Naturgewolltes Gehen

The human foot is a marvel of nature. It features 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles and 114 ligaments. It is one of the most complex parts of our body and is extremely resilient. When running or jumping, it has to withstand the pressures of many times our body weight. In the course of an average lifetime, our feet carry us around the globe three times. Little wonder, then, that many adults suffer from foot problems.

From an evolutionary perspective, the human foot is made for the wilderness. Our ancestors wandered barefoot through forests, mountains and rivers. They hunted, they gathered — and even farmed — barefoot. Our feet haven’t changed since that time, but the world we inhabit is, of course, vastly different.

The natural strength of our feet is developed by the stimulus of walking naturally, barefoot upon the earth. The more different kinds of stimulation it receives, the stronger, more flexible and more functional our feet can differentiate.

Perfect distribution of weight is achieved within the foot when humans walk on soft sand. The walking cycle begins with the touchdown of the heel (aka the calcaneus), which is the foot’s strongest and largest bone. As the foot rolls, weight is distributed over the outer edge of the foot (aka the trittspur). After this initial rolling motion, weight is transferred to the ‘ball’ of the foot. The movement ends with the lifting of the heel and the ‘pushing off’ motion over the big toe.

Hard surfaces, so typical in the modern world, provide no natural support or ‘training’ for the foot’s natural systems. This lack of support causes these natural sensory systems to atrophy. As a result, the arch of the foot can lose tension. Fallen arches or ‘flat feet’ have thus become a widespread, painful problem. The solution to this is to use footwear that not only protects the foot, but also underpins natural foot anatomy and encourages the natural way of walking that has been so largely forgotten. This is the central concern, which for generations has driven the BIRKENSTOCK family of shoemakers.

Konrad Birkenstock worked on the first flexible insole in 1902, which he developed into the famous BIRKENSTOCK footbed in the years that followed. The footbed is modeled on a human footprint in the sand. It mirrors the anatomical shapes and curvatures of the human foot perfectly. With its use of a unique mix of cork and latex, it achieves the perfect balance of strength, support and flexibility. Distributing weight evenly over the foot, the footbed underpins the foot anatomy in motion as if the foot was walking in sand. The foot is stabilized, and encouraged to roll naturally. The natural ‘toe grip’ action is encouraged and the toes transfer the force generated in motion from the body to the ground. The raised footbed edge provides additional protection. Over a century since that first development, the BIRKENSTOCK footbed continues to enable natural walking.