Walking 10,000 steps a day as recommended by the World Health Organisation may improve your fitness, but what impact does it have on your shoes? Granted that you are unlikely to wear the same shoes day in, day out (and you may not make your 10,000 step goal every day), but there is still a good chance that at least one pair of your shoes may cover up to 800,000 steps over the course of a year.
Unless you are a barefoot convert; or Cinderella and have a one-off pair to sparkle for special events; or relate to boxer Floyd Mayweather who once claimed never to wear the same pair of shoes twice, it is likely that the soles of your shoes could do with some tender loving care.
At Ainslie Laundrette we are neither princesses, nor highly-paid celebrities, but we do value our feet.
While we can’t go barefoot, we do wear footwear that breathes as much as possible in the hot weather. We need shoes to be sturdy if we drop awkward loads of linen. The deal-breaker for our footwear with so much cleaning liquid in use is that the soles must be waterproof and slip proof (no canvas or weak synthetics here). We soon know if our soles are wearing through when there slightly squishy feeling as we walk.
Is our soul reflected in our soles? We think we are much like our shoes –solid, long lasting and dependable. But we admit that our footwear is eagerly cast off at the end of the day for a pair of slippers or sandals for a more light-hearted yin to the yang to balance us up.
Shoe soles secure your grip on the Earth. While sole patterns may vary from circles to squares or triangles to hexagons, they are all designed to make traction and create stability between you and the surface you are stepping on.
If you are planning on seeking succour for your soul in 2017 (or even committing to the 10,000 step challenge) you won’t go far or climb high mountains without decent soles.
To make sure your soles match your health and safety goals, we are taking 10% off sole replacements this month until 28 February.