A total of 10 obese individuals who had a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 30 and 40 kg/m² participated in the study. Subjects were excluded from the study if they had comorbidities such as cardiovascular, metabolic or renal issues. Also, to prevent muscular build interfering with the intent of the study, the participants had their waist circumference measured and were only included if they exceeded 100 cm for men and 90 cm for women.

The participants walked over a flat tandem-belt instrumented treadmill which had inbuilt force plates while being observed through systems which measure speed and biomechanics. They did this while wearing their own athletic footwear, and subsequently barefoot.