Coefficient of cross correlation analysis of kinematics during walking barefoot and in Vibram FiveFingers®

The current phenomenon of barefoot running appears to have facilitated a near market saturation of conceptual barefoot-related footwear. It is no wonder since the related literature has demonstrated favourable impact-moderating adaptations (De Clercq et al. 1994, Squadrone and Gallozzi 2009, Lieberman et al. 2010) and provided evolutionary (Lieberman et al. 2010) and philosophical perspectives (Oschman 2008). The Vibram FiveFingers is one such concept and its efficacy has been demonstrated in the literature where external reaction forces, oxygen uptake kinetics and lower extremity kinematics have been shown to demonstrate no significant differences compared to a barefoot running (Squadrone and Gallozzi 2009). The kinematic variables however, were constrained to discrete sagittal plane timing events; therefore, a more robust method of discriminating between temporal kinematic changes is warranted. Such a method can be derived from the coefficient of cross correlation (CCC) (Li and Caldwell 1999).