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Looking for a shoes to introduce minimalistic footware into my daily life

Hello everybody, I'm Graham (29) from The Netherlands and currently traveling Australia (I brought my VFF KSO's for running ;)). I am looking for a shoes to introduce minimalistic footware into my daily life.

I'm only use to running on Vibram KSO as far as going minimalistic goes. This I've done for about a year now, which I build up gradually over months starting with 5 minutes x 3 a week. I can now run about 10 KM on them in 54 minutes. Maybe that gives you a bit of an indication on my feet. During my stay in Melbourne over the last 3 weeks I've started to walk barefoot more often to increase strength. I normally walk on classic converse shoes without the thin insole.

I've very interested to extend the minimalistic footwear into my daily life. So that would mean me getting casual shoes that are minimalistic. I guess thong sandals or flipflops also count here (maybe get the lunas). As a backpacker I use them quite often if I'm not walking barefoot.

I have been reading up on Damien's website and also on Toesalad.com about which shoes to get but I haven't really made up my mind and need some advice. I would appreciate it any help on what shoes to get and where to get them in Melbourne.

The inov-8 190 or 195 look cool btw but not really casual.

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Answers and Replies

167

Hello Graham, Terra Plana Vivo Barefoot makes a lot of casual shoes. Also very interesting are the Merrel shoes like the Trail Glove or True Glove. Very nice for traveling could be the Vibram Fivevingers Classic or Smartwool Classic. As long as you don't bother everybody looking at your shoes of coarse.

Huib

953

Welcome Graham, nice to have you join us here.

As you can see in the directory, there are a lot of different makes/models to choose from. Casual can mean a lot of different things to different people, some even consider their VFFs as casual shoes. What is it you are looking for in a shoe, any particular style or function? Sporty, leather, dressy?

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Good point Damien. With casual I mean shoes that I can use daily (for work and going out or just for a stroll). The fabric doesn't really matter to much so I'll leave that open. But they should not wear quickly and thus need to be very durable.

953

Again, there are very many makes/models to pick from. I would suggest perhaps browsing the directory a bit and seeing if you find something that interests you. Once you have a few that you think might work, you could ask more specific questions regarding the merits of each.

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Thanks Damien. I've done some reading up (reviews) of shoes I like.

Terra Plana Vivobarefoot Oak/Dharma/Dylan, Merrell Barefoot Tough Glove and Feelmax Osma are some of the shoes that I like. I'll probably head down to the city in the next days to look at them and might buy one.

The Luna Sandals Equus and Inov-8 X-Talon 190 might eventually be a good addition to my shoe collection as flipflops and hike/trail shoes.

I'll update this post with more info when I have some ;)

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That looks like a pretty good list. At this point you will probably be unable to find any Feelmax as they currently are out of production (hopefully they will start up again soon).

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Looked at most of the shoes here in Melbourne but quite pricey. Indeed Damien, I couldn't find the Feelmax. But I did see Merrell and Terra's but as mentioned quite expensive here.

I'll probably wait until I'm back in Europe to buy shoes. I ordered the Luna Sandals Equus yesterday (using custom footprints) though...should have them end of next month.

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