Skechers Shape-Ups: The Shoes That Promised Fitness Through Standing and Delivered a $40 Million FTC Settlement
How a shoe company paid a chiropractor married to their marketing VP to produce the only study that said their product worked, then paid $40 million when it didn't
In the late 2000s, America was presented with a proposition so seductive it bordered on religious: what if you could get fit by wearing shoes? Not running shoes. Not hiking shoes. Not shoes designed for a specific exercise. Just shoes. Shoes you wear while standing in line at Target. Shoes you wear while walking to the fridge. Shoes that sculpt your calves, tone your thighs, and lift your butt through the revolutionary act of having a slightly different sole.
Skechers Shape-Ups were those shoes. They had thick, curved, rocker-bottom soles that created "natural instability" — forcing your muscles to work harder to maintain balance while performing basic human activities like standing, walking, and handing over money for shoes that don't do what they claim.
The shoes were a cultural moment. Kim Kardashian did a Super Bowl commercial. Brooke Burke was a spokesperson. The ads showed dramatically toned legs and backsides achieved through the simple act of... walking. In Shape-Ups. To your car. The message was clear: fitness is not about effort, sweat, or discipline. Fitness is about buying these shoes and then existing in them.
The FTC disagreed. In 2012, Skechers paid $40 million to settle charges that its Shape-Ups advertising was deceptive. The company sent 509,175 refund checks. The study that Skechers had cited to support their claims was conducted by a chiropractor who was married to a Skechers marketing executive.
The clinical study supporting the billion-dollar toning shoe industry was produced by the spouse of someone who would profit from it. This is not peer review. This is pillow talk.
The Vision: Exercise Without Exercise
The toning shoe category didn't start with Skechers. Reebok's EasyTone and MBT's "Masai Barefoot Technology" preceded Shape-Ups, building a market on the same premise: unstable soles force muscles to compensate, producing a workout effect during normal daily activity.
It sounds almost plausible. Your muscles do engage when you stand on an unstable surface — that's why balance boards exist. The leap from "balance boards engage muscles" to "wearing slightly curved shoes all day tones your butt" is the kind of leap that requires you to squint at the science until it blurs into marketing.
Skechers didn't squint. They leapt. They spent over $50 million marketing Shape-Ups in 2010 alone. They hired Kim Kardashian for a Super Bowl ad that showed her ditching her personal trainer because the shoes were doing all the work. They told women — because the marketing was overwhelmingly targeted at women — that the path to a toned body was through their feet and their credit card.
The shoes cost $100-130. They looked like someone had glued a half-pipe to a pair of sneakers. They were ugly in a way that required confidence to wear, and that confidence was supposed to come from the knowledge that your body was being sculpted with every step.
Your body was not being sculpted with every step. Your credit card was being sculpted. Your posture was potentially being damaged. And the study that said otherwise was conducted by a man whose wife worked for Skechers.
The Glorious User Experience
Diane from Scottsdale, AZ — ★☆☆☆☆
"I wore Shape-Ups every day for four months. I walked to work. I walked the dog. I walked around the grocery store with the quiet confidence of a woman who was getting toned while buying yogurt. After four months, I took progress photos. I looked exactly the same. Not subtly the same. Exactly. The only visible change was to my checking account, which was $110 lighter, and to my posture, which my physical therapist said was now worse because the rocker sole was destabilizing my ankle. I paid $110 to damage my own ankles. One star."
Michelle from Tampa, FL — ★☆☆☆☆
"The Kim Kardashian Super Bowl ad showed her firing her trainer because Shape-Ups were enough. Kim Kardashian. The woman with a personal chef, a personal trainer, multiple cosmetic procedures, and an entire team dedicated to her physical appearance. And Skechers put her in an ad and said the shoes did the work. The audacity of using someone with a $10 million body maintenance budget to sell shoes to women who can't afford a gym membership is the kind of marketing cruelty that the FTC was invented for."
Sharon from Denver, CO — ★☆☆☆☆
“Shoes you wear while standing in line at Target”
Click to Tweet"I sprained my ankle wearing Shape-Ups. Walking. On flat ground. The rocker sole destabilized my foot during a normal stride and I rolled my ankle in a Costco parking lot. I went down holding a rotisserie chicken and a pack of paper towels. A man helped me up. He looked at my shoes. He looked at me. He said, 'Those the toning ones?' I said yes. He said, 'My wife has those. She sprained her ankle too.' Skechers owed us $40 million and it wasn't enough."
FTC Commissioner — Official statement
"The Commission's message is this: companies must have proof before they make claims about products. This case illustrates the importance of that principle."
Translation: "You can't just make stuff up about your shoes."
The Truth: A Billion-Dollar Industry Built on a Spouse's Study
The clinical study Skechers cited in its advertising was conducted by Dr. Steven Gautreau, a chiropractor. Dr. Gautreau's wife was a senior Skechers marketing executive. This conflict of interest was not disclosed in the advertising or on the Skechers website. Consumers were told the shoes were "clinically proven" — a phrase that implies rigorous, independent scientific evaluation, not "my wife's husband ran some tests in his chiropractic office."
The study claimed Shape-Ups activated leg and butt muscles more than regular fitness shoes during walking. Independent studies — conducted by people who were not married to Skechers employees — found no significant difference. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) published a study in 2010 that found toning shoes provided "no statistically significant increases in either exercise response or muscle activation during any of the treadmill trials."
No. Significant. Difference.
The FTC settlement in 2012 required Skechers to pay $40 million and stop making claims about Shape-Ups' fitness benefits. The company mailed 509,175 refund checks — half a million admissions that the shoes didn't do what the Super Bowl commercial said they'd do.
Reebok had already settled its own FTC case over EasyTone shoes for $25 million in 2011. The entire toning shoe category was exposed as a multi-billion-dollar fiction — an industry built on the fantasy that you could skip the gym and tone your glutes by walking to the mailbox in funny-looking shoes.
The shoes are still sold. The claims have been removed. Shape-Ups still exist as a rocker-bottom comfort shoe, which is what they always were — a shoe with an unusual sole that provides a slightly different walking experience and absolutely zero fitness benefits. The difference between the current Shape-Ups and the 2010 Shape-Ups is approximately $40 million in false advertising penalties and one fewer Super Bowl commercial starring Kim Kardashian.
The Verdict
Skechers Shape-Ups are the most expensive lie the fitness industry ever told women: that toning is something shoes do, not something effort does. They weaponized insecurity, dressed it up in a rocker sole, put Kim Kardashian in the ad, and charged $110 for the privilege of walking normally while believing something magical was happening to your thighs.
Nothing magical was happening to your thighs. The magic was happening to Skechers' balance sheet, until the FTC pulled back the curtain and revealed a chiropractor's study with a conflict of interest the size of a Super Bowl ad buy.
We rate it 1 out of 5 toned muscles.
If you want shoes that actually help you exercise — by being good shoes for exercise — see our alternatives below.
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✅What to Buy Instead
Brooks Ghost 16
Consistently top-rated running shoe with DNA LOFT cushioning for all-day comfort. Helps you exercise by being a good shoe, not by lying about physics.
New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v14
Plush, supportive running shoe that helps you run — the actual way shoes help fitness. No rocker sole. No spouse-conducted studies.
Nike Pegasus 41
Reliable daily trainer used by casual joggers and marathoners for decades. Works because running works, not because sole geometry is magic.
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