INTRODUCTION

This study attempts to discover if a woman's gait is compromised when wearing platform shoes. This is an important issue because platform shoes are increasing in popularity, especially in the college population. The majority of the dress shoes on the market are manufactured with a heel height greater than one inch. A biomechanical study demonstrated that, "footwear can play an important role in development and treatment of stress fractures because of foot loading, structure, and stability." Footwear also has "a significant impact on the development of stress fractures" (Frey, 1997). This is alarming in the student population because students rely on walking as their main form of transportation.

This research team seeks to investigate whether high-soled shoes affect walking patterns. We hope to learn if walking in such high-soled shoes forces us to compromise our body alignment therefore altering angles of movement at the trunk, hip, knee, ankle and fifth metatarsal. Gastwirth et.al concluded "that an increased duration of forefoot loading, rather than an increased actual pressure, is responsible for pedal pathology secondary to wearing high-heel shoes" (1991). We are going to test this question by filming a skilled, college-aged female walker. She will perform numerous walking trials in platform and flat-soled shoes. We will be examining a full step from heel strike to heel strike of the right heel. The subject will have joint markers placed on the acromion process, greater trochanter, lateral epicondyle, lateral malleolus, and fifth metatarsal. These joint markers will allow us to analyze differences that may be caused by the two different shoes.