Are Barefoot Shoes the simple answer?

My mind was blown recently while listening to “Born to Run” on Audible. It tells a story of one runners road to find an answer to his continuous injuries and strains due to running and a battle against the medical professions blanket response to running injuries to just STOP RUNNING. For anyone that likes to run this is pretty much a sure fire way to a life of unhappiness. Anyways less of the book review.

The thing that blew my mind most was the paradigm shift it awoke in me. One about questioning the foot and joint issues caused by shoes! I’ve suffered myself with shoe made problems, bunions due to running and ill fitting Adidas sambas (The Devil’s shoes in my eyes) a few years back.

This book explained that a lot of the problems running shoes claim to counteract are just natural movements of our feet and by trying to correct them we put undue strain and stress on parts of our anatomy that could really do without them.

This means that running shoes and shoes in general stop our natural mechanisms for walking and running that have developed over thousands of years of evolution which would explain why we see sooo many running injuries and need for corrective action to sort our feet out.

It’s something I thought to test out and ordered myself a pair of barefoot shoes from my favourite ethical fashion brand ETHCS – I opted for a pair of the freet shoes and haven’t been disappointed so far in the last couple weeks since they arrived. They are the cheapest I have seen on the UK market and with a sleek all black look I have been rocking them confidently around on my trip to California.

So far I have enjoyed the freedom you feel wearing the closest thing to barefoot without actually getting wet. I have also found it enjoyable and even fun to stay present and be mindful of my steps when I’m walking when you can feel more sensations every-time you take a step.

I will admit there is one downside which is pacing along the paved streets is tough on the feet, but hopefully this will be a transition period. I mean this is the first time I have worn next to nothing on my feet to walk around in like over 20 years so I would have been surprised if it didn’t feel a little uncomfortable, but hopefully regaining the natural mechanisms for walking that nature intended will pay off in the long run and I hope to start some running with the aim to go barefoot in the future, stay tuned for updates…. Let me know if you have any recommendations for shoes or techniques in the comments!