Determining the protective function of sports footwear

To reduce the risk of injury associated with foot-ground interaction during sporting activities, there is a need for adequate assessment of the protective function of sports footwear. The present objectives are to review the typical biomechanical approaches used to identify protection offered by sports footwear during dynamic activities and to outline some of the recent methodological approaches aimed at improving this characterization. Attention is focused on biomechanical techniques that have been shown to best differentiate safety features of footwear. It was determined that subject tests would be used in combination with standard mechanical techniques to evaluate footwear protection. Impact attenuation characteristics of footwear during sporting activities were most distinguished by analysis of tibial shock signals in the frequency and joint time-frequency domains. It has been argued that lateral stability and traction properties of footwear are better assessed using game-like manoeuvres of subjects on the actual sporting surface. Furthermore, the ability of such tests to discriminate between shoes has been improved through methods aimed at reducing or accounting for variability in individual execution of dynamic manoeuvres. Advances in tools allowing measurement of dynamic foot function inside the shoe also aid our assessment of shoe protective performance. In combination, these newer approaches should provide more information for the design of safer sports footwear.