Questions & Answers

Your "Regular" Shoe to Minimalist Shoe to Barefoot Ratio?

I'm just curious: What would you say is the percentage that you wear (or don't wear) various things on your feet? What emphasis do you put on wearing minimalist footwear or going barefoot over wearing "regular" shoes?

My percentages (approximate):

.5% regular shoes 30% minimalist footwear 69.5% barefoot.

(It should be noted that I only wear regular shoes on rare occasions. These include heavy snow and formal events. For example, before wearing boots during the recent snow, the last time I wore regular shoes was to a funeral in August 2010.)

4

Answers and Replies

9

Do flip flops with completely flat soles count as regular or minimalist footwear?

I haven't worn any commercially made shoes at all since July, except my thin, flat flip flops. I keep those in the car but I can't remember the last time I wore them.

Generally if it's not too cold I'm barefoot.

When the ground is really cold, I wear socks and my homemade mocs (denim uppers, thin vinyl soles.) I live in a warm climate, so cold weather is pretty limited. We don't get snow, and the lowest temps all year are usually mid-30's for only a scant few days.

Big exception is the zoo, which will not let me roam barefoot. So about once every 2 months, I wear my thin leather mocs for a couple of hours. (Oddly, they have never had a problem with my son being barefoot, only me.)

So by my estimate I'm barefoot more than 99%, and minimalist less than 1%. :)

I have really wide feet and shoes literally hurt, so I'm kind of an extreme barefooter.

2

I'm not sure I can break it down by actual percentages, but my routine is something like this:

running - mostly VFF (KSOs before, now Bikilias), sometimes a mile or two barefoot around the house - barefoot or sanuks to work - sanuks or NB MT101s out otherwise (errands, kids soccer practice, etc) - MT 101s mostly, sanuks sometimes

on very rare occasions (formal) i have a pair of 'regular' shoes that totally kill my feet after like 20 minutes. also, a pair of skate shoes that i'll wear if i got skateboarding with the kids. they also usually hurt my feet after a while (too narrow, i think).

18

Hi

I'm pretty new to all this so my percentages are nothing to show off about, I still own lots of normal shoes. But I have very wide feet, and got into this because of pain in my right knee, which the podiatrist figured out was because of pain in my right foot, which is even wider than my left foot. It seems to be a common trend, wide feet, shoes hurt, barefooter! I was barefoot I'd say 50% of the time from 0-10 years old when feet grow, and my feet are very triangular shaped, very wide in the forefoot and toes. I used to wish my mum had made me wear shoes more so my feet would have been more suited to shoes, but now I'm starting to think that maybe its good not to have deformed feet...

I live in France and I once walked barefoot in Paris and I think that if I had been totally naked people would have been less shocked. I practically started a commotion.

Niki

953

I am barefoot at home, minimalist at work, and when in the outdoors it depends on the day or season (but if I do have something on my feet it is always minimalist).

77

I'm mostly just socks, because I'm based at home and often not strong enough to leave the apartment.

So currently it would be something like: 99+% just socks <1% vivo barefoot.

36

Barefoot at home and at least one run per week weather permitting. Minimalist shoes at work and for the rest of my running. Winter boots when it's below -20 degress Celsius and I have to shovel snow.

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