The midfoot dorsal angle may be an appropriate metric for characterizing the foot arch because it is quick and easy to measure, without the tedious procedures associated with area calculations and dimension measurements.

The objective was to develop a methodology to assess Pressure Discomfort Thresholds (PDT), Pressure Pain Thresholds (PPT), and tissue stiffness on the plantar surface of the foot. Ten male and ten female participants volunteered for the study. Foot landmarks were used to create a standardized grid-type template of 95 points. For each test point, PPT and PDT values were obtained, and stiffness was calculated for each of the twenty participants. Cluster analyses were performed to determine the regions of similarity for the three dependent variables, PPT, PDT and stiffness. Moran's-I-index was used to determine the spatial auto correlations. The use of k-means clustering showed five distinct clusters while the three dependent variables showed strong correlations to each other. Morisita's similarity index was used to check the similarity of the grid among all participants. Both male and female participants showed a Morisita's index greater than 0.7 confirming the reliability of the foot template.Practitioner Summary: Pressure Discomfort thresholds (PPT), Pressure pain thresholds (PPT) and tissue stiffness were evaluated at 95 points on the plantar surface of the foot. The PPT and related PDT map are useful to design the footbeds of shoes. Based on the data collected, five distinct clusters of locations were identified.

Footwear have been evaluated mostly using commercially available products, while some researchers have used custom shoes. Hence, the understanding of the effects of various parameters of a shoe is quite limited. The footbed simulator invented in recent years allows a range of parameters to be studied in quiet standing. It can be used to evaluate perceived feel and center of pressure changes to changes in heel height, seat length, material, wedge angle and toe spring. This paper is meant to show the value of the footbed simulator in terms of research and the actual production of shoes. A study performed with two heel heights, three combinations of seat length and material and three wedge angles showed that the perceived feel is closely related to the center of pressure. The results also show the optimum footbed has a significantly different perceived feel. Thus, the footbed simulator is an ideal way to generate custom footwear designs.