Barefoot shoes are trendy after years of mockery. Do they work?

I’ve tried the “barefoot” shoes and wasn’t a fan due to the barely there sole while spending my days on unnatural and unforgiving surfaces. Vivo Barefoot may be fine while walking on dirt or grass, but on concrete, it’s not fun.

I do really like the wide toe box of these types of shoes. The article touches on this a little, but I’m very happy some brands have recognized this issue and moved to a more balanced middle ground.

I’ve been wearing Lems for a few years now, and recently tried some Altras as well. Having a wide toe box makes them feel like slippers, it’s great. My whole life my feet felt squished, even in wide shoes… which they don’t make the right part of the shoe wide. Even with the Lems, they have 3 widths for the lasts, and I find the widest to be the most comfortable. The next step down starts to feel restrictive.

The side effect of this is that now all my older shoes are uncomfortable and my options when looking for new shoes has been drastically reduced.

My anecdata: I've been wearing barefoot shoes for the better part of a decade now. I switch between Vibram FiveFingers (the first "toe shoes") and Vivobarefoot. The five fingers combined with toe spreaders improved my toe splay after around 12 months. Fixing my toe splay had a big impact on my balance, which then in turn had a big impact on my core strength. Once I realized what core strength was, I was able to start correcting my APT from sitting in a chair all day. None of this was my original goal, just a pleasant side effect.

Another side effect is most of my socks are Injinji toe socks. Honestly might like these more than the shoes. Zero blisters even while backpacking. The big negative has been when I have to dress up. I have a couple of wide toe-box shoes but the good looking ones all seem to taper. I'm hoping maybe this "resurgence" can give us a few more companies making these and potentially a few new styles that I can wear to a wedding.

Got a few pairs of VFFs before finding the right fit. It's a bit trickier than shoes. A year later I started running without them. Few years more and I just stopped using them. For about 14 years now I've not touched them, just running completely barefoot. Never intend to run with shoes again. It's totally worth the initial blisters every spring, for a few weeks until the soles callus up.

Running step mechanics are quite different with shoes. It's plain obvious to me now, why so many people have foot/leg problems with them when running frequently. All that said, shoes were always brutal for me, just to walk in from early on, until I learned that 4e widths existed.

Also gets a bit annoying having cops stop you over and over. At least the ones where I live finally stopped a few years ago.

It's time to link again the old article by pg: https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

imagine these but for hands