Barefoot-style shoes have both their pros and their cons. They can work muscles in your foot that are neglected by other types of footwear, but they also do very little to protect your feet from unnaturally hard surfaces such as asphalt, concrete and cement, which can lead to injuries including tendon dysfunction, tendonitis and stress fractures. 

Flat sneakers, low-profile sneakers or whatever else you may call the thin-soled kicks that are dominating the landscape, though, have all the cons of barefoot-style shoes with none of the benefits. 

In other words, your Adidas Sambas and Taekwondos, Puma Speedcats and Mostros, Nike Total 90 3s and Superflys, Miu Miu x New Balance 530s and the forthcoming 240L: they’re all bad for your feet. 

This is what Dr. Zach Thomas, the board certified podiatrist and surgeon known to hundreds of thousands of Instagram and YouTube followers as “Foot Doctor Zach,” stressed to Footwear News in an interview. 

“Fashion always goes back 20 years right?” Thomas said. “We didn’t know what we know about footwear now, and so it’s almost like saying, ‘If you want to be cool and find a nice way to relax, you should pick up smoking.’ Fashion is taking us back, and foot health is taking a back seat to fashion.”

The hottest sneakers of the moment can essentially be split into two camps. On one side are retro runners from the likes of New Balance and Asics, which feature circa 2000s technologies no longer good enough for running but that remain remarkably comfortable for everyday wear. 

On the other side, you have the thin-soled silhouettes with soccer and ballet as two of the biggest catalysts. The first wave of sneakers primarily came from the ‘70s (e.g. the Samba and Gazelle) and the trend has now jumped to the 2000s for the bulk of its source material. Although they may come from the same time period as the retro runner, they have very little in common in their offerings underfoot. 

The Taekwondo, made for martial arts practiced on mats, was brought back out of the archives by Adidas last year and was subject to slight transformation for Bad Bunny’s Ballerina silhouette. Lyst named the Taekwondo as the hottest sneaker in the world for its Index report for the first quarter of 2025, and in second place came the Puma Speedcat Ballet Flat, another recently revived retro model given a dance-influenced remix. And in Q4 2024, Puma’s Speedcat took Lyst’s top spot for sneakers.

Worth remembering are the surfaces that many of these sneakers were originally designed for. All the soccer-influenced styles were intended for grass or turf. The Speedcat stems from a racing shoe, pushing pedals in a car rather than treading on harder grand. And ballet, that happens on wood.

Because these type of sneakers have so little drop, the distance in height between the heel and forefoot, your achilles runs the risk of being overloaded, and the increased load on your heel can lead to plantar fasciitis, which is inflammation of the tissue beneath the heel bone. 

It isn’t just the lean soles that are the issue either. Thomas also points to the narrow forefoot in many of the uppers that are likely to crush your feet. 

So, what should you be wearing to maintain the health of your feet? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer, although Thomas does recommend the Brooks Beast and New Balance 860 franchises, true “dad shoes” and not in the fashionable sense. He’s also high on Crocs, which shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise given their popularity with professions involving being on your feet all day such as the healthcare and restaurant industries. 

“Let’s be honest, those aren’t the most fashionable sneakers,” Thomas said. “But [I would recommend] something with a more supportive heel counter, that has a bit of structure to it, not super narrow in the forefoot, has some forgiveness in the forefoot and structure in the midfoot.” 

Thomas has also gotten a lot of wear himself out of the 9060, which has been one of New Balance’s most popular models since debuting in 2022 and does carry much greater lifestyle appeal. And he does even have full days in the Air Jordan 1, despite pointing out the notable trouble Michael Jordan had playing in the 1985 sneakers for a game in 1986, as shown in “The Last Dance.” 

Orthotic insoles can offer a tremendous upgrade in any footwear, be it your retro Jordans or your thin-soled sneakers, provided they’ll fit. 

“If you want to wear a Samba, if you want to wear a Speedcat or god knows what else, go for it,” Thomas said. “It’s not going to kill you, but throw an orthotic in there, and it’s going to help you so much more.” 

Perhaps the younger crowd, which is more likely to follow trends in the first place, can get away with less healthy footwear choices for the time being. But it’s worth keeping in mind just how many people are coming into Thomas’ office with stress fractures because of their flat sneakers.