Are Barefoot Shoes Good for Your Feet?
Barefoot shoes (aka “Minimalist shoes”) have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. As people get fed up with sore, stiff, achey feet, they are demanding more comfortable footwear- and the shoe industry is listening. Personally, I can’t help but mention that I struggle with the term “barefoot shoe” because if you’re wearing shoes at all, you are by definition not barefoot. But whatever. No one asked me before they named them. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going with “minimalist” shoe, because it sounds better and it’s more accurate.
The shoe company Vibram came out with the Five Finger shoe in 2005, offering a flexible sole that contours your foot. The marketing of Vibrams boasted a design that allows natural movement, prevents injury, and increases efficiency. Sounds pretty great, right? Runners, yogis, and outdoor enthusiasts flocked to shoe stores, eager to step into this brand-spankin’-new technology. (The “new technology” of course being the natural design of our feet, which has only been around for a few hundred thousand years.)
You might remember the Five Fingers. If you lived in the Pacific Northwest in 2005 like me, you probably went to plenty of cocktail parties where people dressed up in suit pants or knee-length skirts paired with shoes that made their feet look like they should be attached to a Yeti. Each toe had its own special section of the shoe, mimicking the look and feel of a bare foot- minus the bright colors and racing stripes. Five Fingers are widely known for being alarmingly hideous, but make up for it with their biomechanical benefits.
Vibram took a nosedive when the company faced a class action lawsuit due to injuries. Overnight, Americans became terrified of barefoot shoes, claiming they cause stress fractures and other injuries.
But were the shoes really the problem?
Imagine you’ve had a cast on your arm your whole life. One day, you decide to take off the cast and bench press your body weight at the gym. You’re probably going to get injured because the muscles in your arm have atrophied over time and you haven’t given them the opportunity to adapt and strengthen.
Those thick, cushioned shoes with oodles of arch support or dress shoes that squeeze your toes like sardines?. . . those are like putting a cast on your feet and walking around all day. Take off those casts and start running- on concrete- and yes, you’re likely to get injured or at least, be very very sore. The muscles in our feet need to time to adapt to new ways of moving and accepting the load of our weight. As Ella Fitzgerald said, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that ya do it.”
Minimalist shoes require transitioning, which means:
Spending time barefoot (I mean actually barefoot, not wearing barefoot shoes.)
An appropriate stretching and strengthening routine
Not ditching your old shoes just yet. You’ll need to switch back and forth for a bit while your muscles adapt. (This is a good idea any time you’re switching shoes, minimalist or otherwise.)
Another missing piece in this argument is that while shoes allow your feet to move naturally, running on unnatural surfaces doesn’t. Sure, if we all had a lifetime of running around barefoot in the woods, our feet would be in pretty good shape. The muscles and tendons would have been exposed to infinite surfaces and textures, giving our feet an opportunity to adapt and strengthen appropriately.
That’s all to say: The surface matters. Running in minimalist shoes doesn’t necessarily mean more efficient movement if you’re pounding your skeleton on pavement every day. (Yep, I’ve done this.)
Nuance also matters here. I’m not against minimalist shoes at all. I own several pairs, including hiking boots, gym shoes, and even dressy ones I can wear to cocktail parties without looking like a Yeti. Early in my career as a movement educator, I coached at a barefoot gym where I taught people how to use the natural mechanism of their feet to move their whole body with more ease and less pain. I’ve written several articles about minimalist shoes for The Healthy Feet Alliance, and I studied with Dr. Emily Splichal, the acclaimed podiatrist who encourages her clients to ditch orthotics and go au naturel when possible.
But Americans love extremes and despise personal responsibility. It’s like that guy on TikTok who swears by a diet of nothing but 30 bananas a day. (I won’t include a link here because I don’t want to give him more attention. You can Google it.) As long as you’re not allergic to them, bananas are generally considered a healthy food. Should you eat 30 of them a day? I’m not a nutritionist, but I’m going to dip my toes outside my scope of practice for just a minute and say it’s not a good idea. But I’m sure someone, somewhere got sick from this diet and started a law suit against banana farms.
So, when a fitness trend like minimalist shoes creates a frenzy of excited consumers, it’s the ones who go from stiletto heels at the office to running five miles in Vibrams who go limping into doctor’s offices, skewing the data toward “BAREFOOT=BAD.”
If you’re thinking about switching to a minimalist shoe, here are some of my favorite resources for transitioning:
There is a lot of fear-mongering out there. Minimalist shoes can give your feet freedom, feel great on your ankles, knees, hips, and low back, and help you find more ease in your movement. And transitioning doesn’t have to be complicated or scary. With a little bit of guidance and time to give your body some time to adapt, you’ll be just fine.