[Liberty1970]

*Ping* I thought you might find this article interesting. Far down the article they mention the excellent design of the human foot. One would naturally expect a foot design from evolutionary processes to be poorly designed, full of dead-end evolutionary pathways that lead to sub-optimal performance characteristics. In such a case it should be easy to design shoes that would be an improvement in a physically demanding yet basic function like running.

The failure to do so in a multi-billion dollar industry suggest that foot design is highly optimized, and that the most optimal design parameters were utilized rather than sub-optimal dead ends chosen by blind evolutionary processes driven by natural selection.

[antiRepublicrat]

One would naturally expect a foot design from evolutionary processes to be poorly designed, full of dead-end evolutionary pathways that lead to sub-optimal performance characteristics.

That's pretty much the idea. Those with poor foot design couldn't outrun the carnivores, didn't survive, didn't pass on their genes. Only those with the best foot design survived and passed on their genes, resulting in our current design after millions of years. The current design could use some improvement though. The ankle is too fragile and the soles are too susceptible to punctures and cuts.

[Mr Rogers]

I started running before running shoes were common. I started with street shoes. Hurt like all get out after a while.

[Sherman Logan]

Far down the article they mention the excellent design of the human foot.

Make that the "normal human foot."

Those of us born without arches need supportive shoes or we get crippled up pretty fast.