Barefoot Shoes
What are they?
Barefoot shoes is an odd oxymoron, what exactly does it mean?
And what doesn’t it mean?
Barefoot Shoes
Section content:
Summary
Why do you need barefoot shoes?
Given what you’ve just learnt about shoes in the previous section, why would you want to wear any shoes?
You need shoes for 3 things…
Warmth
Sole puncture protection
Social conformity
Barefoot Shoes try to offer this and nothing more.
The idea of a barefoot shoe is that is offers you some protection whilst offering minimum restriction.
There is no legal definition of a barefoot shoe, therefore anyone can call their footwear ‘barefoot’
What you should look for…
Zero Drop uniform sole thickness, no elevated heel
Thin Sole ideally around 4mm
Wide Toebox to allow your toes to splay
No arch support arches need to flex
No motion control feet are free to do their job
Lightweight as light as possible
Flexible allows your feet to bend where it wants to
Minimal Toe Spring ideally none at all, but all
shoes must have some
Types of Barefoot Shoe
Barefoot shoes come in three main flavours:
Glove
Vibram Five Fingers, and clones are the most visible of barefoot shoes.
Mitten
The closest to a conventional shoe, mitten style are also available in non-running shoes.
Sandal
The original shoe – reborn as a minimalist ‘huaraches’
What is best?
Actually the best thing for your feet is no shoes at all.
Eight million years of evolution didn’t equip us with feet that needed shoes. Physical activities that requires skill and balance are always done barefoot: karate, yoga, gymnastics, etc. There is a reason for this and running should be no exception.
However for reasons of social conformity, temperature, delicate soles and the fear of the unknown, people will always want to wear something on their feet – this is where barefoot shoes come in.