Thanks to all the team for the interesting content!

why do you just showcase separate toes in this video there is so many that is not build like that

Question for you. Is it possible to get a blister in barefoot shoes? I've had some broken foot bones, so my big toes, have lumps of bone, etc that stick out and rub against every shoe I buy. I only wear shoes outdoors and I rarely go outdoors. I'd call it a 70/30 barefoot ratio. Still, my podiatrist specifically told me that wearing shoes is the healthier option. Here's a slight disclaimer. I have the flattest feet in the western world. They also stick out like a duck. 😁 I have a hard time finding shoes which won't give me blisters and friction rashes. Everyone claims to have a cure and the perfect shoe, but it never works out. 😥

@Repent or you will likewise perish. No, you socially awkward little man...we're talking about shoes and feet. I'm sure you're quite excited to be born again, but when the adults are talking, you wait your turn.

there are good counter arguments to soft shoes: stability and protection. there is a good reason basically every military uses hard stable shoes. i do have no actual expertise or anything but consider my arguments neitherless: you cant twist your foot, you have much more grip, and while at the start you swueeze your foot, with good shoes the shoe will adapt the basic form of your foot. and they become softer so you still roll your foot. and even more due to your foot beign mor eprotected small obstacles like pebbles wont even be noticed. also it is kinda weird isnt it that through history we put more and more stability around our feet depending on how much stress we put them under like climbing etc. of course you have more feeling barefoot but that can be negated with training and the benefits clearly outweigh it in my eyes

Are you white

I doubt I could wear them wear I stay. But good for you if they are giving you such great results.

#kneesovertoes

I bought a pair of Zero Shoes winter boots. They're a little more cramped than the fivefingers I've become used to... but what can ya do? I'm in Illinois. It gets very cold and wet in the winter. One day it's negative degrees, the next it's 40.

@@btchpants I have a pair of xeroshoes as well and love them! I bought the oswego when I got a job as a custodian and was on my feet every day, all day (averaged abt 4 miles a day, almost exclusively indoors). They didn't make my feet themselves hurt less, but after about a week of adjusting to wearing them, the rest of my body would ache SO much less at the end of the day. Everything from my ankles to my core hurt less. I went from my entire body feeling like pain jello at the end of every night to feeling more or less normal. I still had pain of course but shoes aren't magic lol I also have hypermobile ankles so im a very clumsy, unsteady person and often bump into things/almost fall over. Wearing those shoes noticeably helped with my balance, probably since my heel wasn't raised and throwing me off, and the wide, flexible toe box actually let me use my toes to balance and move better. I like them so much; i've never so much as spoken to another person who uses barefoot shoes and don't know the communities at all, and yet I was proselytizing to all my friends and family who would listen! I adore the aesthetic of giant chunky boots, but the experience of putting on my timberlands (which I have lovingly owned for at least 6 years) after months of almost exclusively using my xeroshoes showed how insane the difference is. I should invest into getting some barefoot boots as it gets very cold and snowy where i am as well. Hopefully i can find a pair that LOOK big and heavy......

Wow Thanks sir.

Cap

@@rainulan7809 ? can you explain what you mean?

that is great, good for you

That's awesome! I'll have to tell my elderly friend about them. Although I kind of doubt he'd try. But still it might allow him to also feel curbs & other obstacles easier since he's visually impaired.

do your bunion still bother u running/walking with the minimalist shoes?

@@idk2289, No it does not bother me at all in my Xero shoes, the toe box is wide enough that it doesn't rub on it at all.

You might like Altra and Lems then

And Ahinsa shoes' "comfort" line (which is just a comfy insole in their otherwise minimalist shoes)

They literally make "wide" versions of nearly all shoes.

i like the way they look because of the toes

@@joparsons20 me too!

Doesn't it make your toes cold? Ive used to have this five toes socks and i just couldn't stand how quickly my toes were freezing when separated

@@mishuchyba6027 me no! I find them strangely warmer than regular shoes.

@@joparsons20 do you by any chance "like" feet?

Also "studies don't exist to say they are more healthy" doesn't mean "science says they aren't healthy" which it seemed you were implying. Those studies largely just don't exist at all, so in that sense we can't say for sure. But it's hard for me to imagine that shoes being actually shaped like feet would turn out to be a bad thing.

You are correct.

This! Had $300 redwing shoes and PAIN my god the pain! It was terrible. Switched to barefoot zero shoes. I was running FedEx at the time as a driver and it was great! First month was hard and painful simply because my muscles weren’t ready haha. Definitely had days of muscle burn! After all the my feet are as strong as a ox and I’ve never had problems. Stones branches etc even really sharp ones tight on the heel don’t bother me anymore. I really want good barefoot boots now especially for winter. Also wish I could get them a bit cheaper but they seem to last quite a long time. I’m a roofer now and they work fine for that too.

@@Anna-pd6dc The problem is running with them In the long term. It can put more stress in the knee joints than regular shoes. Balance can be way better with these shoes, and they do have a place in sport, everyday life and so on, but most physicists and coaches that actually know what they are doing are not going to recommend running in those shoes for extended periods of time, especially if you already have knee and calcaneous problems. Apart from that, they seem fine

@@Anna-pd6dc He wasn't implying that science has proven they're unhealthy at all, he just said health benefits are yet to be proven which is an increadibly important point to make. And him joking about them being ugly is obviously just a throwaway line for humor. You misunderstood a lot of this video, maybe you should watch it again, lol.

Now that is a good reason. It's a niche that they can nest themselves into without interfering with the competition (which offer a way better product in their respective categories).

Are they any different from the normal water shoes? I’ve used those before but they kinda sucked

My husband has a pair of these for this specific reason as well. We kayak a lot and they are his kayaking shoes

@@BoringTroublemaker could you day which brand he's bought?

Makes sense. They were first used by recreational sailboaters. I much prefer them for water.

I can relate. I have very wide feet, so for me to comfortably wear shoes I need them 3 sizes longer than necessary.

Yeah... stay away from my kids. No logical man would ever wear toed shoes without having some dirty tricks up their sleeves. L o s e r

@@LukeNukemTV_ They are pretty lame but damn man they are just crappy shoes basically lmao, nothing more.

Amen to that 😏👍

Honest question, as I have lower back, hip, and knee issues, do roofs and carpentry. Wouldn’t they get really hot?

@@iXmetalXi I'm not sure, but for construction type work you may want to stick with steel toed boots.

This is basically what I came to say. They feel so much more natural for how I walk anyways and don't squish my toes. I only tried barefoot shoes for the wide toe box aspect (most regular shoes are too tight for me and wide shoes have been harder to find in Switzerland than they were in the US) and I like them a lot. I do recommend them to people as something interesting to try, and if you have specific issues with your feet, legs, or they can help in the long run if you transition slowly and correctly (possibly with the help of a doctor even). Luckily there are lots of styles out now so the five fingers definitely shouldn't be your go to. Check out Vivo Barefoot, Wildlings, Groundies, Feelgrounds, Xero, and plenty more I can't think of right now.

Same! Swichted to vivobarefoot georace and prime lite as well as vibram v-train. Love them, never going back!

wait don't you run with your front area anyways with running shoes?

@@aaronmontgomery2055 no, at least I didn't. I would run a heel strike, when wearing cushioned shoes, because : 1. There is a drop (front to back) that felt like wearing high heels ( or how I would Imagen high heels). Because the shoe drops are different, it would be more consistent, running a heel strike. 2. The drop increases the missfunction of your feet. It felt like running a little downwards, when compared to barefoot shoes. When running downwards your feet use the heelstrike because you have to stretch them far more than when running straight surfaces. At least for me, running in barefoot shoes, changed the way I run, probably because I don't sink into cushion anymore. I feel that my feet are stronger and far more agile. That is why I switched from trendy shoes.

I have a back pain, and i found that i sleep better on the floor. it doesnt make sense at all, but thats what i fell. I know this is out of topic, but kinda related i think 😅

This definitely happened with me. I didn't want to give up my Brooks shoes but eventually got tired of the ankle sprains and chronic plantar fasciitis. Took me almost a month of barefoot conditioning before I picked up a pair of Xeros. Absolutely love the increased function, strength and lack of pain. I'm not going back to regular shoes again.

Damn they don't ship to the USA.

Fila skeletoes best

wildlings are the prettiest barefoot shoes i ever seen online. HOWEVER, they're no use for those who got wide feet. and they do their best to conceal it.

Wow Deeeeep

Same experience here, I have a pair of Vibram and my knee pains vanished once I wore them for running!

I hope your "runner" husband doesn't get sick of you being an overweight, sedentary, gamer. You may wanna exercise, if only for your health.

@@MrEazyE357 I'd assume that the husband married them as that already so no problems really, exercising for health is still good regardless

I'm (kind of) the opposite. I'm also overweight and over-probate, but I find to much time barefoot makes the knee pain come back. I'm rarely even barefoot in my own home because of it.

Exactly, I never saw myself talking about shoes but they allowed me to run further than I ever could before and because of that I became passionate about them

What ur barefoot shoe u wear?

@@aazer1aw582 I have one pair of the Merrell Vapor Glove 3 and a pair of Vibram Fivefinger classic. I also have the Xero cloud sandals. They're all very minimal and give a great barefoot feel.

Apparently the sensory quality is a big factor! Hope you find the perfect shoes for you. Thanks for taking the time to join us here + leave a comment !!

@@FutureProofTV I'll chime in (6 months late) and say that the sensory aspects are probably the biggest draw for me, far less than the "lifestyle" aspects you emphasized in your video. Frankly, I find all that stuff - and the health claims - more than a bit offputting, and so do many of the other BF shoe wearers I've met. They simply feel nice to walk around in and IME do help with some forms of joint issues. I am dubious about their claims for actual running, with one exception - trail running, where the tactile thing is a pretty big deal.

Which ones did you buy? I'm considering myself, and have a limited budget.

@@hollowmajin5146 Vibram V-run. Not budget friendly at all, and the sizing is easy to get wrong (mine are a bit too big, so I really need socks to avoid chafing, and without socks they'd probably get nasty and sweaty pretty fast). But they feel great to run in.

Opposite for me. I started using minimalist shoes and BAM...planter fasciitis. Never had it in normal running shoes.

@@mbogucki1 Your plantar fascitis wasn't caused by the barefoot shoes, rather your feet arch was weak due to wearing cushioned shoes for most your life. Moving to barefoot shoes introduced more stress onto your feet than usual; it'll get better over time as your feet strengthen

​@@mbogucki1 its a pretty massive shock to your feet that have been conditioned for pillowy shoes that do all the supporting for you, its why most people transition slowly to barefoot shoes

Same thoughts

On a good way?

@@lilipepette19 yeah it takes some getting used to and building up slowly. But you are re strenghtening your body to its natural capabilities. We havnt evolved to wear all this modern technology on our feet thats only been around for some years. For me personally my arch hurt when running... i even had special made orthodics. Since ive switched and worn barefoot shoes and ran barefoot my calves started kicking in and infelt them taking the impact which has felt amazing.

Could you elaborate on the injuries? Internal or external? Thanks.

Many people transferred too rapidly to the minimalist shoes, do you think? That's my experience.

I don't wear barefoot shoes regularly, but I started working out barefoot and it's been great for my balance and lifting technique. The elevated heels of the tennis shoes I had been using made my ribs naturally want to jut out more but proper alignment has been a lot easier just doing it barefoot.

Who did it impact your calves at 1st if you don’t mind me asking?

Would love to try them. can you recommend some

Vibrams just work. I personally dont trust any other brand

I bought my first pair a few years ago and they instantly became the only shoe i wear! I get a lot of comments about them cause of the toes. I'm sure most people think they're goofy and they're probably right but they're comfortable so I don't care.

@@naveedaman1 please try Wildlings! I love them with my whole heart

Hi there. I likethe idea of barefoot walking. I was just curious about the toes in the vibrams. Does the separation of the toes not bring discomfort? I remember as a kid having toed socks, and gave em up because of that, precisely

Good point!

exactly 😂😂

Agreed

Yeah, we might be naturally barefoot, but I have a feeling that originally shoes were designed more for protecting our feet from the ground than anything else. Although in that regard, shoes as a whole have probably led to our feet 'softening' over time, further necessitating shoes for protection. I imagine our barefoot ancestors had much tougher feet than we do!

@@qactustick Yes, indeed, our hands and feet can develop callouses over time to protect them from sharp stones and twigs, just feel the hands of someone who does hard manual labour, like a construction worker for example. I wonder tactile sensory perception is reduced with callouses...

But it does work like that. Would have they been marketed properly and one or two celebrity using them, boom healthy and popular feet. Sadly many hollow people desire to show status first and it works. Getting jobs and getting up the ladder is simply more important for people :'/ .

No. Bc there are way too may different types of normal shoes. The thing I can say as a general fact is that normal shoes aren’t bad for your feet but barefoot shoes are.

@@zzodysseuszz where do u you find that information? Just think logical, what we humans are better at then the rest of the animals is iq and long distence running. How we survived back in the day was that we ran the animals to death, if you got a knee injury you couldnt get food. So evelousion has finetuned our bodies to run for 100 of 1000 of years. But today 79% of all recreational runners are injured each year… and what has changed sins then… I my self atleast has gotten rid of all knee and foot injuries from swishing to barefoot shoes.

@@acf2453 that’s just intuition, without research to back it up, it could be wrong no matter how reasonable it sounds as an explanation

@@superdudeusa3 i mean it is the same thing with cold baths and cold exposure, there are no actual reaserch that proves why it helps with for example muscle and ligament recovery, but it obviusly works and it makes sense becouse it increases blood flow. Everything does not need a scientific reason for it to work or make sense. Thats what i think at least :) + there is tons of research that proves why barefoot shoes are good, and almost none that actually proves why "thick rubber wraps" that we call shoes today actually work.

Best shoes I've ever owned

Lol I’ve done that before. More of a runner since there’s no mountains around here, but I bet I’ve confused lots of runners out on the road.

Good anecdote and bang on the money.

Have you never seen sandals or flip flops?

@@CarrotConsumer Did you read my comment? I said "when we see someone barefoot somewhere where you don't see that, we give a disgust reaction to it." last time I checked, sandals/flip flops doesn't count as barefoot.

@@Yuni5five it kinda does

No stigma in most countries. No stigma here in NZ, Australia, the Pacific nations, Sub Saharan Africa.

@@Yuni5five Gloves on your feet is even farther from barefoot than sandals are. It has nothing to do with barefeet. It has everything to do with gloves on your feet.

Same here. Have been wearing them for about 7 years now, have 4 pairs, would wear those shoes all the time if they were waterproof. As for the fashion appeal, I'd say 50/50 as well, some people see them as extremely cool, some as weird. The best feedback I get is from kids and young teens, I guess they have fewer stereotypes in their heads and see these shoes for what they are, without trying to fit them into a familiar category and attach a majority-approved judgement.

Bravo You. Good decision. Your back and feet will thank you. Build up gently with the new shoes. All the best from New Zealand

I had almost the same experience. Work as a mover and constantly pickup heavy furniture. Used to wear altras which are at least foot shaped, but still had knee pain. Switched to barefoot shoes and my knee pain is gone. Haven’t looked back.

Word!

@@nolainnogain Barefoot shoes did the same for me. Altras used to be very light cushioned (almost barefoot) years ago, but they suddenly went cushioning mad, at least they kept the zero drop and wide toe box. Glad you found a fix for your knees in barefoot shoes.

I had a very negative experience with them and while I don't doubt that ppl have positive experiences, I don't think you need to wear them for years to find out if they don't work for you. I had very mild hip pain and thought I would give them a try... This led to knee, back, and foot pain that increased over the 3 months that I wore them. I thought "I just need to get accustomed to them" but after 3 months my doc was talking about doing shots in my knee for the pain and I was about ready to say yes. I had almost kinda forgotten about changing my shoes at that point and my podiatrist (different doc) saw them and mentioned that they are great for some, but not all of his patients and asked if they had improved my pain... I realized that the pain had STARTED when I got the shoes and when I switched back to my old kicks my pain went back to just mild hip pain that I can control with yoga mostly. Again, not discounting that some of you guys have great experiences with barefoot shoes. Maybe my mom's sneaker obsession ruined my feet as a baby, idk lol

That's what we're here for 💪 Thanks for checking out our content!

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Just start by walking barefoot or in socks as much as possible. In your house, yard or garden, down the beach in a park. Then when you're brave enough down the pavement occasionally, just for a couple minutes. Always listen to your body, aches and pains the next day will let you know if you did too much.

#thankwansmaskahsaturversary

Saguaros are pretty cheap

Here's a scientific study from 2014: The Risks and Benefits of Running Barefoot or in Minimalist Shoes A Systematic Review Kyle P. Perkins, William J. Hanney, PhD, PT, DPT, ATC, and Carey E. Rothschild, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CSCS Moderate evidence supports the following biomechanical differences when running barefoot versus in shoes: overall less maximum vertical ground reaction forces, less extension moment and power absorption at the knee, less foot and ankle dorsiflexion at ground contact, less ground contact time, shorter stride length, increased stride frequency, and increased knee flexion at ground contact.

The science does back up barefoot. 250 years of science and more coming all the time. There will always be naysayers! Their point is its important to take your time getting back to barefoot, its not a quick fix and no one should ever say it is. Healthy movement is a life long journey...

@@benlevesconte which makes sense when you consider most people will have been wearing shoes for decades by the time they decide to switch to barefoot. Imagine you can bicep curl 50lbs, and then you put your arm in a cast for even just 10 years. You’re not gonna get the cast off and immediately go back to 50lbs. You’re gonna have to start at like 1lb and work up to it slowly. Same with your foot muscles when you stop wearing shoes

This doesn't come off as great when you brush off peer-review science and instead say just trust anecdotes or people selling books about barefoot shoes, lol.

Exactly what I was thinking. Vibrams were the best shoes I've worn.

@@KallutoZoldyck they are good, I wear kso evos all spring/summer at work (window fitter/glazier) they're just not that hard-wearing, I have to buy a pair a year cos they last 6-7 months. Good for ladder work tho. I had a pair of Vivo riffs that lasted 3 years of walking over hard-core, thousands of flights of stairs and walking over tiled roofs. I should be wearing steelies but they ruined my feet.. amusingly I've hurt my feet and ankles far less in minimal shoes.

yeah I agree, this video feels...lazy? and doesn't even begin to get into the reasons why I personally use barefoot shoes, yet focuses on fashion which is clearly not the point. Also, in my high school science fair I was able to prove that running barefoot vs shod affects runner's stride, so all the talk about science being inconclusive seems extremely lacking. There's many proven differences, maybe barefoot shoes aren't proven to be "better" but mentioning Born to Run yet ignoring all the science written about in that book feels like a huge hole in the video.

100% agree. I have been wearing only barefoot shoes for several years now and I will never go back to conventional style.

@@BethanieBailey did you wrote a peer reviewed paper about what you supposedly proved? If not, you haven't proved anything

I think a lot of people are insecure about their feet, but the great thing about it is learning to not care what others think. I tried the minimalist shoes for a few months and then have been mostly barefoot for the better part of the year. Every day I step out for a run, is giving me practice to not care about my appearance. My confidence is higher than ever and I feel so comfortable in being myself.

That’s exactly my assumption as I make the switch to barefoot: that it’ll take a lot longer than I expect

Podiatrist said it was likely deep bruising, no breaks on X-ray. I switched to Hoka per his recommendation and the support has really helped. Glad to be back out putting in the miles. Happy trails everyone!

@@dshaf7 may I ask which Hoka you’re using now? Did your podiatrist say anything good/bad about barefoot shoes? Thanks in advance!

Hoka Clifton 8. He said that people often underestimate the time it takes to get their feet used to the barefoot style, and that while it’s true that humans didn’t evolve to have cushioned shoes, we also didn’t evolve to run kilometers on pavement and concrete.

Religion is dangerous in every way, especially Catholicism. In this example, your mother harmed you physically, emotionally, morally and spiritually. Renouncing your imposed faith would be as liberating as wearing minimalist shoes. Apparently God wears them. Nothing was ever solved by kneeling down.

Miguel, there aren't ugly at all, get those feet in your photos!

Foot-shaped shoes aren’t “gross.” That’s nonsense.

Right on! Glad to hear you're enjoying them, as not just because they're "trendy". Thank you for taking the time to share with us + support what we're doing here, Nicola. We really appreciate it!!

Wildlings are great :)

Also Groundies look nice I have some black ones for work

If you’re in middle Europe, the wildlings also have a good footprint when it comes to transportation emissions as they produce in Portugal

I definitely get a lot of compliments on my Wildlings when people notice them, and they're not so distractingly different looking than regular shoes that I've felt I needed to wear something else in a work or even semi-formal setting.

I had to do a bit of digging what are those Naboso insoles because it's also a czech barefoot shoes shop of the same name (it means „on/with bare feet“).

i feel this! i had a job during high school/college that required me to be on my feet walking around for 10-12 hours a day. i bought the "best" padded shoes i could afford at the time and didn't understand why my feet just seemed to be getting worse and worse. right around the time i was 21, it was to the point where if it was a little chilly, i literally couldn't sleep because my knees and hips were in so much pain, and my feet were in rough shape. i was trying so desperately to fix it but nothing seemed to help until i tried "barefoot" shoes. i was on a road trip and bought altras for hiking, and i couldn't believe how much longer i could walk without pain. i've been wearing pretty much exclusively barefoot shoes since then and don't even think about any of these issues anymore. i used to tell people i had bad knees which is hilarious to me now. i was barely even into my twenties!!! that is just absurd.

Really opens your eyes to many strange “facts of reality” that no one seems to question. Maybe the first “fact” that I became puzzled at is how I could be getting all sorts of chronic pain/injuries in my early 20s and that is normal/common in our society.

Good to know! Thanks for sharing + joining us here 💪

That's so true. The only time I have to get back into my regular shoes is for the occasional wedding or funeral. It's awful. I can't stand it. As soon as I can do so without drawing any attention to myself, I'll take my shoes off. I can't believe I wore those things for years.

@adrian try wide toe shoes. Try a shoe before buying. Put cushions in the shoes especially gel cushions.

What about sandals?

Try Xero Shoes. They perfected the minimal/stylish/wide toe box shoe! Only ones I use now.

You're not wrong! 😜

I’m transitioning to going without shoes more and more often. it’s great except I feel like I have to wash my feet immediately as soon as I get back home lol

As a 70's semi hippy, I was barefoot whenever possible. I spent quite a bit of time picking glass bits from my feet, not to mention plantars warts. When I became a mom, I let it go. I wouldn't risk injury anymore.

Turns out, feet are naturally covered in self-healing leather. Genius!

I do both (wearing minimalist shoes and going barefoot) and I’m not “anti-consumerist.”

Man made surfaces are killing our feet, legs, spines for sure. This is a separate issue.

Barefoot shoes have saved me in fitting everything into just a backpack! You can just roll them up or even just flat the pair take up about half the space of a single regular shoe

@@4you700 thanks Michael! Good to know 😁

Do it. I got barefoot shoes for the same reason and it has been great.

Same. I wear barefoot shoes, and when I take them off after a long day, my feet feel the exact same as when I had the shoes on.