I saw these advertised all over SparkPeople last year so when I had a bout of plantar facsitis (sp?) because my old shoes had zero padding I went and got a pair. The basic premise is that there are built in pockets of air to cause some instability to make you work more muscles in thighs and butt to maintain your balance. I loved them! I wore them every day. Fast forward to less than a year later and I'm down with tendonitis. I figure my insoles have worn out and put some new ones in. Doesn't help. Go buy new shoes (mind you, the Reeboks are $150 for a pair) and am still having problems. Then I see a post by Dawn Meehan (Because I Said So blog) about walking shoes and I see that a couple of people have had similar problems to mine and one person's cousin is having surgery because the shoes messed up her feet so badly. I do some more research and it turns out all the good reviews are given in the first couple of weeks but after talking to some other people including my Dr and guys at the Walking Store, those air pockets cause you to walk unnaturally on your feet which damages them. Also they break down quickly, less than 6mos if you really walk in them, and that causes even more problems for your feet. The air pockets also don't provide enough cushioning like a gel does so it can cause problems in all the joints of the leg as well. They recommended staying well away from those styles of shoes.
So I wanted to share my experience here and tell you if you haven't rushed out and gotten a pair, don't. Buy a good walking shoe with proper support for your foot and just walk. It will do way more good for your whole body and you won't be risking your feet for a gimmick because my butt and thighs did not get any firmer because of using them and now that my feet are messed up, I gained back all the weight I lost before buying them. This goes beyond a total waste of money as I'm now spending even more trying to get my feet to not hurt all the time.
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