Questions & Answers

just wondering if you guys have any recommendations for some good books along the lines of barefoot, minimalist, etc. that interest you. I am looking for some good reading. Next up on my list is Food and Faith. kind of excited for that one. anyhow...

It's illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to ride a horse on a highway while barefoot. 104.1.2 Ont HTA (Ontario Canada)

Who knew.

I think if I looked into it some where in the act it is probably illegal to ride a horse on a highway now.

Oh wait I just reread that I guess since I am over 18 I can ride barefoot. How do these laws get made...

Hope the poor horse doesn't die on a Sunday because.........

in Toronto, Ontario, it’s illegal to drag a dead horse down Younge St on a Sunday.

SO just where is Barry's Bay Ontario? Well it is a small town of maybe 1500 people three and a half hours north of Toronto or two hours north west of Ottawa. I am the on site maintenance and guests services guy. I will try that description because when I say I run a resort people think I own the resort. The reason I am looking at minimalist shoes is to try and alleviate some foot knee and hip issues that have been developing over the last couple of years. I have noticed that a pair of Merrell water shoes I have and a have light pair of NB shoes feel good during the summer but as soon as I switch to a pair of my more serious hikers I have troubles. Since the property I live and work on would be considered more forest floor plus the dirt driveway to the cottages I see it as a great place to be barefoot or close to it......except while using the weed whacker. Just ordered a pair of Rocklite 288 GTX and will post a review in the next month.

Geoff

I just heard that Zensah, maker of compression clothing, is giving away a pair of compression socks on Facebook. If this interests you, check out their Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/zensahsports

First of all, we would like to thank all the members here that have already visited the website http://www.runningpoint.org/ We are about a month old and are growing nicely. We are trying our best to provide you all with quality, thought provoking content from the perspective of two normal guys who run for the love of running and have fallen in love with minimal and barefoot running. The analytics show us that a lot of you have linked from Toe Salad and that is completely awesome, and we need your help to keep growing.

The current problem is that while our Twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/RuningPoint is going great, the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/RunningPointorg/192713584085903 just will not catch on. All we want you to do is to check out the main site first and then if you like what you see, join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Keep checking out the site, we got some new content in the works!!

Thanks Everybody!!!

After some serious health concerns I started a diet and exercise routine that included just about everything but running (other than small amounts on my treadmill). It hurt my right hip and ankle every time I would run. One day for no known reason I hopped on my treadmill barefoot and was amazed at how much less pain I had, almost none. I am always barefoot around the house as well as outside any chance I can get, I just never considered running barefoot, hell I always yell at my kids for running outside barefoot. I am now looking for any information I can find on the sport of barefoot running and trying to find products to incorporate it into my business casual workplace too.Anyone in my neck of the woods looking to get together with a newbie for some short runs, send me a PM.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the founders of Altra via email, and got a cool inside look of their company and what it takes to start your own shoe company from scratch. If you interested check it out here:

http://goo.gl/qSioe

I have been on this forum for a while now but I had not introduced myself so far. I am a runner, hiker and kayaker from The Netherlands. My first interest in barefoot walking started years ago when I accidently passed a website about it ( http://www.barfusspark.info/en/ ). I started to read some more about it and ordered the book 'The Barefoot Hiker' from Richard K. Frazine. This was problably the very first book on walking barefoot. It is still available but it can also be downloaded from the internet ( http://www.bhthom.org/hikertxt.htm ).

I actually didn't came to read the book until a few years later when barefoot running became more populair. I followed some classes from a Dutch barefoot running coach and bought my first minimal shoes: Feelmax Panka leather.

My Feelmax shoes started to wear out and since spring last year I bought a lot of shoes because I wanted lightweight minimal shoes not only for running but also for hiking and daily use. I started with Inov-8 Terroc 330's (lightweight but not minimal) for my summer holiday in the French Alps. I actually used my Ecco boots during this trip. Not much later I bought VFF Speeds for running. I think they are my best running shoes so far, but not very good in wet weather.<br> In the fall I bought Terra Plana Aqueous waterproof minimal shoes for hiking and I think thes are great shoes as long as it isn't freezing. For my winterhike in the German Eifel I bought for half of the price a pair of waterproof Inov-8 Roclite 390 because my Ecco's are not waterproof anymore. The 390's are not minimal but they performed well in the snow. For running in the wet season I bought a pair of TP Evo II. They are heavier and stiffer than my VFF's but they fit well on my feet and I think these shoes are quit strong and durable. Meanwhile I was also interested in the Golite Timberlites because of its zero drop sole and its guaranteed waterproofness. I had to order them from the US so I hesitated. Finally I bought them. They fit well on my feet but are not waterproof... The material maybe waterproof but the stitching is not. And Golite calls this 'guaranteed waterproof'. I think these shoes are still very good for dry freezing weather. Where I live we have this kind of weather a lot in winter, more than snow. Finally I bought the Merrel Trail Glove and Tough Glove recently. Now I run in my Trail Gloves but they are actually purchased for hiking and leisure in spring and summer. The Tough Gloves are for daily use. So that's a lot of shoes. And I also think the new Teva Zilch could be interesting for me and the TP Ultra for kayaking... And maybe some other shoes for daily use. I am afraid the Inov-8 Terroc's will not see much use anymore so this was a waste of money. I just see it as a part of my transition from heavy hiking boots in the past to ultralight minimal shoes now.

Real barefoot is still the best I think, especially in nature. But I don't see myself running or hiking barefoot. The only place I like to run barefoot is on a big sandy dune in a forest near my home.

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.

Hi

Has anyone tried the Crocs ABF (almost barefoot tongs). They look nice and I LOVE crocs because of the very square toebox, the big toe can go straight. So has anyone tired these? Any ideas about the H2T drop?

Niki

Any recommendations for foot-shaped socks?

I tend to not wear socks because I need lots of forefoot and toe room, and most socks are not foot shaped. I try to get socks of very thin material (dress socks usually), but I find that even these socks inhibit toe movement...not a lot, but enough that I avoid wearing them.

Are there any companies that make foot shaped socks?

I like smartwool socks a lot, and would love to see them jump on the foot-shaped sock thing.

One of the reasons that I am raising this question now, I plan to make my own minimal "shoes" with socks and layers of Shoe-Goo. But if I can't find socks that are foot-shaped its probably not worth the effort.

In particular, I would kill for a pair of foot-shaped waterproof/breathable socks. With these I can see a shoe-goo sole working well as raingear for cold days in fall/spring, and with a 4mm rubber sole as a possible solution for minimalist winter use.

Although the post is on a runner's website, I'm referring to it here on the Bare Feet forum because it's more on the same issues that come up again and again around being bare foot.

It's on marathon-runner Joanna Sayers' website, a guest post from another podiatrist:

http://joannasayers.com/index.php/2011/03/09/the-barefoot-debate-continues/

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know about a new website that was recently launched called SockDoc (http://sock-doc.com/). It is a site dedicated to injury prevention and treatment for runners, cyclists, & triathletes. It was started by Dr. Steve Gangemi, a chiropractic physician, competitive athlete, and proponent of minimalist footwear.

The site looks great and already has a good base of helpful information available. I am looking forward to seeing where it goes. Congratulations Dr. Gangemi on your launch!

I came across this company on the Pose Running homepage and wanted to see if anyone had experience with this company. JingaShoes.com. It looks to be pretty minimalist but it would be great to hear anyones experience.

Thanks,

Patton

Hi; I try to walk 3 to 4 miles a day and I've decided to find a pair of minimalist shoes because I have such a hard time finding shoes that don't hurt in one way or another. My normal shoe size is 11 with a width of 4E. All the shoes seem to be narrow and there is no selection of widths. What do I need to know to find a good pair?

I'm very lucky to live relatively near TR Treads so I loaded up the fam and headed there this morning. I walked in the store thinking Newtons, tried on the New Balance Minimus as well, then a pair of Evos caught my eye which led me to the Neo.

I got home and ran .5 in them and it felt really good. I'm looking forward to building up to some real miles in them. Sloooowly though.

If you have never heard of the Ecco Biom, I wrote a review a long long time ago here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2254847/running_barefoot_ecco_biom_and_minimilistist.html?cat=46

But the more important news is that Ecco seems o realize the Biom was heavy and clunky compared to what most minimal runners like to run in. With that I was contacted by some one inside Ecco who claims they are working on a more minimal Biom and a trail version for fall 2011 and spring 2012. Should be interesting to see how minimal they go, since the Biom had a low heel to toe drop but not a great ground feel.

My feelings are mixed whether these are entirely minimal. The fore-sole is thin, but the heal is a bit raised. Overall they score points with me regarding toe-box... widest ever and the most appropriately shaped I have found so far. They score points for comfort with <almost> no support. The insole is a bit raised in the heal but is removable. At this point, if you are looking for a shoe to wear to work (guys only, sorry ladies) this is a viable option if you can't find the Terra Plana Dharma's (the apparent standard choice as a work shoe for barefooters)

You can find these at REI if you want to try them on. I couldn't bring myself to order the Dharmas without trying them on.

Full text first impression is here. http://deviantrunner.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/work-shoe-for-barefooters/

Steve

I came across this very recent short thread on the Terra Plana Facebook page:

"Bryon Rossi: The Franklin's are the best 3 season boot I've ever owned. Do you recommend treating them with some sort of leather conditioner or protection?

"Terra Plana A water proofing spray for leather could further protect against cosmetic water damage but they have been water proofed."

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150099089918388&id=6625133387

Also, Earl Gray Toe put a post into the "Minimalist Snow Boots" thread on this forum, saying that Franklins does the job - see 1st and 3rd posts in this thread:

http://www.toesalad.com/node/172

Earl Gray Toe and jurado hall have also written positive reviews on this boot: http://www.toesalad.com/node/79

I find all these really helpful, as a barefoot-type waterproof boot is something that I really have to get.

Hi Everyone!,

Happy to be connect with my tribe.

I have a long-ish back-story, so I will just be writing a little bit at a time, and updating it if anyones is reading.

Greg