Study: Best Shoes for Chefs by Chef’s Pencil
Industry: Food & Drink
Chef’s Pencil has released the results of its annual survey of the best shoes for Chefs and kitchen crews. Wearing proper kitchen footwear is important for Chefs as it protects them from costly and painful professional kitchen accidents, as well as long-lasting foot or back injuries.
Sydney, Australia (PRUnderground) August 27th, 2019
Chef’s Pencil has released the results of its annual survey of the best shoes for Chefs and kitchen crews. Wearing proper kitchen footwear is important for Chefs as it protects them from costly and painful professional kitchen accidents, as well as long-lasting foot or back injuries.
Chefs have long complained about the difficulty of finding comfortable yet safe work shoes. Working long hours on their feet in crowded professional kitchens can lead to accidents, such as slips and falls and burns from boiling oil and water. It also exposes Chefs to crippling foot and back injuries.
Our survey aims to help Chefs and cooks in making better-informed buying decisions. We surveyed close to two hundred professional Chefs, asking them about their favorite kitchen footwear brands.
The results of our survey show that Birkenstock, the almost-three-century-old German footwear manufacturer, is the most popular shoe brand among Chefs. Birkenstock was voted for by 30% of our respondents. Crocs, the popular US shoe company, came in second with 13% of the vote, followed by Shoes for Crews, Dansko and Dr. Martens.
The rest of the top 10 were Mozo, Skechers, Keen, Clogs and Sika. The full list of brands is available here.
In addition to the survey, we interviewed a select group of five prominent physicians about key features of kitchen footwear and kitchen injury prevention. Our panel of experts includesthe following physicians:
- Christopher W. DiGiovanni, MD, Associate Professor and Vice Chairman (Acad Affairs) of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Foot and Ankle Service at the famed Massachusetts General Hospital.
- Nirav Pandya, MD, Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.
- David Pedowitz, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.
- Miguel Cunha, MD, Foot and Ankle Surgeon, and founder of Gotham Footcare.
- Courtney Grimsrud, MD, Orthopaedic Surgeon, UCHealth Foot and Ankle Center Stapleton in Denver, Colorado.
“Buying proper professional shoewear represents money well spent” says Christopher DiGiovanni. “A number of studies have documented the ill effects of wearing high-heeled or pointy shoes on a regular basis that are not specifically form fitting. These patients, most often female, are known to have a higher incidence of bunion deformity, hammertoe problems, or pain on the bottom of the foot (metatarsalgia), which can occur when load transfers abnormally and chronically to the front half of the foot. Over time, these external pressures can take a toll.”
You can find the full report at: https://chefspencil.com/finding-the-best-chef-shoes-experts-weigh-in/
About Chefs Pencil
Chef’s Pencil is a valuable resource for professional chef recipes, professional cooking advice, and news from the culinary industry.
