Why do shoes have heels?

My conversion to barefoot running has also started converting me to barefoot walking – barefoot walking for ALL activities, not just delibrate barefoot walking to exercise my calf muscles and achilles tendons. Of course that doesn’t mean that I’m going everywhere barefoot, it means that I now want to wear barefoot shoes for everything.  The only thing that has stopped me throwing all my old shoes away already, is a lack of money to replace them all in one go.

So what exactly is a barefoot shoe?  Well aside from being a strange oxymoron, it’s actually quite simple.  It’s a shoe that most closely mimicks going barefoot, whilst still offering you some level of puncture protection.

In my opinion it must feature:

• No Heels – Zero heel-to-toe drop, or a completely level sole.
• Minimal sole – Any more than 5mm and you can’t feel the ground properly.
• Flexible – You must be able bend these shoes in half easily.
• Foot shaped – The toe box must be wide and actually shaped like your foot – your toes need to be able to splay under load, so you must be able to wiggle your toes when not under load without restriction.

If a shoe conforms to these four things then it’s a barefoot shoe.

So why do most shoes have heels?

Well it seems that they originally stem from horse riding.  The addition of heels to shoes stopped the rider’s foot from sliding forward in the styrups.  Therefore that was their original purpose.  After this their use in fashion has been the only driving force.  They have gone in and out of fashion so many times, that it’s not worth trying to plot their history.

Wearing heeled shoes causes a shortening of the calf muscles and the achilles tendons.  Which in turn are the root causes of: Planter Fasciitis; Achilles Tendonitis and Morton’s Neuroma amongst other ailments.  So whilst we all seem to think that shoes must have a heel, it’s actually just a fashion thing.  A fashion thing that has been going on so long that we’ve all forgotten that not only don’t we need them, they are actually bad for us.

Well no more for me.  I’ve now got myself four pairs of barefoot shoes and will continue replacing all my “conventional” shoes just as fast as I can afford to.