The best answer is probably:

As far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be any legitimate research done on this product, but it is unlikely that they are effective, as is typical when something has this much marketing behind it and no formal research.
Their website just cites testimonials, one of which references an article in the Journal of Immunity, which despite its name is not an actual medical journal, and is actually another compilation of testimonials.

A little research into how the body detoxifies (the liver) will tell you that the whole idea of removing "toxins," "parasites," and even "cellulite" from the bottom of the feet is completely false. The surface of the pad picks up dead skin and dirt, and a chemical on the pad ensures the color. Repeated use of this pad will clean your feet, but nothing else. It is known that when water is applied to the pad, it will turn brown. It may be only affective is slowly hindering the sweat glands in the feet over time. It would be an explanation for the lightening each day.

From other members of the community:

• No.
  
  
• Well I used it once and I felt much better.
  
  
• I used the footpads and believe they work, because one night I placed the pads on my heels and the parts of the pad that were against the sides of my foot remained white. Only the part against the bottom of my foot turned brown.
  
  
• No they do not, bogus.
  
  
• I have never used them, nor do I think they work. I think many of the testimonials and other positive feedback about them works with the placebo effect. You believe a desired reaction will occur from a treatment, so your body reacts the way you expect it to when you use above said treatment.

• Who cares if it acts a placebo as long as you "think" it is going to work than that is the end result everyone wants. Does anyone really care how we get healed as long as we are healed? While the placebo effect may result in people feeling better, it has no bearing on the claim that the footpads remove any toxins, therefore any change in toxins cannot be explained by the placebo effect

• After using the footpads one night, there was brown in the pad. Yuck. I guess it does work. However, I didn't feel any differently. Maybe I need to use them until they are clear of all brown. I'm going to try the epsom salt water. However, I won't see if any brown (toxins) are being removed to determine if it does indeed work.

• I must admit I have never personally tested the products, but if they are anything like other foot detox cures the reason the pads turn brown/black is because ferrous (iron-based) particles oxide (rust) when they come in contact with the sweat coming from your feet. As the particles change from their original state there will be less iron to react the next night than there was the previous night, leading to impression that your "toxin level" is decreasing.
  
  
• The footpads do not work. The discoloration on the pad is just an iron reaction with your sweat (basically creating rust on the pad). The change in time of the color of the pad until it is white is due to a layer (Im not sure of what yet) being deposited on your foot by the pad. When you dont wear the pad for a few days (ie, building up toxins) your socks, shoes, etc rub this layer off and when you wear the pad again after not having worn it for a few days, it will turn dark again, gradually build up another layer on your foot and the cycle repeats.. Any feeling of health obtained by the use of this product is the same as with a clinical placebo trial. It prays off the power of the mind. When you buy into the claims that it works, your expect it to work. You use it (expecting to feel better in the morning) and because you see a reaction (the pad turns dark) you think you are getting healthier and feel better. I would be willing to bet if you went to the doctor, had a blood tox screen done before using the pads, and without changing anything in your daily life, used the pads and had another round of blood tox screens done after the pad turned white, they would be virtually identical, even with the dark pad color.
  
  
• I just order the Kinoki foot pads and will tell you if they work or not in a later posting.
  
  
• If toxins can be eliminated through the skin and/or through perspiration, why would this not work to eliminate toxins? Which toxins are eliminated is the big question, but it seems to me that the basic premise is a simple and proven one.
  
  
• The "foot pad" is white but contains a brown powder. When the pad gets wet, the brown shows through. You attach the pad to your foot with unbreathable adhesive, so, of course, your foot sweats during the night and wets the brown powder. I took a pad a put a tiny bit of distilled water on it and it turned brown. I feel so stupid.

• A friend of mine is a doctor, and I'm a Chef. We went to a free massage session in a nice part of San Diego. As a trial gift/thank you we were given "foot pads." She laughed later. She told me it doesn't take much to turn a "foot pad" to a different color. I tried it and yes they were brown. She told me that you can't remove toxins through your feet via a foot pad (not do you need detoxifiers, your body does it naturally). She told me this was in 2004!!!

• They may work on the technology called Chelation Therapy- which can have serious side effects and requires close medical supervision, and is very misleading. Chelation therapy is a very safe and effective therapy. It has been used since WW2 for standard therapy for the removal of heavy metals and is very popular in alternative medicine. Clinical studies are now being done for use in clearing up blockages. Doctors with experience have had very good results with Chelation Therapy.
  
  
• The white pads contain a light brown powder. When the powder gets wet, the powder/pad turns brown. You use unbreatheable adhesive to attach the pad to the bottom of your foot. Of course your foot sweats at night while you sleep and makes the pad wet -> brown. I put 5 drops of distilled water on one of the pads and it did the same thing - dark brown.
  
  
• I've read all these comments.. and some of you are doing JUST WHAT THE KINOKI people want you to do.. BUY THEIR SCAM PRODUCT. I'm laughing my head off - and at the same time, trying to figure out what kind of scam product I can create that gives just enough results "of some undefined type" to question whether or not it really works, then charge people for it and make a million!
  
  
• 20/20 Investigate Report. No, they don't work. It's a scam. They just had a special on 20/20 about how they don't work. They had scientific studies proving that it is not possible and did tests on the pads. The dark stuff that acts as toxins is merely placed in there and is even activated by distilled water.
  
  
• Why not try? I do not believe there is any published data--proving or disproving--on the Kinoki foot pad approach, but I see no harm in one trying it. Certainly, it would be safer and cheaper than many of the commonly prescribed drugs that cause hundreds of thousands of terrible side effects and early deaths in the United States each year. Today, we have kids down to age 5 being drugged for acting like kids who aren't being fed or raised right, suicides in all age groups increasing five-fold as a result of using SSRIs, a four-fold increase in cardiovascular disease since statin drugs were introduced in 1997, and hyperinsulinemia causing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes, at the total disregard by an entire healthcare field. Healthy people who are merely semi-dehydrated are put on diuretics at the peril of hypoxia and microvascular hypotension, those who need dietary changes are put on anti-reflux meds that cause terrible nutritional deficiencies, causing the loss of myelin and a host of idiopathic conditions that are mistreated with anti-convulsants, anti-seizure, and addictive pain killers.
  
  So, I say, why not Kinoki? Try it and see if it helps you. I read where one woman said it brought down the swelling of her ankles when conventional medicine only made it worse. Another said the pain in their feet resolved after only a week of using it. Another claimed they slept better and woke up feeling refreshed, something prescribed drugs failed to do. Placebo effect? Who knows? But then myriad studies show the placebo effect to be more powerful than many of the drugs commonly prescribed today, and without the side-effects. As a long-time researcher, I can attest that gentle is always better than forced, natural better than synthetic, and true health better than artificial health.
  
  As far as hard metal toxicity, our population is loaded with it. Most cases are chronic, causing a host of chronic diseases and deterioration states; some acute, needing immediate attention, but not getting it, except in the form of psychotropic drugs. EDTA oral chelation appears to the best solution for both chronic and acute cases, with lots of small-scale assay studies backing it up. Properly prepared and utilized there have been no reports of side-effects using EDTA oral chelation. But those with an interest in perpetuating the failed treatments of allopathy and Big Pharma are skeptical of it. Again, I say the gentle long-term effects of alternative is better than the bullying short-term results of allopathy; natural is better than synthetic; real healing is better than artificial appearances of healing. To those who have to break outside the box to find effective treatments, more power to them. Certainly, they could do no worse by doing so.
  
  
• Positive results. I have a tendency to try things out first before I decide if they are legit. Sometimes I get burned and throw my money away, so to speak, but when that happens, believe me, I let all my friends & family know and my money never goes in that direction again. I purchased the kinoki footpads because my feet would hurt so bad when I would stand up and put weight on them, anyway they did not help me for the first 3 days but I kept putting them on each night, they were more of a black brown in color than I saw on TV. The fourth morning after I got up and I walked down the steps and I could tell the difference right away. I have been completely pain free in my feet until recently, these last two days (I used them a little over a month ago) my pads never went to a white color. I used them the whole 2 weeks and the pads went from a large black brown portion of pad to a smaller lighter brown portion of the pad by the end of the 2 weeks.
  
  I have been waiting to receive more as I thought I was to receive them every month and I haven't yet. I am going to call the company and get more, I thought they were to be a lifetime supply. I'm not sure why exactly these work but I've contacted the Better Business Bureau in my state before to complain about products that don't work and I've received my investment back before. I just hope I don't have a hassle receiving more of these. I've soaked my feet in epson salt before and I've gotten relief for tired sore feet when I was younger but there definitely is a difference when I used these pads and less the water mess hassle.

• Response to "why not try?" and "Positive Results." The "why not try" posting reiterates that real healing and effective treatments are better than artificial ones--that is our point. The best that these foot pads offer is an artificial feeling of well-being. The color change on the pads is from the sweat on your feet reacting with iron within the pad. When iron reacts with oxygen, it forms rust (a brownish hue). Iron also produces a black color upon reaction with many other elements/compounds that your feet could pick up. This effect is evidenced by pouring pure water on the pad--the pad still turns brown. This is from the Oxygen from the water (H2O). It turns out the foot pads are actually using heavy metals as "indicators" of "the release of heavy metals and toxins" on the pad. The absorbant material does result in the uptake of some chemicals, but you may in fact be introducing more toxins than you are releasing.

• The fact that you are having trouble receiving your monthly shipments of your "lifetime supply" should be the finalizing proof that these detox foot pads are a rip-off, just another TV scam. Just type something like "iron oxidation in foot detox pads" into google and you will get plenty of feedback. For example, the publicized study on Kinoki foot pads can be found at (http://www.themockdock.com/category/kinoki-foot-pads/).
  
  
• The question remains how they can sell a product that does not work. Its called fraud and deception. In the past, the government would put a stop to this but then that's when we had a government.

• Debunking footpads. There are three minerals (rocks) in nature that naturally emit heat. One is uranium (NOT safe to use!) They include ground up pebbles of one of the other three rocks that is harmless to the body). The heat from the rocks plus the natural heat from your feet (your feet are among the warmest parts of your body (that's why feet smell sooner than other parts of the body!) increase the sweating of the feet generating extra sweat. The type of tree bark and root they use turns to yucky brown gunk when subjected to salt water at a relatively low temperature (i.e. 98.6 degrees). Dip a pad into simulated human sweat (98.6 water with a certain amount of salt and other minerals) and, walla!, the pad will drip with brown yucky gunk! All ads are CAREFULLY written to skirt the edge of FDA rules of advertising product. LOTS of glowing testimonials but few reports from accredited labs of what is in that brown gunk. Some are worthless but with lots of charts and graphs. Like what the pad cloth is made of! Boy is that important! Totally bogus but what I've told many people who are zealots to these pads, if it makes you feel better, do it! It may just be "sugar pill" relief but, sometimes, sugar pills are worth the price if you are frantic for relief. I know. I was. I have been fighting Lyme disease for many years and have finally found real answers. These foot pads were among the many things I tried. I'm also a research engineer so I know how to do proper testing. I also debunked ion foot baths if you've tried one of those. HUNDREDS of glowing reports but the relief wears off after a few hours. Put your feet into warm water and relax for 30 minutes and you will feel better with or without the foot bath. There are so many bogus products preying on desperate people that the small percentage of non-FDA approved products that DO help get lost in maze. What a shame! And extra shame on those who prey on people who are just seeking medical relief!
  
  
• I am normally a very skeptical person. I am a doctoral candidate in cognitive science. I am non-religious and non-superstitious. The footpads may be a scam but I decided to try them because my wife ordered them anyway - and maybe there's something to them. I've used the footpads during two runs of consecutive nights. The first time I used about five pads total and then quit using them. I am now on my second run. One thing I have noticed is that I use the bathroom (solid waste) several times a day when I have been using them. I go significantly more than I would normally, and the stools seem to be getting lighter. I don't know if a placebo effect could cause such a drastic change in bowel movements. I don't know if I necessarily feel better, but I certainly don't feel any worse.
  
  
• To the most recent poster, if they make you feel better, by all means use them! They are not expensive but be careful not to pay the huge markup of some brands ("As seen on TV"). They all come from one of a few factories in Japan and there is NO difference despite the HUGE difference in prices. There are hundreds and hundreds of resellers. Everyone from no medical training to Naturopathic accredited doctors. Buying on eBay is a good source. When I was trying them out, I bought from several eBay resellers. The resellers all truly believe in what they sell and often use the pads themselves. But you may wish to take some and subject them to simulated human sweat (look it up - 98.6 degree water, some salt, etc. - not hard to make) and then compare the yucky brown gunk from the ones from your feet and ones subjected to imitation human sweat. The texture, smell, taste (yuck!) and any other comparison you can think of. You'll find the two to be identical. I have about $200 of unused pads (I bought way too many wholesale all at once before I figured out the truth) but cannot bring myself to sell them on Ebay convinced they are worthless. Taking someone else's money for something I consider worthless. BUT it does seem to provide relief to some users even if it is a "sugar pill" effect. Time will tell.

• Here are some new updates. My wife purchased the pads. I am a believer of both sides of medicine (natural or clinical). And I believe I am fair. What I agree with is this. Chemical reaction, absolutely. Why It can be sold. Because technically it does end up with detox properties, so It makes its claim. I was not looking for a cure for anything, so I Im not claiming miracle. I did feel a little better. I have no explanation. I am waiting for someone with a microscope to investigate exactly what was in the pad after the use. That should answer all the questions we are looking for. If it is above and beyond a bandaid left on over night,,,,,then we have a winner. Simply compare the two. Last but not least, I do not believe that it is effective enough to be sold as a positive life saver. Comparing it to this: If I had a bullet wound, would I use an aspirin as a cure. NO! Therefore, using KINOKI pads to cure an element as extreme as cleansing the body...not effective enough. So no, not a good purchase. Do they work? A little bit. Lets face it, I live in Los Angeles, and I suck up a dozen pads worth of junk each day!!
  
  
• If anyone does buy these pads (worthless to me but do what you want!) I strongly suggest you buy on eBay. Search for detox foot pads or the like. There are dozens of sellers. Dozens of varieties that claim to cure everything from bad breath to cancer. Have fun shopping! They are a tenth !!!!!! the price that Kinoki charges. They all come from ONE factory in Japan. You can become a dealer for the Japanese company for not too much money. But paying the Kinoki price is crazy. After you get suspicious cut one open and look for the tiny rocks that emit heat that make your feet sweat and makes the tree bark turn yucky brown. I forgot the name of the Japanese tree bark that does this - emits gunk when hot and wet. I found it somewhere. Do not ask any seller for lab results as all you'll get are testimonials. It's a scam but if it makes you feel better -- do it! Just do it cheap. Buy on eBay. SAME EXACT FACTORY and product.

• Yes, all true. If someone buys the fairly prices ones on eBay and makes sure to get good quality from Kenrico that's OK. They are still worthless but the quality is very good and, on eBay, shopping around gets you a good price. But be sure to ask if they come from Kenrico. I was wrong about only one factory making them all. That was last year. There now seem to be others. Some are OK and some are not much more than saw dust in a bag. Then enough tourmeline to heat up the foot. If it makes you feel better it is worth the money. Worthless but feeling better mentally is worth something.

• It seems so many people here are seeking ways to detox please let me list how I detoxed plus rid my body of heavy metal. I hope it helps you. I took cilantro for two months and the high level of many metals in my body were then GONE
  (tested by an infectious diseases doctor and an accredited lab). Cilantro from a pharmacy - NOT in the grocery section. I've had so many people ask about how I detoxed I posted it on the Internet. I was suffering from Wilson's Syndrome www.wilsonssyndrome.com. My body temp was 92 degrees and body pH 4.7. My metabolis has STOPPED so they "bad stuff" was getting in but not getting out. Now I'm OK. All the hundreds of detox herbal meds are worthless. Your body has to detox itself. And it will if you get your metabolism working again and treat your body well (no smoking, drink lots of water, avoid acidic foods and junk food). I am NOT a doctor so I am NOT giving medical advice. Just do what you want. It worked for me. One final note, the effect of armour thyroid is beginning to wear off on me so I'm going to see a thyroid doctor (endocronologist) and get a prescription for pure compounded (meaning the pharmacist makes it fresh right then) T3. There are compounding pharmacies in most cities. Ask around. Good luck! Some thyroid doctors are aware of this and some are not. Some just push synthroid on patients which makes them worse as it is all T4 and no T3. The body overdoses on T4. The body NEEDS T3.

• These pads are 100% bogus. But if they make you feel better - do it! We all swear by "miracle cures" that make no sense.
  The simple answer is, "No."

• Kinoki detox foot pads are a scam no matter how you look at it. They simply can't do what is claimed. Some of their claims are so far over the top, nothing does what they advertise. And they pile it on like no other quackery has. Viewing the advertisements with even the slightest skeptical perspective should be convincing enough. To make matters worse - but clearer - the product itself is designed to deceive. A drop of pure distilled water will turn the pads dark. A person's natural sweat will activate the ingredients in the pads to turn dark and smell.

• Please read this report from John Stossel of ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Stossel/Story?id=4636224&page=1or a summary article here: http://www.devicewatch.org/reports/kinoki.shtml "Editorial: It is a shame that retail stores such as CVS, Walgreens, Bed, Bath, & Beyond sell this quackery. Their brands imply an integrity that is tarnished by selling scam healthcare products."