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My friend Trevor Blackwell, who made the first dynamically balancing biped (http://paulgraham.com/anybots.html ) told me that a 6' man has to move his feet in ~400 ms to avoid falling. I wonder if sometimes, when old people fall, the root of the problem is not balance per se but speed.
Trevor said one thing that helped his robot balance was lighter feet. He switched from Doc Martins to Vans. (He really did.) So lighter shoes might help.
Now I'm thinking about all my patients that I sent to falls clinic and wondering whether I should have checked their shoes first? 
You know, sprinters are trying to fall, letting the neuro system speed up their feet to save them.
Inertial effects like that translate over a lot of controls. In cars it’s “unsprung mass” and it significantly changes handling. In rockets you could push a running engine around by hand (if the noise didn’t kill you), they only have big gimbal actuators to react against inertia.
Lots of clinical evidence shows an association between processing speed and fall risk, and the good news is that processing speed can be improved through cognitive training -https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28390178/
It also seems that the fashion is to put elders in bulkier shoes with thicker soles as they get older. If you've ever seen how often a toddler trips when they get shoes that are a few millimieters bigger than the last pair, you can see we're not making it easy.
Top 3 factors of falling are poor balance, taking > 4 prescription meds, and muscle weakness. Those who have 0 risk factors have a 12% chance of falling; those with 3 have almost a 100% chance. Geriatric Dr.s examine feet as a leading indicator of muscle weakness.
@XeroShoes the robots may need you!
Shoes are "unsprung mass". Part of the suspension rather than what is being suspended. Reducing the unsprung mass makes a suspension more reactive - less inertia.
It's also the lack of a raised heel. A heel immediately changes balance. Zero drop means better balance.
a major reason why exoskeletons will not replace wheelchairs for a very long time...
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