What are they?
MBT shoes were originally development in Switzerland and were the first of the toning shoes to come on the market. These are shoes that are deliberately made unstable to encourage the muscles to work differently. The MBT shoes do this via a rocker sole. Like the toning shoes in general, a lot of health claims get made for this type of shoe.
Do the MBT Shoes work?
The evidence is that the shoes do work at altering the gait and changing the pattern of muscle firing. What the evidence does not support is the wide ranging health claims that get made for these types of shoes. The change in gait may help some people and hurt others; with a lot depending an which structures are made to work harder by the change and which structures do not have to work so hard. There is a strong suggestion that the rocker nature of the shoes may help those with hallux rigidus.
For More:
http://podiatryarena.com/index.php?tags/mbts/
http://www.podiatryexperts.net/question/92/Does-anyone-know-if-the-MBT-shoes-help-heel-spurs
http://www.podiatryonline.tv/mbt.htm