Would you ever believe there is such a thing as exercise in a bottle? How about shoes that magically tone your butt as you walk? Turns out one of those s a real product that has recently come under fire for being sold using false claims. The Reebok EasyTone and RunTone shoes promised to tone your butt up to 28 percent more effectively than exercising with a traditional sneaker. Now, the Federal Trade Commission is forcing Reebok to pay $25 million back to consumers for false advertising.
As a Virginia (VA) personal injury attorney, I’m not surprised the shoes didn’t work. After all, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. However, I was concerned to hear that like Reebok’s shoes, other toning shoes such as Sketchers Shape-ups are being blamed for serious hip fractures.
The most prominent case to date is Holly Ward’s, a waitress who wore Sketcher toning shoes every day all day during work and while exercising. Now she has hipbone injuries that are so severe she is left with six screws permanently lodged in her hips.
Why are shoes causing bone fractures? The reason is that these particular shoes overstrain leg muscles in an unnatural way. This not only prevents the muscles from absorbing and reducing the shock of each step, it actually puts more strain on the tendons and stress on the bones.
Reebok is now being forced to give money back to consumers who bought the shoes. But what is a defective product, and do these shoes count as one. They may if they have caused injury as a result of a flaw or deficiency in the product such as labeling, construction, or how the product was used.The manufacturer of the product that caused the injury, in addition to the individuals involved in the chain of commerce such as the provider, are liable for injuries caused by these defective products.
So next time someone promises you results without effort, remember: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
CT