but comfy can be trouble
We've all seen the UGG shuffle, usually performed by a young woman in a mall. Hair in a pony tail, she sports sweatpants or jeans with her soft, clunky boots, either true sheepskin UGG or knockoff.
Listen closely and you can hear the scuffing sound.
Now podiatrists say walking long distances in UGG boots or knockoffs can be terrible for your feet, especially if you already have foot problems or if you're young and your feet are still forming.
Dr. this week with remarks that the soft boots are "literally breaking" the feet of the young women who wear them.
He says he grew concerned after noticing tons of girls between the ages 2013 black friday uggs 8 and 16 in both original and knockoff versions of the boots.
"Because they're so young, their feet, the bones of their feet and the ligaments of their feet haven't fully formed, so they're still quite plastic," he says.
"And that means they're deformable as well as formable."
Drysdale says the boots lack support and a lot of walking causes them to collapse on the inside. This allows the foot and ankle to roll inward, creating a flatfoot effect and stressing the ankle and knee joints.
"You get this slight knockkneed effect," he says.
"That puts pressure on the low back ugg black friday sale and so on."
Nobody expected these sheepskin boots to have such a long life after rising to notoriety several years ago when Pamela Anderson started wearing them with her red bikini on the set of Baywatch. Soon, the likes of Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow joined in the clomping. Despite being condemned as a fashion faux pas, the boots are still tremendously popular among women and girls.
Toronto podiatrist and foot specialist Hartley Miltchin of Accent on Feet owns an autographed pair of Anderson's UGG boots. He, too, is concerned about both the original brand and the many cheaper versions.
"Just walk behind a woman who's wearing a pair of UGGs and see how distorted they can be in the heel area," he says.
"This is basically a slipper. It shouldn't be used for walking."
That is the crux of the matter. UGG Australia says its product is most certainly intended to be worn outdoors while podiatrists say the soft boots are better off as slippers.
But that coziness is exactly why women love them.
"It feels like you're wearing slippers pretty much everywhere," says Jenna Dasberg, 23, a fashion business student at Seneca College.
The shoe lover has three pairs of UGG boots, which retail for $165 to $425 (Canadian), depending on the style, according to the UGG Australia website. Dasberg says her feet don't get sore in them, leading her to think the boots might be more supportive than they seem.
Maria Ariganello has six pairs of knockoffs. "Ten bucks!" she boasts, wearing a pair of soft beige boots. She realizes they don't have much support and doesn't wear them for long periods of time. "The first time I wore these, my foot started to hurt," she says, pointing to the arch.
UGG Australia says its adult and children's boots have a variety of comfort features including arch support, sheepskin insoles, moulded sock liners and performance foam, depending on the style. "Structured heel counters on the Classic boot offer substantial support and the sheepskin insoles provide lasting comfort," the company said in a statement, pointing out that many knockoff products lack these features.
Miltchin says many people have problems with overpronation, a genetic trait that causes the heel to roll in toward the centre of the body.
Walking in an "unconstructed" shoe like a flimsy boot will not allow overpronation to improve, which could lead to sore feet, sore knees and lowback pain.
Marilyn Bradley, a Canadian chiropodist and British podiatrist from Podiatry Associates, agrees. "For anybody that has any kind of foot instability, a biomechanical foot instability someone suffering from overpronation, anybody with bunions, anybody with heel pain that definitely is not the kind of boot you want to be in."