For a few years now I’ve had a growing curiosity about minimalist (aka barefoot or zero-drop) footwear.
If you’re not familiar with this stuff, here’s the basic idea:
these types of shoes attempt to provide a ‘barefoot’ or as close to barefoot experience under the premise that our feet function best when they’re allowed to go through their most natural function.
The goal is to allow the feet, and the entire body that’s stacked onto of them, to function as if shoes weren’t there WHILE still providing the shoe benefits of protecting our feet from harm and providing extra traction.
There’s numerous ways this type of shoe attempts to reach the goal. Here’s the most common: minimal shoe sole thickness so that we feel the ground variations under the shoe, no heel lift (i.e zero-drop), little to no rigidity so the shoe allows maximum foot flex, and a wide toe box so that the toes can naturally splay outward when the foot is squished by the weight of the body.
Earlier today I hiked a pretty intense 8.5 mile roundtrip hike with 2,500 feet of elevation change. My feet were sore AF by the end and are still tender many hours later. On both the ascent and descent I kept wondering about minimalist hiking boots and if they would be as good, better, or worse than my standard hiking boots.
You know me, I love experimentation and learning via direct experience. Or in other words, I love to fuck around and find out. :)
I’m researching minimalist hiking footwear and feel eager to give it a shot. Last year I already decided I’ll slowly transition my casual and racquetball footwear to minimalist models by ‘wearing out’ what I currently own and replacing them with something more like what I described above.
Over the years, I’ve run in Vibram fivefinger and love it; they’re my preferred running footwear. The minimalist sneakers and sandals I now own are some of the most comfortable shoes I own. Which is all to say, the odds are looking heavily in favor of the hiking boots and gym shoes being a great experience when I’m ready to invest in them.
We’ll see. So far so good. I’m very excited to continue transitioning to minimalist footwear. I encourage you to dive into google and look into it for yourself, and feel free send me any questions. I’d be happy to share whatever I can to be helpful.