Mark Rice Footwear P/L Australia. Jacoform

The Jacoform system, as with all great inventions, is based on a simple fact: human beings were born without raised heels. The shoe heel is a result of fashions dating back to the 15th ad 16th centuries since which time shoes have always been made with them.

Although the heel is a pure product of fashion it also causes changes in the static ant the locomotive mechanisms of the human body. It is an unnatural addition which is cause of many complaints including migraine, backache, etc. The shape of most fashionable shoes forces our feet to adapt in an unnatural and thus damaging way. This can be most easily demonstrated with the aid of X-ray photographs of the foot squeezed into modern shoes.

Ouch!	AAAAH!
X-rays prove! On the left, you'll see how ordinary shoes are likely to restrict and cramp your feet.	On the right, see how Jacoform gives your toes complete freedom for healthy and natural movement.

These two factors, namely heels and shape, have had the effect of producing foot problems in some 80% of the population. In the past most people have made light of foot problems and it is only in the last two or three years that a greater foot-consciousness has developed. Without a doubt we owe this new attitude to the general trend towards more natural living. Apart from this new findings such as reflex zone therapy which involves the soles of the feet in particular have also made a considerable contribution to this way of thinking.

The front part of the shoe is mainly fan-shaped, so that the toe rays can be straight, and thereby allow a light spreading of the toes. The contour of the shoe is softly rounded - not cut obliquely from big toe to little toe - so that to the extent possible it fits most shapes of feet, with equally long big toe and second toe.

Good "floor-to-ceiling height" for the toes with maximum height by the big toe, so that there is room for a light upwards or downwards movement (bending) of the toes inside the shoe. The sole is without welt which makes the "take-off" movement over the big toe easier, and as far as the width is concerned, this gives the shoe a narrower look.

Relatively short and narrow shoe opening, and relatively long lacing (four eyelet’s), combined with a cup-shaped heel base as well as a small elevation under the posterior inner part of the arch, ensuring a firm grip in the rear half of the shoe and effectively counteracting a forward slide in the shoe. The small elevation under the posterior inner part of the arch, right in form of the ball of the heel, prevents the foot from collapsing inward (valgus ankle) during standing. It is not an arch support, the arch can move freely, as only the rearmost third of the arch is supported.

Apart from the heel cup and -stop, the inside shoe bottom is horizontal or level in the part between the ball of the heel and the ball of the foot, as this part of the foot has no external curvature, on the contrary, it requires full contact with the underlying part.

In the part below the balls of the toes and foot, the shoe bottom is provided with a layer of felt under the skin which after some use of the shoe makes an individual shaping of the shoe bottom possible, giving a larger contact surface and forming a small pad in front of the ball of the foot - a stop - which together with the heel stop mentioned prevents the foot from sliding forward in the shoe.

The shoe has a zero-heel, i.e. there is neither heel elevation nor the opposite, a minus-heel. We are born without heel elevation, and the zero heel gives the foot the most natural function by all conditions. The shoe is provided with a very light, and flexible sole which helps along the strong upward bending of the toe joints during the latter part of the "take-off" of the foot.. The sole is rounded on the inner half of the front part, as well as on the outer half of the back part, over the so-called line of action which facilitates a functional rolling forward movement over the exterior heel.

In a naturally shaped shoe it is not sufficient that the forefoot can move freely, it is just as important to make sure that the shoe has a really good fit at the heel. Otherwise you slide forward in the shoe.