Introduction: Shoes play an important role in everyday human life. In addition to their general characteristics (length, width, height, heel shape, heel height), acquired characteristics (age, heel wear, sole wear) are also important. Their analysis provides information about a person's gait and provides information about the foot type, which can also be determined by analyzing footprints with the use of many indices. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare shoe wear patterns with footprint analysis and determine their correlation. Methods: The study included 22 subjects aged 22,6 ± 1,94 years. We analyzed shoe wear patterns in the frontal and transverse plane and the footprints by using the Clarke's angle and the Staheli index. Results: When measuring outsole shoe heel wear angle the results ranged from 0⁰–18⁰. Based on heel wear 9,09% of the subjects had a flat foot, 31,8% had a neutral foot and 59,1% of thee subjects had a high arched foot. In the transverse plane the most worn parts were found on the metatarsal heads and the heel. The footprint analysis of the Clarke’s angle ranged from 38⁰–58⁰. This included a flat foot in 18,1% of the subjects, a neutral foot in 36,4% of the subjects and a high arched foot in 45,5% of the subjects. The values of the Staheli index ranged from 0,18–1,26. According to the values obtained, 0,5% of the subjects had a flat foot, 68,2% had a neutral foot and27,3% of the subjects had high arched foot. Discussion and conclusion: We proved that the analysis of the shoe wear pattern and the analysis of footprints using the Clarke’s angle and the Staheli index provide information about the foot type. These two indices showed a statistically significant strong negative correlation (r = –0,560; p = 0,007), while shoe wear pattern results and results of the Clarke’s angle (r = 0,199; p = 0,375) and the Staheli index (r = –0,075; p = 0,739) were not statistically significant. Similar research with larger sample and more standardized protocol, has great potential in the future, as it represents a novelty in orthotics field.
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