I think there is not just black and white in minimal and other shoes. There is also a grey area between them which is becoming bigger as more shoemaking companies see the market for minimal shoes growing. For example: Teva and Keen are coming with new lines of shoes in 2013 that have a better connection to the ground but I would not call them minimal shoes. Some 3mm drop shoes from Inov-8 may be more flexible than my 0mm drop Golite Timberlites. And also stack height does not say everything. I am testing a pair of Nimbletoes that have an insole and outsole of 6mm together. But because of the special Poron insole they feel like they have a much thicker sole. I think it would be a good idea to keep 5mm shoes in ToeSalad and give website users good information about what to expect from the different types of shoes so they can buy the shoes that work best for them. I think for hiking and daily use 5mm drop shoes can be very good because you land on your heel a lot.

You bring-up some excellent points Huib. This reminds me of a minimalist footwear grading tool (i.e. scale, or score) I was working on before. Perhaps we need to revisit something like that so we can give users a more quantitative analysis of what it is they are really getting.

Here is the grading system I had started developing a year ago:

Heel Raise:

0 mm = 3 points 1 - 3 mm = 2 points 4 - 6 mm = 1 points

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6 mm = 0 points

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Cushioning (at thickest):

0 mm = 3 points 1 - 3 mm = 2 points 4 - 6 mm = 1 points

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6 mm = 0 points

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Flexibility:

Add together the following two ratios and round to the nearest whole number:

1) length of sole / circumference of tightest tube you can roll it in

2) width of sole at widest point / circumference of tightest tube you can roll it in length-wise direction

(in either case, a ratio is considered 0 if it cannot be at least rolled in a tube)

The last aspect I would like to see in here is the shape of the last. This is going to be a tricky one to quantify. Basically, I want to be able to give 3 points to something that is anatomically correct, and 0 points to something that isn't. I am thinking this might need to be a bit subjective, unless I can think of a solid way to measure. One idea I am floating around in my head is this:

Anatomically correct last = 3 points Semi-anatomic last with flexible upper = 2 points Non anatomic last with flexible, elastic upper = 1 points Non anatomic last with inflexible upper = 0 points

Once all of the scores have been calculated, they are added together for an overall score.

What do you think? Maybe we can hash something like this out and provide readers with a better overview of variations in minimalist products...