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Hands & Mobility

By 2027, More Than 31.5 Million American Women Over 50 Will Live With Hand Pain

Almost none of them will call it that. They will say their hands are stiff first thing, or that they have “lost their grip”. And the first thing it quietly takes is far smaller than anyone expects.

By Sarah P.  ·  Updated 16 June 2026  ·  8 min read

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Morning stiffness is the most commonly described first sign and the one people are least likely to mention to anybody. Photograph posed by a model.

Hand pain is now among the most commonly reported musculoskeletal complaints in British women over 50.

Not backs. Not knees. Hands.

31,597,821

US women aged 50 and over projected to experience hand-pain episodes in 2027 a projected rate of 516 per 1,000. More than one in two.

Frontiers in Pain Research (2023), Prevalence, incidence and re-occurrence risk of musculoskeletal pain in older adults in the United States: a population-based study.

What a figure that size cannot tell you is how it actually arrives.

It does not arrive all at once. There is no morning where you wake up and decide your hands have changed. There is a period usually a year or two, sometimes longer where everything simply costs a little more than it used to.

Hands that feel set for the first hour of the day and loosen off by ten. A dull ache across the knuckles when the weather turns. A grip that gives out partway through a task, so you put the thing down and shake your hand out without really thinking about it.

And the joint at the base of the thumb, which objects to anything that has to be pinched or twisted.

None of it stops you. It just quietly charges you for things that used to be free.

The first things it takes are never the big ones. They are the small fastenings — the ones that need two fingertips, a bit of tension, and a joint that does not mind being asked.

Which brings us, eventually, to a shoelace.

What follows are ten specific reasons women over 50 are moving away from laces: the complaint people actually report, what is behind it, and what a one-strap barefoot-style trainer does about it.

Before we begin: this is a guide to comfort and easier fastening. Nothing here treats, cures or prevents any condition, and none of it is medical advice.

The Complaints People Actually Report

The complaint

Usually blamed on

What is often behind it

Hands feel set first thing

Sleeping awkwardly

Morning joint stiffness

Grip gives out mid-task

Being tired

Reduced grip and pinch strength

Laces take longer than they did

Not concentrating

Fine-motor effort through the thumb

Cannot reach my feet comfortably

Getting older

Hip, knee or back range of movement

Shoes feel tight by the evening

Wrong size

Feet change volume through the day

Aching underfoot after an hour

Just my feet

Hard floors and thin cushioning

In short

Almost every complaint on that list comes back to four things: how a shoe fastens, how much room it gives, how much it cushions, and how much it weighs.

Get those four right and most of the daily friction goes with no medical shoe, no custom insole, and nobody else’s hands involved.

Here are the ten reasons, one at a time.

1

The Strength Goes Out of Your Hands First

Hand Pain & Grip Strength

Thickened, knobbly finger joints are one of the most visible everyday changes in older hands and one of the least discussed. Photograph posed by a model.

The complaint

“They ache. They are stiff for the first hour. And there is just no strength in them any more.”

“My knuckles have thickened up. My fingers do not close the way they used to.”

“It is not agony. It is that everything takes two goes now.”

Why it happens

Two things change in older hands, and they change together.

The joints thicken. The NHS describes hand osteoarthritis as producing stiff fingers, painful fingers, swollen fingers and difficulty with manual tasks. Firm bony swellings build up at the finger joints, the knobbly knuckles most women recognise on sight, long before anyone gives them a name.

The strength drops. Grip and pinch strength decline steadily from midlife onwards. It is not that the hand fails; it is that it runs out partway through, so you put the thing down and shake it out.

And the joint that pays for it most is the one at the base of the thumb. A US community study of adults aged 50 and over found symptomatic thumb-base osteoarthritis in 27.4% of women. That single joint drives every pinch you make  a zip, a button, a clasp, a lace.

If nothing changes

The numbers move in one direction with age: thumb-base osteoarthritis rises from around 16.2% at 50–54 to 24.7% by 60–64, and keeps climbing after that.

So the daily tasks that need a pinch do not get easier on their own. What usually changes is the person. You start avoiding the shoes that are hard to fasten. You wear the same slip-ons for months because they are the ones you can manage. You go out a little less on the mornings your hands are bad.

The hands set the limit, and the footwear quietly shrinks to fit it.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

It takes the pinch out of the process completely. One wide strap is pulled open and pressed down with the flat of a hand or a thumb.

No pinch grip. No fingertip precision. No strength required. A hand that aches and a hand that does not fasten it the same way.

“I have a hard time opening any jars, bottles, just generally doing anything which involves fingers.”

Public forum post, r/Thritis

See a fastening with no pinch →

2

A Lace Asks Five Things of You. A Strap Asks One.

Easier Fastening

Ten precise movements, at the far end of your reach, at the stiffest time of day.

The complaint

“It’s not that I can’t do it. It’s that I’ve started dreading it.”

Why it happens

Tying one shoe is five separate fine-motor actions: pinch, pull, tension, loop, knot. Then you repeat all five on the other foot.

Every one of them loads the thumb and first finger, at full arm’s reach, at the time of day when hands are stiffest. It is close to a worst-case task for a joint that has started to complain.

So people work around it. They loosen the laces once and never untie them again. The heel backs crush flat, the fit gets worse, and the foot slides about inside a shoe that no longer holds it.

And you do it again, and again, and again

This is not a once-a-day task. Shoes go on for the school run and off at the door. On for the shops, off at home. On for the dog, off again. On for the garden. On again at four to collect somebody.

An active woman handles her shoes five or six times a day without ever counting.

5

fine-motor actions per shoe

10

per pair, every time

50+

on an ordinary busy day

Fifty precise pinches a day, through the joint that is least willing to give them. That is the real cost of a lace not the once, but the fiftieth time.

And the more you walk, the worse the arithmetic gets. Which means the women it punishes hardest are the ones still going out.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

One wide adjustable strap across the top of the foot. No lace ends, no loops, no knot.

PULL

open the strap

PRESS

foot in, fold over

DONE

one hand, no knot

What the guidance says

Versus Arthritis’ footwear guidance states that “Velcro and zip fastenings can be done up with one hand and should be less fiddly than buckles.”

See the strap up close →

3

Sometimes It Is Not Your Hands At All

Less Bending

A completely different cause, arriving at exactly the same moment in the hallway.

The complaint

“I can’t seem to bend far enough forward to reach the ends of my feet.”

Why it happens

The NHS states plainly that hip osteoarthritis can make it difficult to “put your shoes and socks on”. After hip surgery some people are asked not to bend the hip past 90 degrees for a period, which changes how shoes go on altogether. Back discomfort produces the same problem in people whose hands are perfectly fine.

The UK carried out 116,901 hip procedures and 134,652 knee procedures in 2024 alone.

If nothing changes

The forward bend is the movement people quietly stop making. First you sit down to put your shoes on. Then you only wear the pairs you can manage sitting down. Then you stop wearing the others altogether.

Nobody decides any of that. It simply happens, one pair at a time.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

The strap folds fully open, so the shoe opens wide instead of staying a narrow tube you have to work a foot into. Less time bent forward and no second trip down to tie it.

See how wide it opens →

4

Your Feet Change Through the Day. A Knot Does Not.

Adjustable Fit

The same shoe, eleven hours apart.

The complaint

“They fit fine in the morning and feel tight by teatime.”

Why it happens

Feet are not a fixed size. Standing, walking, warmth and time of day all change how much room a foot needs. For some people the swing is slight. For others it is very noticeable by evening.

A lace tied at eight in the morning cannot respond to any of that. You either untie and retie it the exact thing you were avoiding or you put up with it.

If nothing changes

Most people put up with it, then cut the afternoon short because their feet have had enough. The shoe was never wrong in the morning. It just had no way of keeping up with the day.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

The strap adjusts across its full width. Feet feeling fuller? Loosen it in two seconds without taking the shoe off. Back to normal tomorrow morning? Set it firmer again.

Versus Arthritis recommends adjustable footwear precisely because it can accommodate changes in the foot.

Versus Arthritis — Footcare and footwear

See the adjustable strap →

5

Most Shoes Are Narrower Than the Foot Inside Them

Wide Toe Box

The widest part of your foot, asked to fit the narrowest part of the shoe.

The complaint

Rubbing across the front of the foot. A sore spot on the side of the big toe. Toes that feel pressed together after a couple of hours.

Why it happens

Most everyday shoes taper to a point well before a foot does. Your forefoot is the widest part of your foot, and it is being asked into the narrowest part of the shoe.

With any degree of hallux valgus a bunion, that mismatch is worse. Pooled research puts it at roughly 30% of women across studies, and around 35.7% of adults over 65.

If nothing changes

Footwear guidance is consistent on this point: shoes that press across the toes are the ones to avoid, and the advice gets more insistent with age, not less.

The everyday version is simpler. You wear the tight pair for an hour, take them off with relief, and slowly work your way down to the two pairs that do not hurt.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

A broad, foot-shaped toe box instead of a taper. Toes sit and spread the way they do barefoot, rather than being funnelled together.

To be clear: that is a shape, not a treatment. It gives room. It does not correct anything.

See the toe box from above →

Five reasons in — here is the shoe

Mira | Barefoot Orthopedic Shoes

One wide adjustable strap instead of a knot. A toe box shaped like a foot instead of a point. Cushioned from the very first wear. Ultra-light, breathable, and flexible underfoot.

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6

Hard Floors Are Relentless

Cushioned Underfoot

Tile, laminate, concrete, paving. None of it gives.

The complaint

“An hour in the kitchen and the balls of my feet are burning.”

Why it happens

Modern homes and high streets are hard surfaces from end to end. There is no give in any of it, so each step is absorbed by the foot rather than by the floor.

Plantar heel pain is common enough to matter here. A US study of adults aged 50 and over found 10.0% of women affected, with 7.9% reporting disabling heel pain.

If nothing changes

Discomfort underfoot does not usually stop a walk. It shortens it. The route gets a little smaller, the shopping trip a little quicker, the walk with the dog a little less often.

Nobody notices they have stopped. They only notice they are doing less.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

A cushioned insole under the whole foot and, crucially, comfortable from the first wear. No breaking-in period, no fortnight of hoping it improves.

Versus Arthritis’ guidance asks for exactly this: footwear deep and wide enough, cushioned under the sole, and comfortable from the start.

See the cushioned insole →

7

You Lift Your Shoes Thousands of Times a Day

Ultra-Light

The most expensive weight you carry is the weight on your feet.

The complaint

“My legs are tired long before I’ve done anything much.”

Why it happens

Weight on the foot is lifted with every single step, several thousand times a day. It is the one place on the body where a few hundred grams is genuinely felt.

Chunky “supportive” trainers and traditional orthopaedic styles are usually the heaviest things in the wardrobe and you notice it most on the days you were already tired.

If nothing changes

Heavy shoes are what people reach for when they want to feel steadier, which is exactly backwards: the weight is added at the one point on the body that has to lift it thousands of times a day.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

An ultra-light build that takes bulk away rather than adding it. Less to lift, several thousand times a day.

See how light they are →

8

A Stiff Sole Works Against Your Foot

Flexible Sole

A foot bends at the ball with every step. A rigid sole argues with it.

The complaint

“They feel like planks. I can’t feel the ground properly.”

Why it happens

Your foot bends at the ball with every step. A rigid sole resists that bend, so the foot works around the shoe instead of the shoe moving with the foot.

It is also why very stiff shoes can feel unsure on uneven ground: less of the foot is genuinely in contact with what you are walking on.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

A segmented, flexible sole built to bend where the foot bends, on a low barefoot-style profile. The shoe follows the foot, rather than the other way round.

See how far the sole bends →

9

Feet That Run Hot Swell Sooner

Breathable Upper

The part of the shoe nobody thinks about until the afternoon.

The complaint

“By three o’clock my feet are hot and they have gone puffy.”

“I am out of them the moment I am through the front door.”

Why it happens

Feet sweat a good deal more than most people expect, and nearly all of it goes into the shoe. Warmth makes the tissues swell, and warm damp skin inside a closed shoe is also what turns a small rub into a sore spot.

Solid uppers and synthetic linings hold that heat in. The shoe that felt right at nine has effectively become a smaller shoe by four not because your foot changed size overnight, but because it is warm, slightly swollen, and has nowhere to go.

If nothing changes

Most people deal with it by taking their shoes off. Socks around the house, bare feet in the evening, shoes back on only when somebody knocks.

Which is fine until you are standing on a hard kitchen floor with nothing under you at all.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

Calloway Orthowear builds Mira from breathable materials, so air moves through the upper instead of heat sitting inside it. Paired with the strap, a foot that does swell has both airflow and somewhere to go.

Nothing medical about it. Just a cooler, calmer foot at four o’clock than you had at two.

See the breathable upper →

10

Easy Fastening Has Always Looked Medical. It Does Not Have To.

Still Look Like Yourself

The objection almost everybody has and a completely fair one.

“I don’t want to wear Velcro trainers at my age.”

Public forum post, r/disability

Why it happens

Easier fastening has existed for decades. It has simply been attached, almost without exception, to shoes that announce something about you before you have said a word: wide, beige, chunky, unmistakably adaptive.

So people carry on with laces they struggle with, because the alternative feels like the bigger loss.

If nothing changes

Eventually somebody else does it for you. A husband, a daughter, a carer, kneeling down in the hallway while you sit there and say thank you.

Most women describe that moment as the one that stung not the pain, and not the shoes. The kneeling.

What Mira Barefoot Shoes does about it

It is a modern trainer that happens to fasten with a strap, in eight ordinary colours including black, white, navy, mauve and lilac. The strap reads as a design detail, not a concession.

“Mostly I miss the luxury of being able to take care of myself.”

Public forum post, r/rheumatoidarthritis

Nobody should have to choose between managing their own shoes and looking like themselves.

Why So Many Women Over 50 Are Quietly Changing What They Wear

For most of the last forty years, a woman over fifty had two options.

She could wear the shoes she liked, which were narrow at the front, stiff underneath, and fastened with something her hands would eventually object to. Or she could wear the shoes that were easy, which were wide, beige, heavy, and announced her age from across the room.

Almost everybody chose the first for as long as they possibly could, and then went straight to the second when they had no choice left. There was nothing in between.

That gap is what has closed.

A third category has grown up in the last few years: shoes built around the shape of an actual foot rather than a last from 1960. Wide at the toes. Light. Flexible underfoot. Fastened with one strap instead of a knot. And crucially  designed to look like ordinary trainers, because the women buying them are not ill, they are busy.

They are not being prescribed. They are being chosen usually after one particular morning, in a hallway, when tying a lace took longer than it should have.

What changed in the design, in plain terms

Room instead of taper. The front of the shoe is shaped like the front of a foot, so toes sit where they naturally sit.

Weight taken out, not added. Cushioning without the bulk of a traditional comfort shoe.

One strap instead of a knot. Fastening moved from the fingertips to the flat of the hand.

Adjustable through the day. Because a foot at eight in the morning is not the same foot at eight at night.

None of that is a medical intervention. It is simply footwear that stopped assuming every foot is narrow, every hand is twenty-five, and every woman over sixty has given up caring how she looks.

Which, for a great many women, has turned out to be the only thing that ever needed to change.

See the Mira in eight colours →

Which of These Sound Like You?

Read the list once. You are not looking for ten. You are looking for one.

1

Hands that feel stiff or set first thing in the morning

2

Knuckles that have thickened, or ache when it turns cold

3

A grip that runs out partway through a task

4

Discomfort at the base of the thumb when pinching or twisting

5

Hip stiffness that makes reaching your feet awkward

6

A period after hip or knee surgery when bending is limited

7

Back discomfort on the forward bend

8

Feet that swell or change volume through the day

9

A wider forefoot, or a bunion that needs room

10

Or simply: you are tired of fiddly laces

One is enough

If one line on that list is true for you, Mira was built for that one thing and you get the other nine benefits anyway And the truth is, most women recognize themselves in two or three of them.

You do not have to have a diagnosis. You do not have to be struggling. Most women who switch are managing perfectly well; they have simply decided they would rather not spend the effort.

See sizes and colours →

It is not about the lace

It is not about the shoe

It is not about your age

It is about doing it yourself.

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Educational content, not medical advice. Individual results vary — speak to a qualified healthcare professional about any diagnosed condition. Photographs posed by models.

Sources: Frontiers in Pain Research (2023), Prevalence, incidence and re-occurrence risk of musculoskeletal pain in older adults in the United States · US community cohort data on symptomatic thumb-base osteoarthritis in adults aged 50+ · NHS — Osteoarthritis symptoms · Versus Arthritis — Footcare and footwear · National Joint Registry, 2024 annual figures · Nix et al., prevalence of hallux valgus · Thomas et al., plantar heel pain in US adults aged 50+. Versus Arthritis and the NHS do not endorse or recommend any commercial product, including Mira.

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