By Annisa Essack
12:07:2022

South African children and many adults are habitually barefoot due to the warmer climate and cultural and religious practices. It has come to light that a staggering 59% of children wear school shoes that are either too short, too long, or too narrow for their feet. Ninety-eight per cent of shoes worn by the children are too narrow for their feet.

Marise Breet and Ranel Venter from the Department of Sport Science at the University of Stellenbosch have researched the school shoes worn by our children. The findings of their study were recently published in BMC Paediatrics.

Marise Breet joined Ml Sulaiman Ravat to discuss why they chose to embark on such a study. She explained that a study done in 2015 that compared the feet of children from Germany and South Africa sparked their interest. The study showed that climate and other factors reflected a different foot methodology. Some facts noted were that South African feet were more pliable, and people had higher arches and broader feet.

The South African study then focused on whether shoes manufactured in South Africa respected the natural contours and shape of the South African foot.

Breet explained that the study was conducted over a 2-3 year period in the Western Cape with more than a thousand children’s feet. The study involved comparing the foot structure to school shoes produced in South Africa, and sadly, it was discovered that children battled to find shoes that fitted their feet correctly.

She added that shoes produced in South Africa rely on the British design called the Mondo Point System, which does not consider the width of children’s feet.

Children’s shoes, sometimes driven by fashion trends, must have the correct measurements that respect the shape of South African feet.

To help with ensuring that shoes, particularly for children’s school shoes, they have created a company that will assist companies producing shoes to make shoes more conducive to our children’s feet.

[LISTEN] to the podcast here