Sketchers shape ups $40 million fine

Well, it seems Sketchers has been ordered to refund everyones money for the shape ups people bought under false claims that they would help tone and help people lose weight.

http://www.ktvz.com/money/31072227/detail.html

turns out people have been walking around in hideous shoes for no reason lol.

Holy crap!
What about the several other companies out there with similar shoes making similar claims? I think Nike and Reebok both have similar types... maybe they just didn't quite make the same claims? Wow. This kinda sets an interesting precedent..

On one hand, I find it silly to be angry/need compensation that your shoes haven't helped you lose weight (unless perhaps they were quite expensive and specifically marketed as such, which is not the case).

On the other, it's stupid to claim your product will help people lose weight if there's no evidence for it. Just market them as shoes instead of fibbing about them.

Reebok already had their lawsuit settlement.

yeah I'm not sure. I guess it's because they used a chiropractor using a false study who was also married to a marketing director for Sketchers and they didn't reveal that he was paid to do the commercial. I guess that's the main issue.

So I'm not sure what will happen with the other companies selling similar shoes, if anything.

wouldn't have worn them even if they promised to stop my hair from frizzing and picked up my dogs poo for me honestly lol ugly shoes is right.

People are so quick to jump and throw their money in the wind for these quick weight loss ideas. health eating habits and exercise. that's it. no way around it. especially not magic shoes lol

and they got KIM KARDASHIAN to model these shoes. Of all people.
As if A. She would ever be caught dead wearing them or any sketchers shoes in public and B. She needed ANY help getting a shapely figure lol

I agree. it's hard to say whether the shoes did or did not help people lose weight when they probably continued on with their bad eating habits as normal. If you think shoes are going to be the thing that changes your life... well that's another problem entirely lol

But it seems the issue isn't whether they really do or do not help people lose weight but that they made false claims based on false studies conducted by paid "actors" and apparently you have to put up tiny print saying they are paid to say this.

I didn't hear about this one.

So I suppose the others will be coming soon lol

It's like the lady that won the lawsuit against Nutella because she thought it was healthy.

Now we just have to wait on the Crocs people to settle for making people wear ugly shoes :rofl1:

yeah I'm of two minds about this stuff.

Consumers should do their own research... or at the very least read the ingredients before you take the companies word for it that it's healthy.

HOWEVER, I don't think companies should be able to say and advertise things however they want no matter how false they are. False advertising is a problem.

well... there should be a lawsuit because those things are deadly lol. I stopped wearing them around the house because I've slipped and fallen in them way too many times. I won't let Hannah wear them either lol. You step on a drop of water and you are going arse over elbows lol

Holy Crap I read that and laughed SOOOO hard! Like seriously? People are becoming weirder and weirder.

I just bought a pair on clearance! While I have no illusions that they will magically make me more fit, they seem to keep my plantar faciitis from flaring up. Any shoe with a thick, inflexible sole seems to, though.

You know... my MIL found the same thing. She doesn't have plantar faciitis but has a heel spur that causes her pain and crocs and those sketchers shape up sandals help with her flare ups

I bought a pair of generic toning shoes and found they work well. Toned up my bum and thighs very well. Granted, I walk 9 - 12kms in them 3 times a week and watch what I eat, but for a fast walking shoe, I love them.

I bought a couple of pairs of the Fila version at Ross while I was having to be on that concrete floor at the store all the time and I do have to give them credit for the fact that my sciatic nerve quit doing whatever it was doing.

Well, I had the Reebok ones, and they were super comfy for a few months. Then my foot started to hurt a little...then a lot. I now have the never-healing stress fracture from hell and severe plantar fasciitis (as in, I'd like to saw my foot off with a dull hacksaw kind of pain). I've seen several doctors and physical therapists, including an orthopedist and one of the top podiatrists in the country, and ALL put blame on the shoes (especially since that was the only change in my life).

Now I've got to live with this foot, and it's just a big cycle with the stress fracture. The chronic pain is awful.

I would rather have my feet amputated than wear any of these types of shoes.

From what I gathered from my doctors and therapist, my injuries have been quite common among people wearing these shoes. Podiatrists and orthopedists HATE them.

(for the record, I didn't buy them to magically lose weight. They were originally quite comfortable for my high-arched feet.)

I think the croc people are punished daily knowing they are making the most hideous footwear known to mankind. That can't be easy to live with

OH! I'd forgotten, too, that one of the reasons I got them was because the ball of my right foot was so incredibly tender and sore -- I though I might have had a stress fracture. They made that bearable and it had started to heal up.

Weirdly, when I started taking bellydancing it completely went away. The first couple of weeks it hurt to be up on the balls of my feet, but I noticed it was gradually getting better and better and it's now completely gone.