Why does summer footwear cause pain?
The answer is that sandals and flip-flops change the mechanics of walking. Think about it: you grip hard with your toes and likely shuffle your feet, which shortens your stride. Most sandals don’t provide any arch support. Going from supportive shoes straight into a flexible and flat flip flop often causes strain to the arch of the foot and overpronation (a collapsing of the arch and rolling in of the ankle).
From there, the strain continues up to the knees, hips, and spine, all of which must compensate.
So how do we prevent this?
Part of the long-term solution is strengthening the small muscles that support your foot’s arch and those that provide ankle stability (Huffer, Dean et al., 2017).
A growing body of research suggests that it may be beneficial to gradually strengthen and transition to less supportive footwear (Hollander, Karsten, et al., 2017; Franklin, Simon et al., 2015). Doing this makes your foot absorb impact and support itself, rather than using arch support or orthotics as a crutch.
If you choose to go this route, the transition should be done over many weeks, ideally with the help of a physiotherapist or other expert.
If you’re having pain, the easy answer is to return to supportive footwear (i.e., put your comfy shoes back on) until the pain subsides.