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I have learned life changing information about the benefits of minimalist and barefoot shoes that I want to share here. This is especially relevant to women, since we are pressured to wear uncomfortable and damaging shoes due to the patriarchy.
Tldr: modern footwear is destroying people's feet, specifically the strength and mobility of their arches, ankles, and toes. This leads to low arches, bunions, ankle sprains, plantar fascitis, etc. People should wear footwear that is shaped like a foot (wide toe box, zero drop meaning no heel, minimal cushioning, flexible sole). This allows your feet to strengthen, your body's natural cushioning system to activate, restores good posture and a natural forefoot strike gait pattern.
Modern footwear was invented recently. In our primitive past, people were either barefoot, or wore basic leather or canvas wrappings around the foot. They have surveyed populations of people that don't wear shoes and found that the prevalence of low arches was 1-3%. Meanwhile in people who wear shoes, over 33% have low arches.
Popular brands like Nike, Adidas, and Saucony produce shoes with the goal of selling as many as possible. These shoes are not designed for optimal foot health. The best cushioning system for your body is the one built into your arches, ankles, calves, hamstrings, and glutes. Cushioned, supportive shoes are solving a problem that doesn't actually exist. Wearing cushioned shoes is like putting thick glasses on someone who has perfect vision to begin with.
If you look at the feet of babies, their toes are splayed out, almost like hands. After a few decades of wearing conventional shoes with narrow toe boxes, the toes squeeze together to fit the shape of the shoe. Having the toes mashed together leads to problems in arch strength, ankle mobility, balance, etc.
Modern footwear is like a coffin for your feet. The lack of flexibility in the sole makes it impossible for the wearer to actively engage all of the joints and muscles in their toes, feet,and calves. Most shoes kill the sensation, feedback and balance we get from our feet naturally.
As a personal anecdote, I have struggled with foot injuries my whole life. When I played volleyball, I got a stress fracture. When I upped my mileage during runs, I got a lot of pain in my arch. I struggled with sesamoiditis which is inflammation of the big toe joint for about a year and a half as well. For the past 2 years, I was basically only wearing cushioned stability running shoes from Saucony because I was so afraid of injuring my feet by wearing "unsupportive footwear"
About 2 months ago, I got a 3D foot scan done at a running store. The foot scan showed that I had a very low arch in one of my feet. Seeing the evidence of what 2 years of wearing "supportive running shoes" did to my feet absolutely disgusted me. I decided that it was time to transition.
Since I started focusing on increasing the strength in my feet and going barefoot, I never want to wear regular shoes again. Imagine if right from childhood you wore thick, snug, stiff mittens on your hands for the majority of your life. If one day you took those mittens off, imagine how stiff and week your hand would be. Also, imagine how wonderful it would be to feel all of the sensations you didn't feel before when you had the mittens on.
That feeling of exploration and vibrancy is one of the first differences I noticed. My feet were learning to receive sensory input from the ground and adjust my balance, coordination and posture.
I have also been barefoot running, and it literally feels like a different sport. I had to teach myself how to run again. I found that with my traditional shoes with a thick heel, I was mindlessly heel striking. When I tried to run with my previous form while barefoot, my body immediately told me that this was a painful and inefficient way to run. When I wore shoes, I was still experiencing those impact forces in my knees and hips, But I did not have the immediate feedback from my feet to tell me to stop.
If you want to try barefoot/minimalist shoes, there are some things you should look out for. You need to transition slowly. Start by walking barefoot around my house. Then slowly introduce more and more barefoot walking and activities in your day-to-day life. In addition to ditching conventional shoes, you should do activities to strengthen your feet. If you do too much too soon, you can end up injuring yourself.
Resources:
Good brands for minimalist and barefoot shoes (US focused list, but some companies ship globally). There's also nothing wrong with going fully barefoot.
- Amazon -Whitin, Saguaro (<$50)
- Splay shoes, Xero Shoes (affordable)
- VivoBarefoot, Feelgrounds, Merrell (certain styles only), Vibram 5 fingers, BeLenka ($100+)
- If you're in Europe, you have access to a whole set of other brands I'm not as familiar with (Mukishoes, Zaqq)
- check for these brands at second hand retail sites and blogs like Poshmark, and Anya's Reviews. Facebook also has a lot of buy/sell/trade minimalist shoe groups.
YouTube channels to learn more:
- Barefoot Strength (science and shoe reviews)
- Bob and Brad (exercises)
I didn't realize how important feet are. They are our connection to the ground and earth. I hope you too can discover the health benefits and fun of barefoot or minimalist walking and running
Thanks for sharing! I absolutely avoid shoes with small toe boxes, i don’t know how other ladies do it… the patriarchy normalising uncomfortable, narrow toe box shoes for women as "professional" and attractive is truly the work of the devil
This is so interesting. I love being barefoot or at least in warm socks only around the house, and I also enjoy placing my feet into the grass and dirt when hanging out in the backyard. I wouldn't go as far as walk around barefoot in dirty public places, especially in major metropolitan cities like NYC lol, but I think out in nature in general is fine.
I'm going to check out those barefoot shoes, thank you. Heels are especially a killer for women's feet and legs. Honestly, everything is connected into one big scam once you want to dig deep inside the rabbit hole: From the food industries to shoes and certain medications, it's all to make us weaker and sicker and more dependent on pharmaceuticals (who keep raising the prices on medications that keep us alive) and the medical community who seek to keep us down rather than actually help us heal or cure ourselves.
Messing our feet up is just one of the many ways they can keep doctors in business with loads of complaining customers. I absolutely believe in science, mind you, but... it's a whole thing that makes me paranoid at the same time, smh.
I've been wearing barefoot Merrell Vapor Glove shoes since 2009. They're great and helped a lot with my spine. You can't walk back on your heels in the proper footwear. It does take some getting used to, though, since your feet, ankles, and calves will be weak.
Yes my baby toes have been turning inwards for many years of my life. I thought it was normal until I realized that it’s because my shoes don’t allow my baby toes to spread out freely so now my baby toes turn in.
Do you think this applies to people with flat feet? I've always had such a thing for vivo barefoot shoes, but they seem so disconcertingly flat given my already completely pronated feet.
I tend to refuse to wear heels for this very reason. I also rarely wear the types of sandals that we are told to wear to "dress up" if I can help it. At my brother's wedding a week ago I did have to wear them for a while, and then I immediately switched to my comfortable boots for the reception, which were warm (it's fucking December!) and I could walk with a more natural gait. Can't walk in heels whatsoever and I am convinced this is BY DESIGN. Fuck that.
I thought about getting barefoot shoes just to try it. In the summer around my house I'm either barefoot or in socks. My feet get cold easily, but I do form calluses quite well so I can pull it off. I remember as a kid never having any issues. It's probably for the reasons you mentioned. Only bad thing is I didn't have enough calluses on my toes for enough of the year back then, so sometimes I'd get cuts from grass and stuff from running around barefoot outside. I lived in the country and we had more grass/weed variety than your typical city lawn, let's just say.
I'll look into getting a pair of barefoot shoes. Been thinking about it anyway, and why not try? Only thing I don't like is the ones with toes.....nope.
Edit - just re-read and saw your shoutout for Bob and Brad on Youtube. They have helped me immensely with posture and getting rid of neck pain and tension (which I tend to have anyway due to anxiety issues). Lifesavers, honestly.
Vibram Furoshiki shoes have been my go-to cute flats for a few years already. I only discovered them in my 60’s and am so glad. I also use barefoot hiking boots by Vivo and for the first time I’m able to walk long distances and feel no foot pain at the end of the day. Bonus: the Furoshiki are not too high priced. Better: my knee and foot pains went away.
I saw that YouTube channel you posted and the dude talking about gaits while running and the differences between barefoot running and running in shoes. It was fascinating. I'm old enough to remember when the barefoot shoes were hip and fashionable about a decade ago too..lol. That said...I wonder about this for me..the bottoms of my feet are super sensitive and I can't be on bare ground in my bare feet. I know my arches and heels are paying the price as I upped my running distance this year. It hurts just to stand on my tip toes now 😫
Look at Olympian Alison's brand, Saysh. Many women's shoes are designed for the male foo
Just be careful. I have really high arches and was mostly barefoot throughout my childhood and early-mid twenties (Australia). But I injured my feet by walking a couple of kms (a mile or so) bare feet on hard ground and now have chronic plantar fasciitis. I think it was a result of post pregnancy hormones effecting my joints. The only shoes I can now comfortably wear are MBT shoes. They have a rocker sole and a reverse slope and are very squishy.
Zaqq delivers to the US! Love this post. Been transitioning late this year. I will never wear heels again. I will never wear shoes that smoosh my toes together again. Ugh. So happy to free myself from the patriarchy more + more each day.
Also recommend barefoot science inserts which gradually (level by level) improve your arch strength. I went from almlst concave flat feet to a decent arch in about a year. That in addition to lifting barefoot and spending time outside in the summer as much as possible.
Thanks for this info! I knew heels are bad but didn’t know other designs were culprits too. Funny enough I just looked up vibram days ago. I wanted shoes that felt like running on the ground with bare feet.
My only gripe is a lot of barefoot brands are small and in Europe. I paid $140 during Black Friday for a feelgrounds boot and it runs too small (i measured but my fault for not rounding up correctly ). No BF shoes in any retail store that I can try on. However I have the Dare puma sneaker (its like a sheer light one made of light fabric) that is mostly barefoot. It is a bit bigger than my current size but it can be folded easily, minimal heel, and the toe box is standard but since it’s bigger it doesn’t squish my toes at all. I’ve walked miles w/o issue in these. But it’s not marketed at all as barefoot. I’m hoping more BF shoes can be marked in the states but I have a feeling we kinda have it already in some way. I think this is why crocs are notoriously popular. Semi BF shoes that are comfy.
One more thing, never go for mall shoes. I can never find any comfy shoe at retail stores that didn't pinch or cut the back of my heel. A good pair is definitely worth the money regardless.