Summer when regular shoes disappear into closets and under beds. The sturdy and safe footwear of the non summer months are replaced by and endless variety of footwear called “flip-flops”. These seemingly innocuous foot coverings while “cute”, cool and available in endless colors and styles are deadly! There is a line from a Jimmy Buffett song stating how he “blew out my flip-flop, stepped on pop top” this is not hard to imagine when wearing a shoe(?) that is held on by the power of two toes! The construction of these shoes(?) is simple and at the same time dangerous. Looking at the construction: a sole with 3 holes in it, a strap that has button type attachments that fit into those holes. The material it is made of is a kind of foam rubber which has little body to support the foot. When walking these shoes make a sound like “flip-flop”, hence the name. While walking the shoe looses contact with the foot except at the toes. Looking at the act of walking, in a regular shoe the entire shoe flexes with the foot and remains in contact with the foot. Flip flops while cute and cool do not have that facility and are easily dislodged causing the foot to roll to one side and allowing the wearer’s ankle to turn allowing for the ankle to turn and become injured. This is the most common injury but just as bad as a break and probably as painful. When does comfort and safety trump “style”, a shoe(?) that costs from >99 to 4.00 a pair is hardly what I would wear even for style.
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