of years
in Greece and Rome did that,
and our ancestors for
millions of years did that.
What's the big deal?
- Well back then, people lived to be 40.
You wanna live to be 100 now,
you cannot do that to your feet.
You need protection, you need support.
I mean, think about it.
You're running and you're
pounding your foot against
the ground, you have no
support, you have no protection,
how is your knee gonna feel?
How is your ankle going to feel?
It just doesn't make sense.
- You know, barefoot
running has cycled around.
I've seen it come and go
a couple of times now.
It was popular in the '80s as well as,
you know, there were some people in the
'60s that were running barefoot.
- First we had the normal
shoe, the FiveFinger shoes,
minimalist shoes and now
we come to the thick shoes.
So we're kind of evolving
back and it's gonna
be very interesting over
time to see what comes after
the shoes like the HOKA's
that have the thicker heels.
- So now there's this whole
thing about maximalist shoes
with tons of padding and tons
of support because some people
didn't like the minimalist
idea and someone just happened
to have an idea that
was the exact opposite.
If we think back prior to
45 years ago, every shoe
was a minimalist shoe, it
really let your foot move.
It was a thin bit of leather,
it was closer to what we
have then what you find now.
- Look what type of
shoe here they ran with
in the '60s, in the '50s.
There was no structure to them, per se.
Since the running craze
in the early '70s to now,
no matter what they have done
to sneakers, the more padding,
gel, air, whatever they
could put in there,
really hasn't shown to decrease injuries.
- If you could prove that
this shoe was better than your
competitors or even better
than your last year's model,
don't you think you would
show that study where this one
is scientifically better than this one?
Because then you would own the universe.
Why is it that in 45 years,
that study has never happened?
It's never happened
because it's not possible.
They've never done it, they can't do it.
There's no evidence that supports that.
- I think we over value the extent
to which shoes are solutions to problems.
It's really more how you use your body
than the shoes that are on your feet.
It's just that shoes
affect how your body works.
- The shoe is only good as
the person that's wearing it.
So, if you're not following
a proper stance or a posture
or mechanic, the shoe can
cause just as much harm
as it could if you're
wearing a regular shoe.
- It's all about alignment.
So if the body is not aligned properly,
it's going to accommodate,
things are gonna change,
joints will move and
change and we get arthritis
and things that shouldn't happen.
So, it's just all about why
you wanna go minimalist?
What you're planning to
do in a minimalist shoe,
and how long you're gonna do it.
- It's not about the
footwear, it's about the form.
It's about how you land, it's
about how you use your feet.
It just so happens that it's
easiest to make those form
changes when you're
getting the feedback from
the ground that you get when
you're barefoot or close,
in a pair of Xero Shoes.
- I'm not saying that
shoes are bad, right?
- Right.
- Or that they shouldn't
want to wear shoes.
- Right.
- But we have to
understand that everything,
everything comes with costs and benefits
and shoes are no exception.
- When you can feel the difference
between having your foot
wrapped up in a cast, a
regular shoe or what we
affectionately sometimes
call foot coffins,
versus being able to use your feet,
you just don't wanna go back.
- Is it a craze, sure.
But some people will stay with it.
- If the shoe works the way you say
it work then it's worn and fine.
If it's only to work
for some guy in Colorado
or New Zealand, it doesn't
mean anything to me.
- If you feel comfortable in it,
then that's the shoe for you.
- Some people say, well,
you know the big shoe
companies could compete with you.
They could just come out and do it,
and I'm not hugely worried about that.
To do something this radical
would almost be admitting
that everything else you're
selling is crap, is a lie,
and no ones gonna do that.
- Really barefoot is best for your feet,
but we live in a world that
is obviously a shoe world.
Nowadays, everybody in
mostly in westernized society
we're wearing shoes and you
need to wear shoes in certain
environments where you really could run
the risk of hurting
your feet significantly.
- Who doesn't like to run barefoot?
If you're running up across
the lawn barefoot, you feel good.
Would I run barefooted around here, no.
- You know the reason that most people
go barefoot is because they like to.
I mean, at least in terms in
western developed countries,
and the reason that
most people go barefoot
in developing countries is
'cause they have no choice.
(light music)
- Soles4Souls collect
new and gently worn shoes
and then distribute them
around the world to people who,
live in abject poverty and also
they offer disaster
relief to those in need.
My friend and I went to
Haiti in August of 2010,
shortly after the earthquake
and we went there to distribute
shoes for Soles4Souls
and when I went to Haiti,
that was my first experience
of extreme poverty,
and the last day of our
trip while we were there,
our team was gathered in a
room and we all went around
the room and everyone was
to tell the story of how
the couple days we had spent
there had affected them,
and it came to me and I opened
my mouth and nothing came out.
I began weeping.
I knew that my heart was in trouble,
and so when I came back to Colorado,
I knew had to do something and
so I asked my husband if it
was okay if I started collecting
a few shoes in our garage.
I sent one email to 20
people and out of that,
at this point we've collected
270,000 pairs of shoes.
I've been to Haiti four times
and Africa once to distribute
shoes to those in need and
that's how I got started.
There's some days where we may
collect six pairs of shoes.
The next day, we may get 600.
So, everyday is very different,
but every pair really,
really matters to someone.
Whoever is receiving that pair of shoes,
it may be life changing for them.
Children in Haiti have to
wear black shoes to school.
So, without black shoes,
they can't go to school.
For a child to not be
able to have an education
because they don't have a
pair of shoes is unbelievable.
There are different orphanages
and communities that we go
into in Haiti and Tanzania
and these children are given
a pair of shoes and with that
they can receive an education.
What we do is we provide shoes
that provide an opportunity
for people in Haiti and
other third world countries
to be able to provide for their families
and be able to put food
on the table for them.
I know on the day I quit collecting shoes,
there are people who won't eat
and that's what kinda drives me,
is that I know what we're doing here
in our little warehouse
is a very important thing.
- It was so inspiring to
meet someone like Michelle.
It makes just tossing
another bag of shoes onto
the pile feel like it's not quite enough.
I needed to do more.
So I decided to go with Michelle
and Soles4Souls to Haiti.
With so many shoes, they
were bound to need some help.
(upbeat joyful music)
(gentle music)
(light music)
When I decided to do this project,
something I wanted to learn more about
was how diabetes affected people's feet.
As a type two diabetic myself,
I'm always worried about my feet.
But first, I needed to find a doctor
with some real experience.
- My name is Edward Mostone.
Sometimes people come in
with just a little corn,
flat feet, a lot of fractures,
bunions, hammertoes,
ingrown nails, trauma, infections,
frostbite in the winter
time, a worm in their foot,
cutaneous lava, lawn mower injuries,
sea shell injuries, plantar fasciitis.
I used to see a lot of drug
induced abscesses in the foot,
they used to inject in the foot.
This week it's kitchen knife week.
I had two people who
dropped the kitchen knife
and cut the extensor tendons.
You've been in practice long
enough, you will see things.
- [Calvin] I think I found the right guy.
- Treating diabetics is a team effort.
You need a good vascular surgeon,
you need pediatrist, you
need good wound care.
It's something you
can't treat on your own.
Most primary care physicians are very good
at sending patients
over for a yearly eval,
and they're more attuned
to checking their feet.
They have usually a problem
with their circulation,
where the blood flow isn't that good,
or they have a sensory impairment
where they can't feel their feet.
Those things lead to big problems.
- My name is Dr. Jocelyn Curry.
I am a podiatric physician,
meaning I treat all ailments
of the foot and ankle.
When it comes to diabetes and the feet,
the feet can be definitely
one of the early
signs that changes are coming.
The nerves in the feet
are really important
and in diabetics they
tend to be affected first.
Meaning they don't feel sensation
or feel pain as quickly as they used to.
The nerves in the body run like wires
from the spine to all the locations.
So when they affected by the
blood glucose being too high,
it makes them misfire
and creates shooting,
burning, tingling sensations in the feet,
and over time, patients
start to lose the sensation
and not know when they have injury.
- Your feet get damaged everyday.
So the blood goes in there,
fixes it and goes back.
So now if your feet are diabetic,
your bottom of your feet gets damaged,
not enough blood goes in
there and it doesn't heal.
- The biggest thing is hydration.
Our feet are covered by our skin,
the skin's the biggest organ in the body,
it's a barrier to keep things out
that aren't supposed to be in.
So, if your feet are dry, it's
gonna crack and it's gonna
cause fungus, bacteria,
different things to get in
that causes the infections
that lead to the amputations.
So, hydration is key.
- Every time I'm on call, I
have a diabetic foot infection,
and it's usually something that has to go
to the operating room on an urgent basis.
Usually they ignore the problem.
I saw a little blood on my sock,
I didn't think anything of it.
Or I noticed a problem and I
said ah, I'll treat it Monday.
By the time they went into the hospital,
the whole toe was infected
and the bone got infected.
Once it reaches the bone and you have some
of the product tissue,
you end up usually with an amputation.
The difference between saving a toe
and losing a toe is patient waiting.
- Diabetes is the number
one cause of amputation.
So we try to prevent
them losing their limb
by building braces or
building foot orthotics
or providing them with shoes.
That's part of my job.
Then there are people that
are just vascular and there's
a point where they end up losing
their leg and that's where
I come in with the prosthetics
and I build them a prosthesis
to return as much normalcy
to their life as possible.
So the first part of
designing a prosthetic
is to build them a socket.
The socket is the interface
between them and the prosthesis.
So, we start with casting
them, fill the model,
I hand modify the casts
and then we wanna make sure
they don't have a rotation or fit issues.
So we start with the socket.
After the socket is fabricated,
we select the different feet
based on what this patient's
goals are, what they wanna do.
For instance, this leg
has a vertical shock
and a torsion adaptor on it.
So this is for somebody
that wants to be able
to pivot and the pivot takes place here.
Also, the vertical
shock reduces the strain
on the bottom of the residual limb.
This kinda represents kinda the inside
of what the prosthetic looks like.
We have an alignment fixture,
we can change the alignment,
which is the orientation of
the foot to the socket when
they're walking, and fine tune that.
This foot flexes and springs.
So when they're walking they get
some energy return and push off.
So it propels them forward.
Getting that patient to not only walk,
but walk well is really important.
There's two types of diabetes;
there's type one and there's type two.
There's juvenile diabetes
and adult onset diabetes.
They're both very serious,
they can be managed.
Some people have it very severely
and some people don't have it so bad.
So just because you said that you were
a diabetic does not mean
that you're gonna end up
with an amputation or foot loss.
It just puts you at a very high
risk of that in the future.
- My mother was diagnosed
with diabetes in her early
to mid 30s and she was a type two diabetic
and it was insulin dependent.
She tended to regulate her
blood sugar with her insulin
instead of trying to do it with diet.
When she first was diagnosed
with diabetes, she drank coke,
regular coke just like always
and if her blood sugars were
up, she just would give herself
more insulin and that's not
how you're supposed to do it,
I mean, but that's how she did
and she didn't pay attention to her diet.
She just didn't try to
let the diabetes affect
her life and it does, it's a life changer.
It should be, at least in the way
that you take care of your body.
My mother ended up having an amputation.
She got a sticker in her
toe and one of the things
that they tell you to do is
pay attention to your feet.
If you get an infection, you
need to get to the doctor right
away and get on top of it as
quickly as possible because the
circulation is so bad that you
don't heal like you should.
So, we had to setup an appointment
to get her toe amputated
and about four weeks later we
were back in having another
amputation and they took
her leg just below the knee.
So.
(light music)
I've been a stylist for 27 years.
Done hair, massage, facials, feet.
We do have diabetic patients
that come in for foot care.
A lot of times they can't
pick their foot up to reach
it to be able to trim their
toe nails and they need
to be very careful to keep
their toe nails trimmed,
because as the toe nails get long,
you scratch yourself in your sleep.
So, by keeping the feet rimmed
it helps to keep them safe.
I just realized with my mother
having the health issues
she's had over the years
with her diabetes that,
how important that the safety of doing
the manicures and pedicures was.
When I went to try to figure
out what pedicure chairs
to use, I tried to find something that had
the least amount of mechanisms and pipes.
It seems as though whirlpools
and objects harbor bacteria.
- When the spa companies started
coming out with different
types of pedicure thrones,
everybody loved 'me,
they they thought they were
awesome 'cause they came
with the nice massagers
in the back of the chairs,
and everybody wanted
the water to stay warm
and to move like a whirlpool.
So, when they started 'em they
put a whirlpool jet system
in them, just like you
would see in a hot tub.
So the water goes out
around through like a warmer
and would go through pipes
in the bottom of the chair.
What they found was,
even though you would run
disinfectant through that,
there's always that chance that
some of that would get left
behind, bacteria could build up,
and that's why they became so unpopular
and pretty much non-existent anymore now.
So when they came out with pipeless,
which is basically the same
throne with a tub at the bottom,
and instead of having the water move out
and inside of the tube, it
just circulates inside of
the tub with just a little fan.
That fan, that motor, the
whole little thing comes off,
it gets disinfected.
The water you see in there is the water
your feet touches and nobody else's does.
It never went anywhere else.
It's just like a sink.
It fills up and it drains.
Plus we go another step
by putting a liner inside
of the tub to protect against
any bacteria or anything.
So that when the next
person comes they know
it's going to be clean and ready to go.
- It takes time to clean those tubs.
And it takes time to fill 'em
up, put the solution in there,
run it through, drain 'em,
fill 'em back up again.
- It's part of who I am as
far as a business person
when I think about the pedicure chairs
and the safety of the
clients that come in.
I mean, if my mother was
sticking her feet in that tub,
would I feel confident to know
that she was gonna be safe?
- When we're thinking about
the history of foot washing
in the Bible, it has a long
history in the Hebrew testament
or the old testament as
it's sometimes called.
And it's just a way of when
somebody comes into your home,
of showing them hospitality,
which is also a sign of dignity,
a sign of respect and also
it's a way of honoring God.
The main source of our knowledge
and understanding of washing of the feet
with Christ is in John's
Gospel, chapter 13.
This is at the end of the dinner,
at the end of the Passover,
the most sacred meal,
completely against what they
ever would have anticipated,
at the end of the meal,
Jesus, who is their Rabbi,
their Lord, their master,
their teacher who they look
up to, takes off his garments,
he gets down on his
knees to wash their feet.
Well this would have been
unheard of that the master
would get down to wash the disciples feet.
And so, Peter, who so
often is the spokesman for
the disciples says, Lord,
you can't wash my feet.
And Jesus says, if I don't wash your feet,
then you will never be able
to understand completely
who I am and what you're doing.
And what's significant here too,
is that we have accounts
that in the early,
early church, the washing
of the feet continued.
And so clearly, people in
the early life of the church
recognized that when Jesus
washed the disciples feet,
he was doing something very significant
and something that we are to carry on,
and then here we are doing it even today.
(playful music)
- [Calvin] Making this movie
has been a lot of hard work,
and with all of this traveling,
my feet have been killing me.
Why not take a little time
to really pamper myself?
I mean, all guys get pedicures, right?
- My name is Carolina de Pena.
Here we are at Polish
Nail Bar in Santo Domingo
in the Dominican Republic.
This place like very
girly, but we have clients
that are men and like to
do their feets and nails.
With men, we need more
time than for women,
because their feet are very rough.
So it's more time for
me to put the applier
and do their feets then for a girl.
- My name Georgette Sands.
I'm the proprietor of
The Nail Lounge located
ina Nassau, Bahamas.
Usually men are afraid to come in here.
They say it looks too girly.
But the minute they walk through the door
and they actually sit down in our chairs
and they have our service,
they wanna come back.
We have had men that book
appointments every three weeks,
and they just love it in here.
I don't know if it's because
a lot of women are in here,
but they seem to like the
condition of their feet
that we are encouraging
them to groom their feet.
And a lot of them may have
never had a pedicure before,
but the minute we speak to
them and say just try it out,
try it out and it seems as
though it's catching on.
They wanna come back very often.
I would like to see
more men in particular,
because whilst men like
women with nice feet,
women like men with nice feet.
- My name is Dina and
this is the co-owner,
it's also my loving husband, Tom.
- I just don't like feet.
It's kinda ludicrous that I'm
part owner of a nail salon
because I don't know, it's
like the far end of your colon.
I mean, I know you got one,
but I don't wanna touch it,
I don't wanna smell it, just
you know, keep it to yourself.
- We welcome every shape, every looks,
every crooked toenail there is.
- And at this time, I exercise
my fifth amendment rights.
(chuckling)
- You know, a lot of
times women come in here
and they always tells me
how they wish to bring their
husband to get their pedicure
because it's bugging them.
Feet creates a lot of odor.
- There might be stats
somewhere on how many divorces
were caused by stinky feet, huh?
Is that possible?
- It's possible.
Men attracts the women more so if they got
their manicure and the pedicure done.
To tell you honestly, it's true.
- Men, get your feet taken
care of, it's a chick magnet.
- I think when you come in
and get the pedicure done
and I think your partner will be happy
to see you got the nail
and toe done and make you
feel nice and better
to go with that person.
- There's a stigma for men
having their feet done,
and I have the same perception.
It's something for ladies,
it's something the ladies do.
- When a male client comes
in here for the first time
just because their wives said
so and the moment they sat
down and you start
working on their calluses,
during the process, you can see
on their faces with the, ah.
- It's quite a bit more comfortable when
you're standing around
doing whatever you're doing,
without these big, thick
calluses on your feet.
- A lot of men and women doesn't realize
that until they actually
come here and says,
wow, I never thought that I needed this.
- When I get done with a pedicure,
I feel like I have Air Jordan
shoes on and it is so amazing.
I mean, the difference coming
in versus when I leave here
and after a pedicure.
I'm a diabetic.
I have neuropathy, so it's
really important to me
from a health stand point,
comfort stand point,
things of that nature.
- Pedicures are very, very
popular and especially men.
Once you can get a guy
to come get a pedicure,
they're pretty much hooked.
(light music)
- The greatest thing about
nail polish, toe polish,
getting a manicure, getting a pedicure,
is that nails can be
done by almost anyone.
The professional gives you the best,
but if you can't afford
to go to the salon,
you can easily do your own
nails and make them look good
with the products that
are out there today.
You're immediately glamorous when
you have beautiful nails
and beautiful feet.
- My name is Jeff Pink and basically
we have two brands in my company.
There's one brand which is called ORLY
and there's another brand
which is called SpaRitual.
In 1975 I opened a beauty supply store
in Tarzana, California.
At that time I used carry
other people's products,
but listening to the manicurists
and what the needs are,
I felt that there is more than that.
I can up with my own product.
Keep in mind at that time the
only thing which was available
to the manicurists was base
coat, top coat and nail color.
No straight nail, no fast
dry, nothing of that business.
In the last 38 years or
39 years of the company,
I developed 26 nail tape.
I'm covering every issue,
every needs that the consumer
as well as the professional
nail technician
needs to perform her services.
- There are so many cool things out there.
We have a product line
called SpaRitual that we use,
it was one of the first vegan
lines that had been out that
was new and developed from
a company called ORLY,
that's been around forever,
that everyone has trusted
and relied on over years
and years and years of time.
- One day I said to myself, Jeff,
you developed so many products,
but you never developed an
application of a product.
How to apply differently.
I took a regular cap, which is usually
it's a very hard plastic
and was able to cover
it in a special mold with
rubber on the outside.
- The cap is user
friendly for a manicurist.
I can just open this bottle
and close it with no problem.
- On top of it, because
it's made out of rubber
and you will have a very
good grip on the cap,
when you apply the nail
polish you get more accuracy.
- I can get into little
teeny, tiny finger nails
or people that don't have
a little baby toenail,
I can polish 'em with this polish.
- It's one of the best innovation
in nail polish application ever.
- From the very youngest
person who applies their nail
polish or their toenail polish,
to the 90 year old women,
there's just been, just an
explosion of nail art polishes.
Some companies have as many
as 140 different colors.
Some of them have gold in them.
Some of them have gold dust in them,
diamond dust in them, sparkles in them.
So much is being added to the
nails and to the feet today
to make them really glamorous.
- Right now, nail art has
taken a big resurgence.
Some of the younger women are painting
every nail red and one white,
or they're getting some kind of artwork.
- There is so much
publicity about nails now.
There's so much on the internet.
There's so many styles
that you can pick from.
There's a magazine like Nail
It, that's on the news stand
to show people what's available to them.
Of course, if you're in New York City,
you're going to have a much
more sophisticated look
than perhaps somebody that is in Kansas.
- The difference between
polish trends in Kansas
and the Midwest as opposed
to California or New York,
trends tend to be a little bit different.
It took us a while to pick
up some of their trends.
- It doesn't take as long
as some people think,
especially with internet, pintrist,
I mean, good lord there's everything.
It's immediate anywhere
with, you know, so.
Trends that may have taken
longer before to get to Kansas,
don't as much anymore.
That, and especially the younger ones,
they're like, they're all over it.
- You can go online today and
you can find not hundreds,
not thousands, but literally millions
of nail designs and nail pictures.
What to do with it, how to do it,
the different colors that are available.
It's really just been an explosion unlike
the beauty industry has ever seen.
As a matter of fact, nails
has taken the biggest jump
in profits and in sales
in the last two years than
any other cosmetic on the market today.
Bigger than makeup, bigger
than hair, bigger than tanning.
Nails is just jumping to the forefront
of what beauty is all about.
- Right now, nails are trendy.
For example, you want to go to
a fashion event or a wedding,
you want to combine your
nails with your outfit.
- Nails and feet today are
the perfect fashion accessory.
A woman can do anything with her nails
and with her feet to
make them look glamorous,
to fit in with her fashion, her dress.
Today they can put nails
on that look exactly
like the dress that you're going to wear.
It could have the same pattern
as the dress you're going to wear.
So, in today's society, truly
a woman is not dressed unless
her hands and feet are dressed as well.
- Feet is very important
to the fashion industry.
Perception is reality.
When it comes to branding
in the fashion industry,
you wanna make sure you
have the whole package.
Whether that's a photo shoot,
whether that's a face shot,
whether it's a full body shot, swimsuit,
you wanna make sure your
presentation is on point.
Also for runway.
They're gonna look at the clothes,
they're gonna look at the walk,
but the feet is definitely
gonna be looked at the most.
Without perfect feet, you have no package.
You see a lot of perfect
feet that are out there.
However, we know all photo shoots
are pretty much airbrushed a little bit.
But you gotta have a solid foundation.
So we tend to go with
the more younger models,
more petite to where the bone is strong,
the skin isn't as scarred,
and to try to really look
for that perfect image.
We're working with big time clients
and branding is very important.
One bad image in a magazine
could take a company down.
- The model selection is one thing
that's extraordinarily important.
Hands, feet, face and body.
We need to find the whole
package and that's not easy.
Being a hand model is
a very difficult thing
and being a foot model
is very, very difficult.
- My ability to be a
foot model over 20 years
and to be continually booked
has a lot to do with my lifestyle.
It's not only the manicures and pedicures
and the sloughing of dead
skin and things like that,
and the techniques that I've learned.
I have the ability to get
the shot really quickly.
I could show up with no nail polish
on and have absolutely clear toenails.
Most people actually can't do that,
even if they're professional foot models.
What makes my feet perfect is the arch.
The fact that there are no calluses,
that the toes are
straight and the first toe
is the longest toe and
they go down in size.
It's not enough to show up
and just have pretty feet.
You have to really know what you're doing.
That's how you keep the
work coming in, you know?
And then you gotta remember
to have fun with it,
you know, because it's just feet.
- Back in 1992, many years ago,
you might not see the gray,
but many moons ago I competed
in the Miss Bahamas pageant,
and I'm so grateful to have won that year.
I represented the Bahamas in Mexico City
in 1993 at the Miss Universe pageant.
I don't think I would have
been able to compete in today's
Miss Universe because the
six inch heels are killers.
I'm so grateful that I competed when
I did compete on maybe three inch heels.
That was cool, that got you by.
- I never recommend my
patients to wear high heels.
- Women like love their high heels.
And it's a love, hate relationship.
- It's hard to be in
a high heel or a pump,
because they're not made
to really be comfortable.
- With the styles being as
long and as pointy as they are,
women's feet just get crushed into
these shoes that destroy our feet.
- When you have the high heels,
the way you gotta put your
foot in there and the way
your foot is in there for a
sustained period of time, we
start to develop some bunions.
- Most every women that wears
high heels will experience
a burning sensation on
the ball of their foot
because of when you're in an
elevated position such as this,
all of the pressure is falling onto
the ball of the foot and the fat pad.
- If you're wearing four
to six inch heels everyday,
eventually it's gonna catch up to ya.
- I probably wear high
heels seven days a week.
You know, 48 weeks a year,
and my feet know that
I've worn these shoes, let me tell you.
- People comment on how were you able
to stand up in those heels?
Well, it's because I take
my slippers to work with me,
so as soon as I take
a break I'm back down.
- Take 'em off as often as you can.
If you're sitting at a desk,
take 'em off while you're
at your desk and stretch your feet out
and those kinds of things.
- You know, if you talk to
foot doctors they'll say,
oh, this is really bad for you.
You know, it'd be really
bad for my social life
if I wasn't wearing heels once in a while.
- I like 'em if you wear
'em for the right time.
You're going out, you're
having a nice dinner and you're
dressed up for a special
occasion, that's fine.
- You know, when you wear a high heel,
it makes your pelvis
tip in a different way.
So, it's sexier.
- I shouldn't say this,
but I love a woman in high heel shoes.
- My name is Sarah Ray, I own
True Love Shoes in Denver.
What I specialize in is
women's shoes that are trendy,
not necessarily brand name driven,
and because trends change so
fast and that's why when you
have shoes that are all
$38 or less and boots that
are $58 or less, that's gonna
be something that is gonna be
an easy thing for people to be
like yeah, I'm getting that.
I'm not gonna think about
it, I'm gonna get it.
The red shoe is like a classic,
iconic, like it's the shoe.
It's gonna be a pump and
it's gonna be red and it's,
you know, it's just burned in the brain,
and this is like the
end all be all red shoe.
It's super glamorous,
it's covered in stones,
it's just gorgeous.
If the man is choosing the
shoe, this is the shoe.
It's not gonna be the green
shoe, the yellow shoe,
it's the red shoe, that's been ingrained
in his mind and his psyche,
probably from childhood.
You know, Dorothy had the red shoes.
- The red shoe sounds like
the best of both worlds
because the color red is highly
sexualized and it creates
an emotional response of lust, passion.
We see a lot of symbols
of red in our culture.
Red roses, so red shoes
combined with a sexy foot,
I can see that being a
highly eroticized form
for potential foot fetishes.
Fetishism in general is described
as a intense sexual arousal to an object.
So, if we think about foot
fetishism, a foot is actually
a part of the body, so
it's less of a fetish
and more of what we like
to call a partialism.
So this intense attraction
to a part of the body
and it usually is associated
with sexual arousal.
So there's two types of
people with this sort
of partialism or sexual preference.
Some can only be aroused by the presence
of that object, being the foot,
or others, there is no other
type of interference in sexual
arousal in their relationship,
but there is a preference,
a real strong interest
or intensity around feet.
You know, shoes are an
actually interesting part
of foot fetish, and if we look
in the culture that we have
historically, we have
thing like honeymooners
and newlywed couples that
are going on their honeymoon,
they would tie shoes to the
back of the car as they drive
off to be, you know, together
supposedly for the first time,
and that was supposed
to represent fertility
and good luck in the marriage.
And we've seen that internationally.
Even fairy tales like Cinderella
where it was the small foot
would be the foot that gets the prince.
So, in the original story
before it was adapted by Disney,
the prince was sort of
a foot fetishist himself
and he said, whoever
can fit their small foot
in this slipper will be my bride.
So in the original story
there were women and sisters
with ugly feet, which
they were described as,
cutting off toes and squeezing
into this small slipper
in order to be considered beautiful.
The original Cinderella story
isn't that far from reality
in the women cutting off their toes
to fit into the smaller shoe.
In early history, women were
actually cutting off toes
or slicing off sides of the
feet to make them more narrow
or to fit into the smaller shoe,
because that was a sign of
femineity and beauty and today,
we're seeing a lot of surgeries
around feet or altering
the feet just like any
other part of the body,
to make it appear more
sexy or more feminine,
because that's linked to body image
and how women are perceiving themselves.
- My name is Sean
Ravaei, I'm a pediatrist.
When general pediatrist
see all foot problem,
my practice is mostly
focused on younger women
who don't like the way their feet look.
Very common ugly toes or ugly
feet, they want it to look
better and they don't
like the way it looks.
- Hi, how are you?
- I'm good, how are you?
- Great, great.
What brings you in today?
- So I was interested in
learning about what you'd
be able to do to make
my feet look prettier?
- Okay, so what exactly
bothering you about your feet?
- [Anastasia] I'm
interested in kind of fixing
the shape of my big toes.
- Okay, yes.
- I'm not really happy with them--
- In this area?
- Yes.
Especially the bunion area.
- Yes, yes.
- I feel like it's just way
too narrow up at the top
and much wider down there,
so I'd definitely like to
kind of fix the shape up.
- Yeah, what we can do for
you, you have really wide feet.
I can make the feet a bit narrower
because most shoes are narrow.
It's gonna be hard for
you to wear most shoes.
- Right.
- So, most people have
feet like this, your feet are like this.
- Right.
- Spread out.
So, you know, push these bones in.
- Okay.
- Be a little bit narrower.
Like this, you'll feel
like this afterwards.
- Okay, and how would you go
about making my feet narrower?
- Well you have to reshape
your bones and fix some bone,
put 'em in the right position.
Your bone is not in
the position right now.
So, that's why you have
this bump on the side.
- Okay.
- It's very common with women.
- And so, after the procedure,
if I went forward with the
procedure, how long would
it take, like, for recovery?
- The recovery, you can walk the same day,
but for you to wear your regular shoes
it might take a few weeks.
You cannot wear high heel shoes
for about a few weeks or so.
- Okay.
- We are take an x-ray,
see whether we have to reshape
the bone or break the bone.
Which bones we have to take care of,
how much we have to move it over.
Sounds good?
I've had few people who came to me
and they told me their big toe is fat.
They wanted the liposuctIon of
the fat in the big toe done.
Yeah, I mean they're
right, the toe was fat.
They were right, but I
didn't think, a lot of women
they want to wear the shoes
and they were hiding their big toe.
All the toes were nice except
the big toe, so we made a toe,
took some fat out of it and
it was a lot better now.
- [Calvin] Liposuction for toes?
- For the toe, the big toe, yeah.
- I have had patients who have
requested liposuction of the foot.
In my hands, I don't
think it's appropriate.
I'm not trained in it, I don't
do it, but it's a request
and that goes more
towards cosmetic surgery.
- Every surgery has its risk.
I just, I don't see the purpose
in taking that risk of an
infection or something going
wrong or not healing properly.
Just for the look of it.
- When women feel they have
bigger toes, bigger feet,
it becomes am I feminine enough?
And these surgeries or
these cosmetic procedures
become a way to capitalize on that,
and guarantee if we can change
the appearance of your foot,
it'll take care of your
feeling about your body image
and self esteem will improve.
But, I find that a lot of those issues
for women are more deeply rooted.
You may fix the foot but
you still remain depressed
or unhappy or you'll find something else
that you don't like about your body,
and we see that a lot with
body dysmorphic disorder.
It becomes this distorted,
unrealistic image of a perceived
defect when a lot of that isn't realistic.
It's created in the mind
and it becomes an obsession
or compulsion around that
thinking that I'm not normal,
I'm not right and I wanna change
my appearance in order to feel perfect.
- So, Anastasia, you decided to go ahead
and get the surgery done.
Why did you decide to make this decision?
- Um, I decided to have the surgery done
because I was unhappy
with the shape of my feet,
I wanted them to look
prettier and also just
be more comfortable when I wore shoes.
So that's kind of what made me decide
to go forward and have the surgery done.
- Feet represent a symbol
of health and we spend a lot
of time grooming and
taking care of our feet.
Our feet, you know, transport
us everywhere we go.
For women, historically, you know,
women with smaller feet
were more feminine.
- My name is Jo Farrell, I'm
a documentary photographer
and cultural anthropologist.
I have been photographing traditions
and cultures that are
dying out for many years.
About 10 years ago I had
an exhibition in London
and decided to focus more
on women's traditions.
One of my first thoughts
was women with bound feet.
I'd been in and out of
Asia for over 20 years.
So, I was using my contacts,
but everyone just said
there was no one left
alive who had bound feet.
I was very fortunate to be
in Shanghai and was driving
along the driver told me, I
overheard your conversation
and my grandmother has bound feet.
So, his grandmother Zhang Yongying,
was one of the first women
that I photographed with bound feet.
She let me take this photograph within
the first hour of actually meeting her.
I wasn't expecting her to do that.
Normally I talk more to my
subjects, but she wanted
to take her shoes and socks off
pretty soon after I met her.
And it was the start of
something big that actually
going through and documenting these women.
The history of foot binding
is slightly curious.
No one has real definition
of how and when it started.
It is believed to have
started in the Shang Dynasty.
There are stories of emperors
in China, particularly Li Yu,
he was an emperor who had a courtesan
who would dance on lily pads.
She was so favored by Emperor Yu,
that other courtesans decided
to bind their feet so that
they would gain favor from the emperor.
And it mainly happened in
the rich families, the elite,
but like any tradition or fashion,
it went down through the
classes to the peasant farmers.
It wasn't done throughout
China, it was the Han Chinese
in the central parts that
had their feet bound.
It is believed at the
height of foot binding,
between 40 to 50% of women in
China had their feet bound.
A woman who had bound feet
would be considered a good wife.
She'd been through a lot
of pain and suffering,
so she was more likely
to be more subservient,
to not complain.
What would happen is
matchmakers would go to all
the villages and find suitable young girls
who they could match make with young boys.
Typically, the mother-in-law,
one of their requirements
was that the daughter-in-law
would have to have bound feet.
So, when the child was young,
they knew that they were
already betroth to somebody
and it was expected
that she had bound feet.
How the actually bound the feet was
by using a long piece of cloth.
So, if you imagine the small
toes would all be underneath
the foot, with the large
toe, the big toe still out,
and it would be bound round the foot,
then back round the heel,
so it actually would lift
the foot up into the heel,
and if you see the x-rays of it,
you'll see that a lot of
the foot was going upwards.
And so, creating it so
that the heel was nearer
the metatarsals would make a smaller foot.
They would be then made to
walk and their own weight
would break the small toes beneath them.
They tell me that it was
extremely excruciating during
the first year, as you can imagine.
In some ways, the mothers
of these daughters
having their feet bound,
they did it so that their
daughters would have a better life.
They knew if they bound
their daughter's feet,
they could get married,
they could have a family,
they would have more land.
Without that, they would
have a poor, difficult life.
For centuries, they had been
trying to stop foot binding.
The big change happened
after the opium war.
There was a lot of foreigners coming
into the ports of China, into Shanghai,
and it changed how China
internally perceived itself
because it could see that
it would look unfavorably
with the women with bound feet.
They originally tried to
ban foot binding in 1911.
Sun Yat-sen came into power and it was
the start of the Republic of China.
This had stopped in the
actual cities by 1911,
but it carried on,
especially in rural areas,
up until 1949 when it finally was stopped.
They would go around to villages
and forcibly remove the binding.
If they were found with her feet bound,
one of the ways of stopping
them was to fine them
or to take the bindings and
hang them in the windows
of the woman's house so that
she would be ashamed that
her neighbors would see that
she had done something wrong.
The typical lotus foot was
between three and four inches.
All the women I've documented
had much larger feet,
and partly that was because
they had unbound their feet
and they were allowed to spread out.
So none of them actually
really achieved the small,
perfect foot.
But I believe with all my heart
that they are proud of what they achieved.
They will always tell me
when I look at their feet,
my feet were smaller.
When it was actually
done, it was, you know,
it was much quite nicer,
I think that is with pride
because it was an
achievement that they made.
They lived in a society where
it was considered beautiful
and the best thing to
do to actually reduce
the size of their feet.
But during their lifetime
and their generation,
it was then turned with
the cultural revolution
that it was now considered
something that they should
be ashamed of and they were mocked for.
So they have both the side of
them that they thought it was
a good thing and they also
thought it was a bad thing.
Any of these women, I think
that the pain and suffering
they went through, even
if they haven't got
the most perfect foot, I think
they achieved a great thing.
That they went through this
and were able to marry into
another peasant family that had more land
or more sheep or something
more than what they had.
To capture these women
before they have, you know,
all passed away, I think
is an important decision.
An important project to do.
- [Calvin] It seems throughout history,
feet have been viewed
as objects of beauty.
Not only for their size and shape,
but sometimes for the artwork
that people add to them.
(rock music)
- The weather starts gettin'
nice and the shoes start
to come off and the flip flops go on,
that's when people really
wanna get their feet tattooed.
Usually it's just something feminine
is what they're looking for.
You know, swirlies,
stars, you know quotes,
you know the pretty stuff that girls like.
- I am not a girly girl.
I am more of a tom boy.
I was never really raised
to be a prissy little girl.
(chuckling)
I have three daughters
and we had discussed
getting a mother-daughter tattoo.
Had been throwing it
around for about two years.
So we actually got a little
more serious about it,
trying to come up with the designs.
We came up with one and so far
I'm the first one to go get that tattoo.
The design of my tattoo, it's
infinity with the word family
incorporated into it and
that's what we wanted
because infinity is forever
and family is forever.
So we wanted those two things
to be incorporated in a tattoo
and then we would each
personalize it to fit us.
My first intent was to put it
on the back of my shoulder,
but when I went in, the tattoo artist,
we talked a little bit
more about it and it would
be more visible on my foot,
since during the summertime
I do wear sandals, and I decided sure.
This is my first experience with a tattoo.
I figured it's something that would tie me
and my daughters at this point, together.
And I figure, hey I'm 50,
another thing off my bucket list.
(groovy music)
(tattoo gun whirring)
- Amor.
- Hey, what's up, how are you?
- Pretty good, how are you?
- Awesome, really good, man.
- All right.
- So, welcome to Miami Tattoo Co.
- All right, thank you.
- First the customer will
meet with the general manager
and he already kind of
starts working with them and
determine which artist would
be the best artist for that.
Based on the ideas they
have, they may already have
pictures, they may already have ideas.
As long as they have a basic
range of what they do like
and what they don't like,
they'll sit with the artist
in what we call a consultation
and then the artist
will come up with a
concept after they speak
with them for a while, draw it up.
Other times it's the image,
if it's a realistic tattoo,
it's the image taken straight from
the picture that the artist will use.
A lot of people wanna have
the art on their feet.
You know, because of the
limited space of the foot,
some designs can be put on
there, but we do get names,
flowers, butterflies, filigrees,
infinity signs, things like that,
or even more elaborate
stuff that will start
at the top of the foot
and work its way up into
the ankle and then connect
with something else.
So, it comes out pretty nice.
(tattoo gun whirring)
- I saw something kinda
like this on a woman's feet
in a tattoo magazine when
I was like 13 and it stuck
in my head ever since.
I'm trying to get all the
painful spots out of the way
before I'm older and
don't wanna do it anymore.
- You've got a lot of
nerve endings in your feet
and you're really ticklish on your feet,
so it's not like the most
common place to tattoo,
'cause it is, you know of
course, a more painful spot.
It's also a much more
difficult spot to tattoo.
- The foot hurts.
The foot hurts.
Everywhere on that foot hurts.
(groovy music)
- I guess I'm about to
get my first tattoo,
here at Miami Tattoo
Company, South Beach, Miami.
Wish me luck.
I'm kind of afraid of this process,
but we're gonna give it a shot.
Okay guys, here we go.
(tattoo gun whirring)
I survived.
(chuckling)
With my new tattoo, I
was starting to think
that maybe I had the perfect foot.
But it wasn't long before I
got a call from Dr. Christian,
telling me there is one more
person that I needed to meet.
- All I remember from that
day was I left for work
and I went back home and
took a shower and had
to go run some errands
and that's all I remember.
- [Calvin] In April of 2014,
Kristin Hopkins lost control
of her vehicle and tumbled 140 feet down
an embankment near Fairplay, Colorado.
She was trapped for over five
days before a passing motorist
found Kristin still alive
inside her overturned car.
- I don't remember the
accident and all I remember
is waking up in the car
and I just knew something
was not right with my feet.
I don't remember Flight for Life
taking me to hospital or anything.
I remember waking up in the ICU.
I had to be told numerous
times a day what happened;
that I was in an accident,
that my feet were amputated.
I was not in lucid,
basically for a good week.
So, I think that's how I was
able to accept this more,
because it wasn't, I woke up one morning
and oh, my God, my feet weren't there.
It was a constant, you
had your feet amputated.
I think the gradual realization
of what happened was easier on me.
The first time standing
up was very interesting.
I mean, you do physical therapy
everyday in the hospital
and in rehab to make sure
that you're strong enough
and what not, to stand up because
for two months I was bedridden.
The first pair of feet that I
had, the prosthetist gave me
10 pages of feet and was
like, okay, you pick one,
and I'm like I don't know
what they're supposed to do.
I wasn't really thrilled with
how they were treating me
and everything, so I asked
my orthopedic doctor,
you know, what he
recommended and I moved over
to Christian and Creative Technologies.
- I was really glad
Kristin came and saw us.
We were having a Saturday
fitting with Kristin
and she was doing pretty well.
We left her in her current feet
and just remade new sockets for her.
I like the feet that she
was in; they had the shock,
they had the torsion, I
thought they were appropriate.
But then I started listening
to Kristin more and she's like,
I love everything, but I really hate it
when I go down a ramp.
I really hate it when I
have to walk up a hill.
So, I'm thinking and I chase Kristin out
to the car and I says we need to talk.
I says, we need to talk about your feet
because if that is an issue,
we need to address that,
and there are feet that we can talk about
that have microprocessors
that will pick your foot up,
put your foot down.
When you're walking down a
hill it'll level you out.
So, she got in these and
they've changed her life.
So this is kinda the guts of the foot.
Her prosthetic is held on with a vacuum.
Every time she steps down on the heel,
it activates this pump here and
this pump is this line here,
is drawing air out of
the bottom of the socket,
and this seals it at the top.
That's why she has those sleeves on.
And this is a microprocessor foot,
so it adjusts to terrain.
If she's going down a slope,
the feet recognize that
and they point the feet down
and keep this at 90 degrees.
If she's going up a hill,
the feet will dorsaflex
and let her go up the hill.
So they adjust to the terrain.
- You take walking for granted and when
you don't have feet it's
kind of like, oh, okay.
It is what it is.
I can't change what happened to me.
So it's, you know, am I gonna
sit in a room and cry all day
long or am I gonna go live my
life and show my kids that,
you know, nothing can stop me.
- So after traveling so
many miles and talking
with so many people, I'm
still left asking myself,
what is a perfect foot?
Is it a finely toned foot?
A well-worn foot?
A beautiful foot?
A manicured foot?
Maybe it's a natural foot?
A well supported foot?
Or could it even be a robotic foot?
Maybe in the end, the
idea of a perfect foot
is really just a myth.
- Next time you're at a beach or pool,
just look at other people's feet and when
you see somebody go by and you'll say wow,
look at that girl, she's got big bunions.
She looks like she's in her 20s,
and then you'll see other people, wow.
Very rarely do I see a perfect foot.
But, when you do see a
perfect foot, you realize it.
Very, very few and far between.
- Feet are feet and you walk on your feet.
So, perfect feet are
feet that are functional.
- For me, perfect feet are ones that work.
I don't care how they look, I don't care,
I just wanna know that they work.
That's a big deal.
- One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, 10 toes,
which is what mother's usually do
when babies come into the world.
Let's see, do they have
10 toes and 10 fingers?
Perfect, there you go.
(laughing)
- [Calvin] Well, she's got a point there.
Thanks, Miss Bahamas.
And speaking of the Bahamas,
it's time to go back home
for the annual Junkanoo celebration.
It's time to dance.
Hey, hey
D-Mac'll make ya jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Now everybody jump, fling
them, flag them up in the air
Wave them, flag them up in the air
Fling them, rag them up in the air
Fling them, flag them up in the air
It's time to lose my
mind 'cause it's my time
All this liquor up in
me feelin' nice, nice
Always something up in here
and they're takin' wine
So back this thing up, girl
let me mosh it from behind
We rushin' up in the road
And we don't give a good one
We got no choice when Junkanoo
Play time to act bad
If you miss this my friend
I tellin' you it's so sad
I leave my manners home
and waited for the signal
Jump, jump, start jumpin'
Jump, jump, D-Mac'll
make ya, jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Now everybody jump
Fling them, rag them up in the air
Fling them, flag them up in the air
Fling them, rag them up in the air
Push them, flag them up in the air
I dance and wince and
whine 'cause it's my style
Winding up on every
bump of a wild child
And if the bump all good then
I gonna be on it for a while
'Cause it's wake and Junkanoo
carnival, Bahamian style
Yeah, we rushin' up in the road
And we don't give a good one
We got no choice with Junkanoo
Play time to act bad
If you miss this, my friend
I telling you it's so sad, so sad
I leave my manners home
and waited for the signal
Jump, jump, start jumpin'
Jump, jump, start jumpin'
Jump, jump, D-Mac can
make ya, jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Start jumpin', jump, jump
Everybody jump
Fling them, jump, jump,
flag them up in the air
Wave them, jump, jump,
flag them up in the air
Fling them, jump, jump,
flag them up in the air
Wave them, jump, jump,
flag them up in the air
(upbeat music)
Baby come here and rock me
Baby come here and hold me
Boy don't you talk, just show me
Show me you want to control me
Yeah, yeah
Oh, now
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Boy don't you know I see ya
Baby I wanna please ya
Promise I never leave ya
You are my king and I need ya
Ooh
Oh, now
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Destiny, ah, ya, ya, ya, ya
Is in front of me, ah, ya, ya, ya, ya
Baby all I see, ah, ya, ya, ya, ya
Is just you and me
Yeah, yeah, yeah you are my vice grip
Come now we go on a nice a trip
We can cruise the world on a nice ship
Our boat come choppy and we might flip
Yeah, you are my niceness
Fresh like fruit, me see your ripeness
God you know sexy and spicy
Now let them come
between me I love bliss
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Keep talkin', don't
you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Keep talkin, don't you,
don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Don't you, don't you let me go
Sweet like sugar, nice like wine
You and me together
till the end of time
Oh, now
Oh, now
Sweet like sugar, nice like wine
You and me together
till the end of time
Oh, now
Oh, now baby
Sweet like sugar, nice like wine
You and me together to the end of time
Ah, ya, ya, ya, ya
Sweet like sugar, nice like wine
You and me together
till the end of time
Ah, ya, ya, ya, ya
Well mother said another
party another year everybody
Here we go, it's Novie Sonovia
We havin' a party
We havin' a party, if you
don't know ask somebody
Oh, oh, oh, party
A Junkanoo party
We havin' a party
Oh, oh, oh
Yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
A party, oh, oh, oh
- Now we can go home and have feet sex