Children's sports shoes: beware of the Mini-Me!

There is nothing wrong with children wanting to follow in the footsteps of top international athletes like Robert Lewandowski or Jan Frodeno. You just shouldn't do it in their athletic shoes.

98 percent of all children are born with healthy feet. But in adulthood, more than two thirds of people have foot problems. The cause is often wrong shoes in childhood - also in the sports shoe sector.

While sports shoe manufacturers invest millions in studies that investigate in detail how optimal footwear can minimize the risk of injury and maximize the level of performance of adult top athletes, studies of this kind are often sought in vain in the children's sports segment. Instead, the findings from the adult segment are transferred to the design of children's sports shoes. The models of international stars are simply set to smaller sizes. But these Mini-Me versions do not take into account the differences in anatomy and function of children's feet.

So it happens that, for example, cushioning elements in children's sports shoes are often exaggerated. At the same time, the classic shoe lasts squeeze the toes in the front of the shoe so much that they can no longer perform their natural stabilizing function properly. As a result, it can already be observed in children at the age of ten that their feet are beginning to lose their natural shape and function.

Club sports: where wrong soles meet wrong floors

A particularly critical phase for such undesirable developments begins at school age. During this time, many children join sports clubs and participate in PE on indoor floors that are actually designed for adults. The children themselves usually accept this without complaint. Your child´s foot consists of cartilage up to the age of eight, which only gradually ossifies and thus impairs the natural feeling of pain. However, the negative biomechanical aspects are fatal. Because the wrongly matched floors, shoes and soles can almost feel like a wooden board under your child´s foot.

At Joe Nimble, after 40 years of experience with shoes with natural toefreedom®, we believe that sports shoes for children must promote the natural functionality of the foot. That is why, together with biomechanics and experts from the shoe industry, we have developed the ´playToes´, the first children's sports shoe that takes our concept of Functional Footwear and toefreedom® into account. An asymmetrical wide toe box allows the toes to spread apart better and thus better stabilize the entire body in motion.

Cushioning: Children's feet do not have to be wrapped in cottonwool

The ball of the foot and the heel of the child's foot are also at the same level in the new ´playToes´. After all, no child is born with a raised heel. We have intelligently balanced the cushioning of the midsole in order to protect the still growing foot bones from the hard impact forces that arise when jumping and running on hard floors, while still guaranteeing sufficient sensory feedback during movement.

When the natural function of the foot as it grows is maintained and encouraged, a multitude of problems and pain areas for adults can be avoided. Then nothing stands in the way of a career as an international top athlete. Especially not a hallux valgus.