•  
  •  
 

Author Information

Ariana LaFavre

Abstract/Description

UGG boots have become an increasingly popular choice in footwear. Women, especially, have bought UGG boots at a high rate, making the shoe one of the top footwear choices in today’s world. UGG boots can be described as a type of flat footwear and flat footwear does not provide medial longitudinal arch support on the bottom of the foot. This lack of support may cause foot injury due to over pronation in the subtalar joint. There was still the question of if UGG boots limits rear foot pronation movement. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the kinematics of barefoot walking and walking in UGG boots. Ten female subjects participated in the study and the results showed no statistically significant difference in the lower limb joints between the barefoot walking and the UGG boot walking. Additionally, no difference in the subtalar joint between the two types of footwear (Barefoot: 170.8 ± 8.5° vs UGG: 174.3 ± 4.1°) during the mid-support phase of the gait cycle was found. This study concludes that UGG boots do not limit rear foot motion in the pronation movement and future studies are warranted to evaluate the long term effects of UGG boots with various ankle pronation profiles.

Note on the Author

Ariana LaFavre is a graduating senior majoring in Physical Education with a concentration in Motor Development Therapy, and minoring in Psychology. She began her research in the fall of 2015 through a Semester Research Grant, under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Wu (Movement Arts, Health Promotion, and Leisure Studies). She continued her research in the summer of 2016 with funding provided by the Adrian Tinsley Program’s Summer Research Grant.

Rights Statement

Articles published in The Undergraduate Review are the property of the individual contributors and may not be reprinted, reformatted, repurposed or duplicated, without the contributor’s consent.

Download

Included in

Kinesiology Commons

Share

COinS