The Defense Department has issued a formal notice asking American manufacturers who want to make an athletic shoe for service members to come forward and be counted.
Army
Shoes
With the emphasis on one-size-fits-all exercises, service members will continue to be hurt. With any form of exercises, service members will continue to be hurt. Freak incidents and accidents happen, especially while doing any sort of physical exertion. Those incidents influence the wear and tear on a body. The changes in geometry within a body can be gradual or can be drastic.
What all of this means is that the BAS, TMC, or AMC would need to be able to re-evaluate a service member perhaps annually. Then those results would have to be cross-referenced to the dizzying array of solutions on the market for the SM to go and purchase. Or perhaps have ALL those shoes on hand in a warehouse for issue, sort of like a CIF for PT shoes. Then the question of whether the joe wants minimalist or lightweight or full support or full cushion.
As was stated above, the logistics and execution of this idea would be daunting.
I agree with your last statement, standards are standards, and we must enforce them if they are in place.
CSM Maynard,
I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse here but I 100% disagree with it. PT shoes are one of the very few ways a Soldier is allowed to show some individualism. If we mandate a generic shoe that looks the same for everyone we are only going to hurt our Soldiers more than we will be helping them. It will lower morale for one. Not to mention every Soldiers foot is not the same so I think injuries would also be more prone to happen. The benefit of being able to pick out our own PT shoes is we can find out what is comfortable for our feet and our needs during PT.
CSM Maynard,
We should definitely not allow Soldiers to express their individualism throughout the whole day, but having the option to get a running shoe that works for their feet, that also allows them to show their individualism by finding styles they like, is a good thing in my opinion. I could have been a little more detailed with my statement on morale though.
I do not think it would affect morale in large numbers. However, I do think it could lower the morale of some individuals. I think a lot of Soldiers would be angry with it and could use it as an excuse to affect their morale.
Until I became EO though, and have had to hear some of the things Soldiers complain about, I would not have thought something this simple would affect their morale. But some of the things Soldiers have told me is a "morale killer" are even simpler than this. I am just not surprised by much of anything that comes out of a Soldiers mouth anymore.
I just really hope if they do make official Army sneakers, they have some way to accommodate each Soldiers needs. With so many different feet types and injuries out there good shoes are extremely important.
I have found two different shoes that work great for the injury I have. I always buy one or the other of these two, depending which one is cheaper at the time, about every 4 months or so. Sometimes I can only find them in bright colors. Sometimes I can only find them in black. I don't care what they look like. I just like them because they work very well for me.
CSM I don't under stand why........ we have a million people in the army all with different feet. just like we have different boot's to choose from. one shoe for every person will never work. I have been through so many shoes to get to the ones that best fit my feet the best.
If they want a shoe that all "look alike" why not just pick a color like black or gray something subued. making all soldiers get one shoe will just lead to more ''feet profiles''.
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