The Great Barefoot Running Hysteria of 2010 (opens in new tab)

From when we started in 2009 to today, we both had to increase two shoe sizes.

She just finished her first 50 mile ultramarathon using Xero thin soled shoes. It was half on the AT, and she had no issues with that.

I'm a less serious runner, just enough to be able to knock out a few miles on demand and the annual Broad Street 10 mile run.

We both hiked 1000 miles of the AT on a thru in 2022. We've also clocked around 3O00 miles of other small day hikes and overnight trips. All with Zeros or Altras, and with a 30lb pack.

Over the years, she's had some minor issues with plantar fascitis that went away when she added in regular stretching. She's had a few bouts of hip bursitis when ramping up mileage for the ultra.

I've had some issues with knee pain that started on the thru hike related to scoliosis. My one hip drops lower than the other, twisting the knee and causing issues on both. Regular single leg exercises and heavy lifting keeps that in check (hard to do on the trail unfortunately).

Neither of us have had any issues with ankles, calves, or typical runner knee issues. I'm not sure I can credit the shoes for all of it, but I'm very glad we started with them and neither of us have any reason to change. Regular thick foam trainers now feel very uncomfortable, it's hard to describe. They squish my toes (which are very wide). They change my gait which feels awkward.

It's funny, now I feel like I see lots of runners in my area using these thin soled shoes, like the Merrel Vaporglove, Xeros, or alternative. Maybe it's cohort bias? Either way I am glad I found them when I did!

I didn't start regularly wearing shoes until after college. Since I started wearing shoes there has been a significant change in my foot structure. My big toes have moved outward by at least 10 degrees. Before then they were directly in-line with the bones and ligaments running down the foot.

When you walk and run barefoot your foot soles get much thicker. You learn how to respond to your feet. I tend to not get splinters or glass slivers because I can feel them before I put my full weight down. Even when something does pierce the skin, it doesn't penetrate the sole, and I can just pick up my foot and grab it out with my fingers.

One of the most interesting benefits seems to be resistance to fungal infections. If I ever start to feel itching in my feet, then I go for a long walk barefoot on concrete. It just ends.

I only own minimalist footwear (zero heel to toe drop, wide toe box, no toe spring). Dress shoes, sneakers, sandals; all of it.

They helped me get off of orthotics, which I've worn for over 20 years, while reducing stress on my knees (I have osteoarthritis in my right knee) and making what little arches I have in my feet stronger.

It's a shame that pop culture seems to have _ran_ in the other direction (maximalist ultra-cushioned clown shoes). I honestly have no idea how people walk in those things. I purchased a pair of BOHEMPIA minimalist hemp chucks the other day. It came with a ~2-4mm insert for comfort. It felt like the cushion from the inserts made my legs work so much harder. All felt right once I took them off.

That said, I never ran barefoot except for a very short segment one time. Actual barefoot running is a whole other experience. Huaraches, which I've also run with, don't compare. I'm scared to do it more often due to glass shards and other fun things on the road, but if I ran more often and on smooth, unobstructed pavement, I'd absolutely do it barefoot.

Anyways, I'll add my experience with barefoot running:

- Forefoot/midfoot strike is the most important takeaway. Heel strikes are for walking (slow, low-impact), not running (faster, higher-impact).

- I used to get shin splints from sports like soccer and basketball. But as long as I do some barefoot jogging (1-2x/week) I'm pain free. I think it strengthens the supportive muscles around the knee and ankle. All the leg muscles, really.

- Speaking of soccer, anyone have recommendations for wide cleats?

- I only got one tiny thorn/splinter in the past few years of going barefoot.

- I'd rather jog on concrete than grass because grass can hide things like sharp objects or doggy dookie. In general, I run barefoot in places I trust, and I always scan the ground ahead of me as I run.

Note that I'm an amateur runner, not doing more than 5Ks. But cardio conditioning is my limiting factor, not feet or legs.

In that era I saw two major misconceptions around minimalism in running footwear. The first is the idea that heel-to-toe "drop" is the the main important metric -- of course, a shoe company thing. Actually what matters a lot more is proprioception -- the feeling of knowing where your foot is in space relative to the ground, and also the feedback your foot is getting from the ground.

The second misconception is that it's important to switch over 100%. Related to this is a misconception that somewhat more minimalist is better. As a competitive runner, I saw benefits from mixing in barefoot strides and a couple miles per week barefoot on soccer fields while keeping my training shoes the same. I'd recommend others do the same, and very gradually increase mileage.

The challenge for research in my understanding is that it's very hard to track long-term injury prevention and performance improvement in a statistically significant way. You can measure what happens when habitually shod people do a barefoot run, and you can go to Kenya and study how habitually barefoot people land when they put on shoes, but that's different from the long term impact on your gait of changing your footwear for a long period of time. (I'm not a researcher myself but I've talked to them.)

I didn't start out of any book hype but bought a pair out of curiosity and then lost my regular running shoes before a race. It was a monthly 5k and my time dramatically improved that month (I had also switched to a standing desk, making root cause fuzzier, which I also still use). Most of my running is on rough, rocky trails except when they are wet or for the 5k.

Never use the shoes anymore but that book has made me a healthier human for sure.

If you are thinking about doing it when you never did before, DON'T. You should be doing a progressive transition. It changes your knees, ankles and calves. It should take at least 6 months to a year.

If you don't do that, you will injury yourself. People running Marathons barefoot suddenly are risking a lot.

On the other hand, I have never cared for the big puffy shoes. My preferred shoe was the ASICS Excalibur GT. They haven't made them in about 40 years, and who knows whether I'd still like them with my older feet.

I was amused by the book's argument that elaborate shoes brought on a rash of injuries. No, the running craze that set in during the late 1970s brought on that rash. It's hard to get running-related injuries when you aren't running, and before about 1975 few adults ran much.

i did real no shoe barefoot running and pushed most people to try that. it did have an effect; no more twisted ankles. i got them quite often and never after 3 months of no shoes. there was a kid who eventually played d1 ball who joined because he had 'bad ankles' and still credits me for solving that.

you can get all the benefits of barefoot running by running or jogging once a week on a beach or soft grass soccer field. i think it's building up muscles in the leg to better balance you. no changes occur in the actual foot.

0: https://www.skinnersfootwear.com/products/comfort-2-0-carmin...

When I heard about barefoot running a year or so later, I tried it. Running on the balls of my feet took some re-learning but the knee pain never came back. I continued to run for 4 or 5 years. (I'm not sure why I started walking instead of running — getting older? Or to share the time with my non-running wife?)

(On a tangent: I dislike any kind of shoe-clip when biking. I feel that pulling up on your leg/knee to power a bicycle goes against the design of our knee.)

There’s a passage in there about how humans have evolved to run that’s fascinating. Made me realize maybe we are naturals at running.

Nor for that matter are odd looking feet gloves, ultra-thin soles, expensive sandals etc.

What does matter though is a) having a shoe that allows the mechanics of the lower leg and foot to work; zero drop, no arch supports and a wide toe box are essential. And b) taking the time to build up the wasted musculature (mostly in the feet) that may well have had a lifetime of being splinted and not being used as it was evolved for.

Least that's the sample size of one experience of a late fifties, 100kg who did multiple marathons, half's etc both before and after switching to barefoot and minimalist shoes after coming across the Born to Run book in 2010 while trying to figure out how to avoid injuries.

(bonus injury prevention tip would be off-road running in the green. Not only good for the head, but the added terrain variety varies the loads on the joints and helps train core stability)

Having barefoot connection with soil is definitely good for you, so is any reasonable exposure to nature. The key here is exposure to nature, walking on asphalt or concrete is not nature. This is about walking barefoot so that your soles connect to the soil, earth, dirt, grass or sand. In the modern world of course you have to be careful and watch out for sharp objects, all kinds of garbage etc.

People who have a piece of land, garden or park access can definitely use it for barewalking, running or just standing - it doesn't matter as long as feet touch the soil, without any fancy, minimal, shoes or anything like that.

In many spiritual places they require you to remove your shoes and even your socks, there are certain benefits of doing that, but even the holiest of people would wear shoes when going on rough terrain, thats just a question of sanity.

I injured myself on my first run and couldn't walk for two weeks. I still don't really know what happened. Nothing obvious happened on the run; I didn't fall or twist anything and wasn't in pain during or after the run. But when I awoke the next day I couldn't stand. I was very fit at the time due to daily cycling both as transport and as a sport/hobby. So my theory is my "cycling muscles" were way stronger than my "running muscles" and something in the latter just gave.

This theory was corroborated by the fact that I could not walk at all during my two week recovery period, but I could still cycle. I was in pain most of the time. It's the only time in my life I've taken painkillers regularly. It actually seemed to be getting worse, then one day I woke up, the pain was gone, and I could walk again.

Suffice to say I've never tried running in this completely unnatural way again. I've run since and never injured myself again. I run the way my body tells me I should run.

I don’t put too much weight in the claims that it’s going to make me healthier. I think there’s a good argument for it, and there is at least some evidence that it does good, but it’s not hugely compelling to me. I run barefoot because it feels good to be light on my feet and connected to the ground.

Since running in Skinners / barefoot, I’ve had a weaker knee stop giving me problems. But how much of that is down to running in general (running is good for your knees) as opposed to doing it barefoot, I don’t know. But I’m running more because I’m enjoying it more.

The article is pretty awful. There was a fad, not a hysterical mob going after people. Runners are pretty chill. Nobody is going to attack you for wearing the wrong thing.

But they still serve me well as gym shoes with a very low packing volume (great for business trips).

Nice bit of context for anyone interested but not wanting to read the whole book is Christopher McDougal's TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-iGZPtWXzE

I still really like Vibram but I’m forced to wear them less and less for one single reason: the smell!

I’m still ashamed for that time where I boarded a plane while wearing my vibram. For whatever reason, we had to wait 5 minutes outside before boarding. It was raining. My vibram were soaked. Then I went to the plane, sate dow and… the smell started to appear.

Sorry everyone for that… I’m never wearing Vibram when traveling anymore.

My work involves walking all around urban environments. I had long had problems with overly narrow shoes, and when I transitioned to barefoot style shoes my gait completely changed. The result has been a massive improvement in quality of life with foot and joint pain that used to be constant now completely gone. One interesting part of this is that it took a full two years to completely make the transition, and now when I want to buy shoes I almost always find a range available in my size because so many attempt to transition to wearing barefoot shoes turn back because it is genuinely painful, difficult, and dangerous, especially at first in the initial two weeks or so.

This article is interesting, but to me seems a bit off. More interesting than the brief spike of strong interest is the fact that interest in barefoot running and barefoot shoes remained elevated afterwards relative to before.

It's a neat idea imagining what running footwear was like throughout history. Was Pheidippides barefoot when he purportedly ran from Marathon to Athens? Did Indigenous Americans debate which style of moccasins was better for your long term foot health? Did warriors develop plantar fasciitis from poorly designed boots?

TBC on running, I have tight achilles and need to put in a lot of prep work to be able to run without pain so cbf. Day to day though, give vivobarefoot or something a shot - I have 7 pairs. They're great.

I've since moved on to minimalist runners with a flat thin sole and wide toe area. Unfortunately I ended up stepping on a small sharp pebble at one point and have a very hard and sometimes painful area of tough skin on the pad of my foot. Nevertheless, I'll still answer the call to run on a warm sunny day.

I also have no need for high heels in my daily life so "zero drop" is great. I don't think heels are good for your back.

It's also nice to not that the shoes are extremely light weight/flexible (no breaking-in) and breathable (no stink).

I don't plan to ever wear a high-heel pointed shoe again.

When winter arrived I started using them for the real reason I bught them: winter trail running, and for that they're great. Like mocassins, your foot conforms to the ground and they provide provide pretty excellent grip on snowpack. I consider it an improvement over lugged trail runners for winter.

I previously owned some Converse high-tops and found their lightly structured soles worked well in winter, which is what first got me curious about unstructured shoes. That and the 6 months I spent surfing in Mexico, in which I was barefoot 90% of the time. To note, I am not a serious runner. I hike and cycle, but for running the trend over the last 5 years has been to go for trail runs in winter 1-2 dozen times a season.

The main issue with running for me is emotional. Like many others, I tend to overdo it; and then its not fun, which means I stop doing it.

All I can say is that when running on the treadmill in my basement, I can run for FAR longer in my socks than when in shoes.

I also found "barefoot" shoes weird. I used to trail run through rocky forests in leather mid-height hiking boots. As long as the sole is flexible, you can still forefoot/midfoot strike. More specialized shoes are nice, but not necessary.

Looking back, it was the quintessential "secret ancient knowledge that the advanced city-folk forgot"-meme. We didn't forget... plenty of people who needed to run for a living knew about it. It's just that "running" wasn't a thing any normal person did until the 70's.

Anyway, I ended up loving barefoot shoes for walking the dog, light hiking, etc. But for actual running? Not so much.

I like a low stack, low drop shoe for tempo and speed work. And a moderate stack, moderate drop for distance runs.

And I absolutely can't stand higher stack stuff... I want to like some of the newer "super shoes" for racing, but they're so tall... I feel like I'm going to twist an ankle.

you SHOULD occasionally run barefoot on a safe surface like grass

Watch professional and semi-elite runners train and you will occasionally see them running barefoot on the grass between the track as "barefoot strides"

It helps you feel your form properly.

Modern shoes, especially the new "super-shoes" since 2016, are completely isolated from the feel of the road and can make you develop some very bad habits.

I switched to minimalist shoes (zero drop, thinner sole with less cushioning but not toe shoes) and a midfoot / forefoot strike and the issues went away. I can't prove causality, but it did definitely seem like shoes fixed knee.

Switched to sandals with much thicker sole at the 1700 mile mark, and after that I could do 45 miles per day with no pain.

Interestingly I seem to be able to run for longer barefoot (on socks) than with shoes. There’s something about shoes that makes my legs tire faster.

For example converse all stars / vans / boat shoes?

I prefer to feel the pedals when I'm driving a car and use thin soles, but yet walking with these shoes really (excuse the pun) tires out my feet.

I read the book and did some actual barefoot running (got a lot of weird looks) and a lot of friends bought the shoes.

Now I think about it, I’ve not seen anyone in Vibrams for years

Anecdata: a friend of mine has been running for years, and for years he complained about knee pain. As it turns out he was heel striking the whole time, it completely disappeared since I told him to run 50 meters barefoot to find his "natural" point of contact

> “… was dominated by an aggressive mob mentality around barefoot running”

Really? Most of the barefoot running enthusiasts I encountered were super friendly and open-minded.

> “… the appeal to nature fallacy: a logical fallacy in which a subject is claimed to be good simply because it is natural”

I’m not sure it is a fallacy to revert to tradition (proven heuristics) in a complex realm of limited first-principles understanding. Much of the barefoot running enthusiasm (and general naturalist or anthropologically-oriented problem-solving) is less oriented to proving various theories and more so trying to find gains with a clear awareness of uncertainty.

Personally: I suspect simple shoes best honor the immense structural complexity of the feet and legs (and the integration with the rest of the body). I wear thin-soled shoes in order to maintain healthy lower limbs. As a lover of walks for a clear mind I advocate for simple, thin-soled shoes (but I don’t believe we need an inquisition and I haven’t yet started collecting funds for a mission).

The few times I attempted to wear shoes with significant support I noticed dangerous knee strain that went away upon returning to simple shoes. While there’s no overwhelming body of evidence there and I probably can’t write a paper about it, that’s sufficient signal for me to stick with simple shoes.

I was never a runner/jogger. But I do walk a lot. Especially in summer. For example, if something is 20 walking minutes away and public transport takes 15, I walk.

I wore the Five Fingers all summer, every summer, ever after.

I never had any sore feet when wearing these. And what's more, I have exceptionally strong feet and I attribute it to these shoes. I only found this out when I started tango dancing and several of my teachers told me.

My first pair from London disintegrated, a decade later, in 2017.

Every pair of five fingers I bought after that lasted a maximum of two years.

As such they're both an example of a great product as well as great example of enshittification.