Questions & Answers

I am new to these types of shoes and would like to try some. Any recommendations for me with EE wide feet?

Anybody with EE width have any luck with this shoe line?

Anyone tried the TrekSport yet? This one intrigues me quite a bit... the sole of the Trek married with the upper of the KSO seems like a match made in heaven to me. In theory, they would work great for hiking and backpacking.

Damien suggested I join the conversation over here. He said there were some other "moms on the board". Hello all other moms.

I also am a mom. Not a runner, not a marathoner. Just a mom who's barefoot in the kitchen. (Though in the winter I wear sheep skin slippers with warm socks, and long undies, sweaters.... it's cold in Maine.)

I'm also a blogger, homeschooler, photographer, homemaker, hiker and backpacker (those last two I thought pertained to the group of people hanging out here).

I LOVE hiking in my vibram 5 fingers and after three seasons and a few repaired seams I think I'm due for an update this spring. Though I've put in my official request (Damien handles all the shoe purchases around here) for a pair of Altras. I've been eyeing Damien's with envy.

So that's me. Would love to meet other moms who like minimalist.

Feel free to check out my blog where I talk homeschooling, creativity, homemaking, nature & the outdoors and family life in general.

http://fimby.tougas.net/

PS. that's earth and kid friendly nail polish from Sun Coat in the photo.

Hello everyone! I'm here to seek some answers! I was just recently introduced to the concept of barefooting not too long ago and found it intensely intriguing. But my question lies with what exactly is possible, and how soon can I achieve that?

I'm on a time frame because of a trip I'm making within the next year and a half. I'm walking 820km (510miles) across some of the most gorgeous, yet brutal land in canada to try and raise Nature and Wildlife Conservation Awareness.

Since I've noticed Barefooting, I've wanted to introduce a new factor to this trek. That being to do the entire trip barefoot!

I am a little skeptical on just how quickly my body will be able to acclimatize to such grueling conditions without much time to prepare.

Is there anyone out there that knows if - considering my time period - it is possible to do this trip barefoot?

As you may have guessed, my name is Alex. I'm here for a few reasons, but mainly for assistance.

In about a year and a half I'm going to be filming a documentary on Nature and Wildlife Conservation up here in Canada where I'll be hiking in a straight line from Edmonton, AB to Vancouver, BC (with a 20km leeway on either side of the line). For those who don't know where either of those places are, they're both located on the west side of Canada. The distance between them is roughly 820km (510miles).

I've just recently come into contact with a few barefoot communities and really wanted to give it a shot. However, I wanted to integrate this walk of mine with barefooting! I'm just not quite sure how quickly my body can acclimatize to the stresses that I'll face during this trip.

So! You'll see a few topics popping up everywhere on this forum by me asking some questions, the more help the merrier!

I'm sure I'll get to know (and perhaps meet) some great people on these boards!

I switched to minimalist and barefoot running after sustaining a host of stress fractures and soft tissue damage that affected both legs and feet. The damage took me out of physical activity for quite some time. Even once the stress fractures healed, when I tried going back to running, my body made it pretty clear to me that it didn't like what I was doing. Well over two years after I first was injured, I saw a copy of ChiRunning in my local B&N. That put me on to running more efficiently.

Not long after that, I started playing around with my footwear. I started on my quest searching for the "best shoe". Ultimately, my research led me to minimalist and barefoot styles of running. The day I wore my first minimalist shoe, a pair of black Vibram Five Fingers KSOs, was the first time in nearly three years that my feet and legs didn't hurt after walking around for a mere half hour. Since then, I've somewhat moved away from using VFFs for running (although I love using them for hiking), but that first step got me hooked. As I'm an information junkie and a total gear head, I'm always interested in the latest studies done and products developed in the barefoot and minimalist running world.

This site is pretty rad! I am involved in many forums and just can't seem to get enough of barefoot and minimal shoe running talk!

I often review products on my blog so I will try and transfer some of those reviews here.

A bit about me, I am a mother to 4 lovely boys and wife to my barefoot running, kilt wearing, super genius hubby. I have been running barefoot since June of 2009 and am testing out shoes this winter since I am not a fan of barefoot running in the Iowa winters!

I live in the bay area. Thankfully zombierunners is between home and work so I no longer have to get all my minimalist shoes mail order.

I started to experiment with minimalist shoes in 2003, and have been wearing them exclusively since 2005 (around town, trail running, backpacking/hiking). I have never been a barefooter... I never was able to build up my feet so they were comfortable without some sort of protection.

I like shoes with large footboxes. I mostly live in Inov-8 shoes, though I wear vivobarefoot (Aqua and Dharma) when I need to be a bit more dressed up around town. I have a pair of vibram five finger (original model) that I have used one and off over the last few years. I don't love them or hate them. I am not sure if this community counts them as minimalist, but the inov-8 flyroc 310 http://www.verber.com/mark/outdoors/gear/reviews/inov-8-310.html are my favorite shoes.

My name is Mark and am running in VFF and Feelmax for 2 years now. This year am planing to start barefoot too, when the temperature will be right.

B.R. Mark

i am a freshman in hgih school from iowa.

I have been running on and off for 2 years now. I have always had bad shin splints. I only started barefoot running about 2 weeks ago. So I can't say to much. But so far I love it.

Hello from NC. I have been running for years, but I have been running barefoot since Dec. 2009 and haven't looked back since. Typically, people are not taught how to run. It supposed to be natural, right? Instinctual even, right? I think so... to some degree. It seems to become less natural as we add more and more gadgets and FOOTWEAR. :D

Anyhow, my gait has changed dramatically over the last year and I am considering adding some minimal footwear to the equation. Finding the right footwear has been the challenge. Decide of footwear too soon and you miss out on all the possibilities that seem to be looming for release this spring. So I wait...

Looking forward to lurking around here. Thanks.

So, thinking about the directory, what kind of standards should we have regarding what goes in there? This is a tricky question because minimalist footwear can be a lot of different things. Some are stiffer than others (New Balance 101), some have a foam midsole (GoLite), some have a raised heel (Inov-8), etc. I have been wondering if it would be worth coming up with a list of specifications that we use that must be met in order to consider adding something to the directory...

Any thoughts on this?

Last year I bought a pair of ballet slippers thinking they'd be a great minimalist shoe for work. I got the widest width the dance store had, but after wearing them for about 5 minutes, knew they would not work for me. They were way too narrow.

I've been thinking of deconstructing them and use the materials for something that might work but I've been really hesitant to rip apart a brand new pair of shoes. Last night I finally did it.

I ripped out the stitches holding the sole together, then peeled off the inner and outer leather soles, along with the thin lining between them. I was left with the cotton-lined leather upper.

I cut a much wider outsole from scrap suede. I used my huaraches as a last of sorts. I wrapped the leather upper around my huarache sole and glued the new outsoles to the upper. I cut felted wool the same size as my huaraches and glued those inside the new slippers as liners.

They're perfect now! So comfortable and warm. Just what I needed to head outside on these cold winter days.

(Note, the new leather outsole is still very narrow, but the upper and inner sole provide the width. I started out with a full-width sole and the shoes looked pretty ridiculous. It might have looked better with a dark sole, but all I had available was the light colored leather.)

First pic is what the original ballet slippers look like from a mfg photo. You can see how narrow the soles are! 2nd pic is my new sole. Much wider than the original, but a bit narrower than the upper to keep the ballet slipper look. 3rd pic is the comfy soft wool inner. Last pic is me wearing my new comfy wide slipper.

Started running about 1.5 years ago...beat up my body a good deal and now looking to transition into some lower profile shoes. Wish I found running before my late 30's...alas...

Hello all,

Glad to find a cool place on the web to talk minimal shoes. I first started running barefoot or barefootish about 3 years ago. After dealing with a number of maladies of the feet and being prescribed orthotics, the thought occurred to me that maybe it was weak feet. I set about to strengthen my feet.

The rest is history.

I currently run in minimal shoes because I like the protection offered by a layer of rubber or leather. I've made several pair of moccasins that I use for running. Why buy five-fingers when sub $20 mocs will do?

Thanks for a great site! I can't wait to dig in and read more!

Cheers,

Mark H

Ok, so we have managed to kick-start a new community resource here. I would love to know what you guys would like to see to make this the BEST resource, and community for barefoot/minimalist footwear enthusiasts. Anyone have suggestions?

Glad to see this community spring up and hope it grows well. I'm a relatively new runner - I just started in the fall of '09. I was only a couple months in before I started getting pain in the front of my legs just below the knees. I went searching for info on proper running form and came across the idea of barefoot being a means to that end. I tried it and have never looked back (have never had any pain since either). I do currently have some VFFs that I use for my longer runs, cold days, or bad surfaces but prefer barefoot otherwise. I have yet to incorporate the minimalist theme into my other footwear - but I am someday going to find some that I can wear to work and other public places without looking wacky.

Hi everyone! So excited about this new site - I"m looking for a good pair of walking shoes for college, and this is exactly what I needed - all the info in one place!