I have looked into this stuff and there is some pretty compelling evidence for shoes making people run faster, like your typical highly cushioned shoes. The reason barefoot shoes are good is because it is the equivalent of a manual transmission car, we are forced to learn how to actually make our feet do the right things for proper kinematics. The automatic transmissions still heavily beat any manual paired with a good driver in most races. So barefoot shoes aren’t actually that great in certain contexts despite being very helpful for making our bodies do well. Once our body gets good at using barefoot shoes though we can use regular shoes and intuitively know that we are using it correctly which is also an advantage.
My balance of these things at the moment a pair of some shoes from wildling that are water resistant but not super breathable and a pair of boots from lems that have proper outdoor siping (not their other boots that have terrible siping) these boots are about as barefoot minded as you can get boots to be while still being functional boots. And that’s it, just the 2 sets of shoes.
The biggest thing is realizing that our legs have a built in spring system for all this wear and tear that we put on it. Basically our ankles are springs and the travel those springs have is the amount of distance you can move your ankle to not stomp your heel on the ground except for when needing to make quick turns or standing still for balance, momentum is what gives us balance while moving forward just like a bike rolling.
People sometimes take that and think they need to dinosaur walk all the time lol, this is just saying that walking pains come from heel stomping too hard, its ok to touch it on the ground often.
I’m a long-time runner and have tried pretty much everything under the sun, including barefoot-style shoes. They’re not for me personally but I know people who have been running with them for over a decade. The only thing I’ll say about them is if you’re accustomed to distance running in cushioned running sneakers, if you abruptly replace your weekly 15-20 km in standard shoes with the same distance in barefoot shoes, you will almost certainly get injured. Plan to walk in them for a week before adding short runs (1-2 km) for another before attempting any real distance. And if something feels off, fix your form first.
You can learn a midfoot strike running technique before buying barefoot shoes. Learn that first and you won’t injure your feet or legs from swapping to barefoot shoes.
If you’re in a neutral shoe with moderate cushioning that’s definitely true (it feels weird though). If you’re coming from HOKAs or Asics Nimbus or other gigantically-cushioned shoes I feel like trying a midfoot strike would have you clomping around like Frankenstein’s monster (who could also be called Frankenstein IMO, but that’s a different conversation).
I went from hoka to wildling nebula with no adjustment period and didn’t have any issues, at the time I was walking 5 miles a day for work on concrete and noticed no issues. I think I must’ve already been taking steps the right way before using them.
I’m a bit late to the party here, but people really need to ease in even more than that if they don’t want to tear an achilles or hurt themselves in other ways. Think in months not weeks, focus on technique, you have to teach yourself to walk all over again.
Learn to walk around the house Then wear them a bit in your daily life Then longer walks, preferably on soft ground. Then start short runs or hikes Add km If you want you can eventually add weight.
I’ve never been a runner, but at my peak I was guiding hikes with a 35kg backpack in barefoot through rocky terrain. My shoe of choice is barefoot 95% of the time and has been for over 15 years, but go slow.
I bought a pair of Vivobarefoots several months back; they take sooooo much getting used to, but I can definitely feel my feet and lower legs getting stronger. In terms of actual health benefits though? I have no idea. It has also taken so long trying to figure out the correct pacing/stepping, as it is very different compared to traditional shoes.
