Episode 12 – Foot Fetish

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Kick off your shoes and socks, prop up your feet, and let us massage your…mind with 10 interesting facts about feet!

1. Shoe size

Robert Wadlow’s size 37AA shoe (largest shoe size in recorded history), next to a US size 12 shoe:

Robert Wadlow, with his father:

Jeison Orlando Rodríguez Hernández, sporting US size 26 shoes:

World’s largest pair of shoes, located in Riverbank Center, Philippines – 17.4 feet long by 7.75 feet wide:

King Edward II, who introduced the barleycorn measurement system as the official method to determine shoe size:

2. Decoding the secret language of feet

A couple of graphics proposing how to interpret body language as expressed by feet:

3. Foot anatomy

Our feet are incredibly complex and flexible structures made up of bone, muscle, joints, and soft tissue. The bones in our feet alone account for about a quarter of all the bones in our bodies! To break down the anatomy of the foot – there are 26 bones in each foot, as well as 33 joints, 19 muscles, 10 tendons and 107 ligaments.

4. Foot cheese

An exhibition in Dublin in 2013 known as the “Grow Your Own Exhibition”, which was about synthetic biology, had a particular installation there called Selfmade which displayed a variety of cheeses made with bacteria samples obtained from people’s feet, armpits, and belly buttons. Delicious…

Self-made cheese exhibit:

Christina Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas:

5. Why are our feet so ticklish?

Humans have nearly 8000 nerves in our feet and a large number of nerve endings near the skin. The soles of your feet contain more sensory nerve endings and sweat glands per square centimeter than any other part of the body.

Okay, so we’ve got a bunch of nerve endings in our feet – but how does that translate to someone being ticklish?

Next game night, anyone!?

6. Sweat glands

Your feet have approximately 250,000 sweat glands that are capable of producing half a pint of sweat in a single day.

So why do we sweat so much through our feet? There are numerous reasons, but some of the most important include; regulating the body’s temperature by cooling the feet, getting rid of excess salt and water the body doesn’t need, keeping the skin on the foot from drying out by keeping it moist and supple, and protecting the foot skin from bacteria, due to the slightly acidic nature of sweat.

7. Going the distance

The American Podiatric Medical Association says the average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Those cover several miles, and they all add up to about 115,000 miles in a lifetime — more than four times the circumference of the globe!

Forrest Gump, during his (fictional) epic run across the U.S. that lasted three years, and spanned an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 miles:

Herb Fred, a medical doctor and educator, logged an astounding 253,100 running miles by the time of his death in 2018. This blows our friend, Forrest Gump, out of the water, and is more than anyone in the world, on record!

Dr. Herb Fred:

8. Let’s talk about firsts

The first sneaker was created by the U.S. Rubber company in 1892. They  produced a canvas topped shoe, called Keds

A pair of women’s Keds Champion sneakers from 1916. These were the first mass-marketed canvas top sneaker:

Keds shoe commercial from the 1950’s:

Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly sporting Keds:

A 2014 Keds advertisement featuring Taylor Swift:

1920 advertisement for Converse “Non Skid” shoes. These were the first shoes made specifically for basketball and the forerunners to the iconic Chuck Taylor All Stars:

An original model of the now globally-iconic Converse All Star basketball shoes:

The 5,500 year old Areni-1 shoe, found in a cave in Armenia, which is the oldest-preserved leather shoe discovered to date:

9. Foot problems

About 60 percent of all foot and ankle injuries, reported by the US population older than 17, were sprains and strains of the ankle.  It is also estimated that 75% of Americans will experience foot problems at one time or another in their lives. One statistic put out by the American Podiatric Medical Association estimates that over 80% of Americans over the age of 21 have reported some sort of foot ailment or problem in their lifetime. Along these lines, several million Americans seek treatment each year for plantar fasciatis alone, which is a common foot ailment involving inflamation of a thick band of connective tissue, the plantar fascia, that runs across the bottom of the foot and connects the heel bone to the toes.

Common types of foot pain:

Plantar Fasciatis

10. Animal feet

If we think our human feet are cool, check out these five totally bizarre and awesome feet in the animal kingdom!

Butterflies taste with their feet:

The basilisk lizard runs on top of water:

Gannets incubate their eggs with their feet

Northern Gannet:

Elephants hear with their feet:

Gecko feet are not actually sticky: