Mythbusting: Toe tape

The term foot binding, will always be associated with the horrific and tortuous procedure historically performed on Chinese women prior to the 20th Century. You might argue we put ourselves through similar tortures forcing our feet to shape of a heeled shoe, it’s true but we do it through choice, and we can liberate our feet whenever we choose. Now ironically it’s a form of foot binding that is supposed to help.

According to Marie Helvin, taping together toes three and four (counted from your big toe) will stop you from suffering in your heels. I can report having tried it, it does indeed seem to work. Why I’m not totally sure, but my weight seems to be more evenly spread, without the tape I feel my feet rolling outwards, instead when taped the weight is more towards the ball of my big toe.

My Elbas are really easy to wear, but the tape means I can stand in one spot a lot longer. It does only make sense with closed toe shoes, but still works even when the vamp is really low cut.

Now any tape should work, however I suggest micropore tape it’s a really thin tape, which is also breathable and wicks away sweat, ballet dancers swear by it. I would suggest you wrap it quite tight to get the full benefit of taping your toes, and once taped you put shoes straight on, as you’ll split the tape if you walk in flats. The tape will last a couple of hours, however it’s going to break down, I recommend that you pop a roll into your bag.

If you don’t get the toes taped tightly together it won’t work. The tape will split after a while so you’ll need to reapply.

So I’m happy to be able to confirm the myth, and I really encourage you to try this. I don’t quite know how this works, but if there are any doctors out there who can explain why this works, I would be keen to know why this changes balance. If only there was a solution to work with my 11 and 12 cm sandals…

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