Children -Re-enactment on the March

[John Conyard]

To support our ancestors approach to foot care, we must understand that authentic shoes sometimes cause foot problems and problems with posture, and that modern shoes with heels do exactly the same thing. Authentic shoes helped solve my problems with tendonitis caused by football boots and sports shoes. But they may not help everybody.

I repair a lot of re-enactment footwear. It is easy to see how the person walks from the wear pattern on their shoes. The sole can be built up and made to suit each person as they would have been in the past. But in our modern society we too often feel one design should fit everybody. Even if we buy shoes from re-enactment markets, light little people can often get away with sports insoles placed inside the shoe. Something I would not reccomend for adults.

When designing footwear for my sons I generally consider the protection the shoes will offer on hard surfaces, when playing football, and how easy they are for the boys to do up and take off.

This isn't really rocket science.