Why I Check the Bottom of Your Shoes

Yes, I really do look at the bottom of your shoes during the intake part of your Las Vegas massage appointment. Not in a weird way. Not to judge. And not to comment on your taste in footwear. I look because your shoes tell me things you probably don’t even realize your body has been saying.

The Story of You

Before you ever get on my massage table, your shoes have already been with you everywhere. At work. Around the house. Hiking. Walking through the park. On errands. On bad days and better days. They’ve been taking notes the whole time. The wear pattern on the bottom of your shoes is basically a record of how you move through the world and that information matters to me.

I work with a lot of people who have foot pain, knee pain, hip stuff, low back pain, or a combination of all of that. When pain sticks around, it’s usually not random. There’s almost always a pattern underneath it. Shoe wear is one of the easiest places to see that pattern. So when I inspect your shoes I’m paying attention to how the soles are worn and how quickly it happened. If a shoe is already breaking down unevenly after a short time, that tells me the body is loading weight on one side more than the other, or moving in a way that asks certain tissues to do way more work than they should. That doesn’t mean anything is “wrong," it just means the body has been doing what us humans do best: adapting.

POV: Your Las Vegas Massage Intake at Luckygirl Bodywork

How I Assess

First thing I do: I put both shoes next to each other.

Left and right are almost never the same. One side usually does more. One side usually compensates. Sometimes it’s from an old injury you forgot about. Sometimes it’s posture. Sometimes it’s just how life shook out. Those comparisons matter more to me than any single shoe by itself. In an efficient walking stride, the foot usually lands on the outer edge of the heel, rolls forward through the middle, and pushes off on the ball of the foot near the big toe. When I see wear that roughly follows that path, great. That system is doing its job without too much deviation.

When the wear is concentrated hard on the inside edge, it often means the foot may be everted and is rolling inward more than it needs to. When it’s all on the outside edge, the foot may be inverted while rolling outward and not absorbing impact very well. Neither of those is a failure. They’re just patterns the body has adopted.

I’ll also look at the heel from behind. I’ll set the shoe down and see if the heel sits straight or if it’s tilting. Shoes tend to mirror what the ankle and leg are doing over and over again. Same with the midsole. If it’s collapsed or creased more on one side, that’s information about how weight is being managed with each step.

All of this helps me do my job better.

Massage isn’t just about working where something hurts. It’s about understanding why that area is working so hard in the first place. If I know how you stand, walk, and load your body weight every day, I can be more specific, and therefore more effective, in my work. Sometimes that means addressing compensation patterns instead of chasing pain. Sometimes it means giving you a small posture or movement cue that actually makes more sense once you feel it in your body. I’m not diagnosing you by looking at your shoes. I’m gathering context. Our bodies are always adapting. Shoe wear is one of the most honest, low-tech ways to see how that adaptation is playing out over time. When we notice those patterns, we can work with them instead of fighting them.

So yes, if I ask you to hand me your shoes when you come in, that’s why. I’m just listening to what your feet are saying. 👣

Do you have stress or body discomfort? If you're visiting our city or living in Las Vegas, massage therapy could help ease your stress and discomfort. I am a licensed therapeutic massage therapist in Las Vegas. I also offer mobile Las Vegas massage therapy for an additional mobile massage fee of $50.