Women of a certain age and income bracket have proved willing to purchase just about anything that might eliminate unsightly cellulite. Their quest for dimple-free thighs comprises serums, massages, injections, dairy-free diets, power Pilates, and, increasingly, a pair or two of Masai Barefoot Technology sneakers and sandals.

While these $255 sports shoes have been “cult status items” among style- and body-conscious New Yorkers since they hit the American market nearly three years ago, MBT footwear is now gaining a wider appeal, according to a vice president of Bliss Spa’s retail division, Claudia Ossa.

Bliss began selling one style of MBT sneakers, and, today, the retailer offers six models — including Bliss’ exclusive two-pair, $485 “Cross Trainer” package — and sells up to 3,000 pairs a month, Ms. Ossa said.

The shoes have acquired a word-of-mouth reputation as a cellulite-fighter and body sculptor worthy of supermodel Heidi Klum, and Hugh Grant’s paramour, Jemima Khan, who are reportedly devotees.

MBT executives are careful not to explicitly tout the shoes’ storied cellulite-purging effect,which has so many women shelling out hundreds of dollars for clunky-looking footwear. The company — touting scientific studies on its Web site — will say that the MBT sneakers and sandals simulate walking barefoot on soft, natural terrain, thereby engaging and shaping neglected muscles in the buttocks, the rear thighs, and stomach.

It’s that targeted muscle exertion that translates into cellulite reduction, MBT aficionados say.

“You feel your glutes with every step you take,” a manager at a Midtown exercise studio, Melissa Matich, said. Ms. Matich, 26, had heard about the shoes’ purported smoothing effects from studio clients before purchasing a pair of her own earlier this year.

A Swiss engineer, Karl Muller, developed MBT shoes in 1996. Initially the footwear was sold in Europe, but was made available to American stores and catalogs in 2003. The shoes are named for the semi-nomadic East African Masai tribe, whose members are known for their statuesque figures and posture-perfect strides.

But can shoes — be it the MBT sneaker or the Earth Shoe, popular in the 1970s — really fight cellulite? Yes and no, according to a New York dermatologist, Dr. Francesca Fusco. “It isn’t directly affecting the cellulite,” she said. “It’s affecting the tone of the skin and the muscle, so the area above the cellulite will look better.”

Dr. Fusco, who practices at Wexler Dermatology on East 32nd Street, said that MBT shoes have been all the rage among her clients since the beginning of the year. But it’s difficult to gauge how effective the shoes are in fighting cellulite. “The women who are wearing these sneakers also doing everything else they can to achieve a better result,” Dr. Fusco said.

Accounting for MBT’s success stateside, in no small part, is the shoes’ renown as busting dimply skin.

Without a national advertising campaign, sales of MBT shoes — now available at 550 retailers in North America — doubled in 2005, and company executives project that revenues will double again this year and next. “It’s quite a challenge to keep up as we hit growth spurts,” the company’s American CEO, Conrad Casser, said.

In recent months, MBT introduced several new sneaker styles, including the black M-Walk for men, and the baby blue suede Wave for women. “People were constantly saying, ‘The products are fantastic, but the shoes are ugly,”‘ Mr. Casser said. “We’re trying to bring in a lot more contemporary designs.”

Despite MBT’s recent efforts to design sleeker sneakers, the appeal of the footwear is function — not fashion. “My husband calls them orthopedic shoes,” a Midtown mother, Lyss Stern, 32, said.

Savvy Manhattan shoppers know better, she said. Ms. Stern purchased her first pair of MBT sneakers last month. “I’m getting stopped everywhere,” she said. “They say, ‘Excuse me, can you tell me about your sneakers? Do they really work?'”

The verdict: So far she said she’s happy with the results, but not quite ready to declare their cellulite-fighting powers. “I walk everywhere in the city, and it feels like real exercise,” Ms. Stern said.”At the end of the day, my legs are sore. Maybe it’s psychosomatic, but I think it’s helping.”

It can take several weeks to get used to wearing MBT shoes, which create the feeling of walking on an unstable surface.All of MBT’s 20 models come with an instructional DVD, and new customers are encouraged to wear the shoes for no longer than 45 minutes a day until they adjust to the shoes’ feel, and the muscles they activate.

Tip Top Shoes on West 72nd Street hosts weekly “MBT Walks” in Central Park to teach customers how to walk and run in their new shoes. Since the store began selling MBT sneakers and sandals two years ago, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Tip Top’s owner, Lester Wasserman. “The gimmick would have burned itself out if the shoes didn’t deliver what was promised,” he said.