Barefoot shoes

So you’ve come across barefoot shoes,  you’re interested in minimal foot-ware or you are simply health concious.  Maybe you are on this page because I gave you a link to it. Actually I am only writing this, because I wanted to give you a link to it and because I can’t remember all the interesting things about bare-foot/minimal shoes, gait, all the research and scientists behind it. And I need to remember all that, because I’ll gladly have a conversation with every-one of you who have asked me over the last days, weeks and months about what’s on my feet.

It usually starts when you and your friend stick your heads together start whispering. Or you’re one of the genuinely delighted people who literally jump at the sight of the shoes and start asking high pitched questions in sheer delight. That makes my day, too! Those things are Vibram Fivefingers, and they are very very comfy shoes, if you ask me. My Fivefingers are actually the first pair of shoes that I don’t take off when I get home after a long day at work. With “smart shoes” as the fashionistas tend to call those pointy high-heeled pinky-crushers, my natural urge is to is to push them off my feet without even opening the laces as soon as I’m through the door.  The arch of my foot hurts, there a spot on the heels where the socks are wearing thin and my toes feel as if they were a single fused appendix of raw soreness. But not so with my thin-soled toe-shoes, and it’s not that to don’t take them off because I like wearing them so much, but because I forget that I’m wearing shoes in the first place. That comfy.

That is one of things we probably didn’t have time for when we spoke on the underground, or through the closing lift doors as it happened today. I also probably didn’t have the chance to tell you why they are so comfy. They are so comfy not because these shoes are great, but because they allow me to use my feet in a way which I have never used my feet my whole life. And I am 35 years at the time of writing this. The trick that I am learning be a lot more concious about putting my feet down when I walk and rather than using the heel as a contact point to use the forefoot to make contact. But don’t let me spell out what so many people have described so much better, I’d rather give you a few links and you make up your own mind. I am very excited (still) about my recent (2 years) discovery that takes the pain out of my walks, but I’m not trying to tell you what’s good for you, or what you should be spending your money on. It’s always good to read more than one source so here are few pointers to get started:

Daniel E. Lieberman et. al. on biomechanics of foot strikes: http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

And the same story rounded up on Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127134241.htm

Barefoot Ken Bob’s pages. He’s been running for years without:  http://therunningbarefoot.com/begin-here/

Barefoot Ted’s homage to “the book”:   http://borntorun.org/

And “the book” Chris McDougall: http://www.chrismcdougall.com/barefoot.html

Also feel free to search for “why barefood is bad for you” It’s good to get alternative stories.

As a last piece of advice if I may. When you buy some five fingers, don’t forget to buy some finger socks. You old ones won’t fit! My favourite are Injinji wool socks. Sooo soft and durable!

Fun things to do when you have minimal shoes:

• give yourself a foot massage every time you wait on the underground or a pedestrian crossing. The tactile paving (knobbly paving, often brightly coloured to aid visually impaired people) makes a tantalising foot massage when you rub the thin soles of your minimal shoes over them.
• you will get a lot of attention. Even months after first going to work in my fivefingers are they still subject of questions and debate.  Strangers will pounce on you in unadulterated excitement. Teenage girls will giggle. Mutters of disbelief be heard, fingers pointed. Blog about it!
• You will talk to strangers for no reason other than that they too, are wearing fivefingers.
• You will puzzle bouncers in clubs who can’t work out if you’re wearing smart shoes! Think about it, for a change these are really smart shoes!
• You won’t have to take them off at airports! Looks of disbelief, yes but not showing off the wholes in your feet.
• learn to wiggle your toes, and show off the skill when ever a fellow adult’s stare is transfixed on your foot. Works a royal treat with kids, too!

Tagged as: barefoot, conversation, five fingers, toe shoes, toes, vibram, we met on the train