Reebok And Skechers Look Better Thanks To Toning Shoes

During a period when footwear sales have been in decline – primarily due to the economic climate – toning shoes sales have been growing rapidly. Toning shoes sales were just $ 17 million in 2008. Toning shoe sales sky-rocketed to $ 252 million in the first four months of 2010. The list of the top ten grossing exercise shoes at the moment includes no fewer than six toning shoes – four Skechers Shape Ups and two Reebok Easy Tones.

The great attraction of toning shoes is that they promise to provide the wearer with a free lower body workout if they just wear them whilst walking about normally during the course of their normal daily business. There’s no need to find the time (or the energy) for a visit to the gym – and no costly membership fees to pay. All you need to do is to wear a different pair of shoes and you will have toned legs and a pert butt before you know it.

A special design of sole is the secret ingredient which allows toning shoes to deliver a walking workout. The precise design differs slightly from one brand to another. Skechers and MBT shoes use a thick, chunky sole, FitFlops use a sole which uses different densities of materials and Reebok Easy Tones have special air pods built into their soles.

The exact mechanism may vary across the different brands – but the general theory is that the sole should produce some slight instability during the course of normal walking activity. This prompts the lower body muscles to try to re-establish balance – which makes them perform a little extra work. That’s how the toning and trimming is achieved.

The different manufacturers have had a variety of different tests and trials performed which, by and large, seem to back up their claims. User feedback is also extremely positive and many happy customers even report extra benefits which are not claimed by the footwear manufacturers. Regardless of their apparent popularity, there are many who query the validity of the claimed benefits of toning shoes and who regard them as no more than the latest health and fitness gimmick.

There is certainly, based on the sales figures, plenty of customer demand for toning shoes. Women are clearly the target market. Skechers, probably the biggest player in the toning shoes market, have seen their share of the women’s fitness footwear market treble – rising to 17%, equivalent to annual sales of $ 226 million. Reebok will also have been happy to see their market share grow to just under 7%.

These are, in the current economic climate, very impressive results. Whatever you may think about the potential toning and trimming effects of these shoes, there can be little doubt that Skechers and Reebok’s annual accounts are in much better shape as a result of the growth in popularity of toning shoes.