Why Western Thorlos®?
More Protection… More Life!
The wide open spaces of the west... the lifestyle is all about working hard and playing hard. It's working the ranch, riding, or tending the chores. But there's always time for a little fun. Your life is honest… your life is full, and you love it. We're in the saddle with you.
Western Thorlos may require a ½ size larger boot.
In order to provide these "Quality of Life" benefits, THOR·LO has spent 25 years in Research and Development learning about the "demands" on your feet, and what specific sock product design and construction is needed to protect the feet from those specific activity demands.
1. Dynamic Environment for the Feet and "Fitting Tool"
Humans have "three" feet: (1) the resting foot, (2) the standing foot, and (3) the ambulating foot. The resting foot, because it bears no weight, has no pressure or force on it, and generally does not need a large amount of protection. The standing foot, by contrast, supports our entire weight in a static state. People who stand for long periods of time on hard surfaces put significant pressure on their feet. In a healthy foot, in the barefoot state, this pressure is equally distributed between the forefoot and the rear foot. Of course, the more a person weighs, the greater the pressure he or she puts on the feet.
The human foot evolved to walk and run on natural surfaces such as grass, sand, dirt, etc. During walking and running gait, the foot goes through a range of motion that encompasses dramatic changes in its length, width and plane. Gait consists of two phases: stance and swing. Swing of course describes the state when the foot is not in contact with the ground. In the stance phase of the walking gait, there are three stages through which the foot goes: heel strike, mid-stance and toe-off.
During heel strike, when the heel makes contact with the ground the outer edge touches first. The muscles, tendons and ligaments of the foot relax, allowing the foot to flatten, to adapt itself to non-uniform surfaces, and to absorb the body's impact (which is as much as 1-1/2 times the body's weight at normal walking speed).
During the mid-stance stage, the heel is aligned directly below the anklebone, and the front and back of the foot are aligned, allowing the foot to bear the full weight of the body. The foot is "fully loaded," fully "flattened out" and fully elongated in this stage.
During toe-off, the heel lifts and swings almost imperceptibly to the lateral side. The muscles, tendons, and ligaments tighten; and the foot re-establishes its arch, allowing the toes to push the full body weight away from the ground. It is during the toe-off stage that the foot becomes a "rigid" lever that propels the body's weight forward.
The dynamic range of motion of the foot, while substantial in the walking gait, is even more dramatic in the running gait. The foot goes through essentially the same range of motion in running as in walking, but with the added impact of the force equal to about 3 or 4 times the body's weight. This is because the swing phase of the running gait involves a brief period in which both feet completely lose contact with the ground. The impact is increased substantially, then, when the foot transitions to the stance phase and impacts the ground much more forcefully than it does while walking.
Given the significant range of motion through which the foot goes during walking and running, it is understandable that placing this dynamic appendage in the static environment of a shoe inherently limits the foot's functionality. Shoes, by nature, move and "give" only very little, if at all. Thus, the foot's capabilities are greatly suboptimized inside a shoe. This is where Thorlos' primary benefit comes into play. As noted already, the foot was "designed" to ambulate on natural surfaces such as grass, sand, dirt, etc. Thorlos, properly fitted with new shoes, re-establish a more natural, dynamic environment that allows a slightly larger shoe to accommodate a fuller range of the foot's motion. The Thorlos exclusive terry padding emulates within the shoe the natural surfaces on which the foot was meant to walk or run, and provides protection against chafing and abrasion when the foot moves inside the shoe. Thicker and more dense padding levels provide a more dynamic environment and increased protection. Thorlos also operate as a "fitting tool," serving as a pliable space filler when the foot is at the lower end of its range of motion, and expanding with the foot as it lengthens, flattens and changes shapes at the upper end of its range of motion. Thorlos, in effect, help to mitigate the inherent negative effects of shoes.
2. Skin Management
Inside the shoe, the feet are subjected to various pressure and impact points. In addition, when the foot moves back and forth inside the shoe, under normal circumstances it is subjected to shearing forces. Shearing forces occur when the metatarsal bones glide over layers of the plantar fat pads and skin that are not moving in the same direction as the bones. This creates a situation in which the fat pads become inflamed, and over time, degenerate. This shearing force is exacerbated by excess moisture created by the feet when they perspire during vigorous and even mild activities.
Moisture retained by socks inside the shoe softens the skin of the foot and makes it more vulnerable to blistering. It also intensifies shearing forces. Shearing forces not only degrade the fat pads, they are also the primary cause of blisters. The Thorlos exclusive variable density terry padding (anatomically-designed to place more padding in the ball and heel areas of the foot and less padding in the arch area) protects the outer skin from pressure and shearing forces, and wicks moisture away from the skin to reduce blistering, callus formation and the potential for moisture-related skin damage. In addition, the Thorlos patented terry padding protects the Achilles area from chafing and blistering that can be caused by the shoe's heel counter moving up and down. The terry padding also serves as protection for the foot and can be placed in various locations to protect against pressure and impact forces. Again, the thicker and denser padding provides more protection than the thinner, less dense padding.
3. Fat Pad Protection
As we age, the effect of walking and running many miles takes its toll on our feet. After the age of about 40, many people experience a loss of as much as 50% of the plantar fat pads that protect the bottom of the feet. This fat pad degradation is primarily the result of shearing forces from walking on smooth, unyielding man-made surfaces, and is exacerbated by poorly designed and poorly fitted shoes. Thorlos protect the fat pads from shearing forces by providing protective terry padding for the plantar surface of the feet. The feet move forward, backward and laterally in a controlled manner inside the shoe (what we call the Control•Slide® phenomenon). The shearing forces are transferred from the fat pads of the feet to the terry pads of the Thorlos. In situations where fat pad degradation has already occurred, Thorlos serve to supplant or replace the function of the natural pads. The more severe the fat pad degradation, the higher the level of Thorlos padded protection is indicated and recommended.
