GEAR HUB
Going barefoot was just one piece of a puzzle.
A few months into the pandemic, I noticed how badly my shoulders ached after sitting at my desk. So I tried standing. I got adjustable risers for my desks at work and at home, but my shoulders still ached. Eventually I wondered if the problem began with my feet.
I’d been wearing Danskos for nearly 15 years. The stiff European shoes had ample support, which helped me through pregnancies and beyond. But now, especially at a standing desk, my posture felt off.
My brother and sister-in-law mentioned to me that minimalist shoes helped with some of their foot issues, so I kicked off my shoes at work one day and stood for as long as I could. I didn’t have a lot of hope for success. It had been years since I’d gone barefoot because a foot injury in my teens eventually left my hip and leg prone to achiness.
First steps
For more information about minimalist shoes, check out these sites:
The Running Clinic, therunningclinic.com/minimalist-index
The Foot Collective, instagram.com/thefootcollective
REI’s Expert Advice, rei.com/learn/expert-advice/basics-of-barefoot-minimalist-running.html.
But I stood barefoot for hours, and I liked it. So I kept doing it.
I could stand here all day and point to my happy feet, but I wanted to learn more about the structural benefits of walking like humans were intended to, so I asked my chiropractor, Dr. Sandy Sachs with Live Well SLO. He’s worn minimalist shoes since 2009 and said his motivation came from the book Born to Run, like many people at the time, plus his background in human performance.
“I did a deep dive into foot anatomy, function of the feet, and purpose of shoes,” he said over email, noting that there are 26 bones in each foot. “That means 52 bones of the 206 bones in your body are in your feet—25 percent of all your bones.”
As our foundation, he said, feet need to do two opposite things: be flexible and mobile, and be rigid during different phases of gait.
“It’s hard to find one shoe, but for someone who wants to support how the body works, minimalist shoes can be the right fit,” he said. “On my feet all day, I find I do better in terms of energy and endurance and less musculoskeletal achiness when I wear shoes without a heel (zero drop).”
Such shoes probably aren’t for everyone, but for anyone interested in trying, Sachs recommends common sense and progressing slowly.
“The amazing thing about our body is that it is resilient and ever adapting,” he said. “Given time and common sense, a minimalist shoe can be life-changing for some.”
After increasing my tolerance for standing without arch support or padding, I bought a pair of Xero Shoes in 2022. Xero is just one brand among many, but I liked their look and the variety of styles.
All minimalist shoes typically have little to no arch support, wide toe boxes, and low or zero drop (meaning the heel is not raised much if at all). The soles are also relatively thin and more flexible than typical athletic shoes. The idea is to allow the foot to touch the ground evenly and move as naturally as possible without constraining the toes.
I have two styles of Xero Shoes: a Mary Jane for everyday and work wear and an athletic shoe that I walk, hike, and do archery in.
Occasionally my injured foot will ache after standing all day, but overall, my feet feel stronger, I feel better balanced, and I don’t have the shoulder and neck aches I used to get at my standing desk.
After a year or so, I said farewell to my Danskos. I also got a pair of canvas Whitin shoes from Amazon. They’re inexpensive, nice looking, and fit the minimalist bill. I adjust the padding inside all my minimal shoes with Flat Socks, thin inserts with no arch support.
Sachs noted that to wear or not to wear barefoot-friendly footwear isn’t a black-and-white issue. Rather, the question is: “When and where can wearing minimalist shoes help with human performance and overall health?”
As he’s gotten older, he said, he wears orthotics for extra support and cushion when he runs.
“For patients, I will recommend wider toe-boxed shoes, more minimalist shoes, when either they present with a foot condition or are looking for a more comprehensive approach to fitness and performance,” Sachs said.
However, someone without much natural padding in their feet may not enjoy a minimalist shoe, he said. And someone who’s had chronic injuries may take more time to get used to the flatter, more flexible footwear.
For those who do step into a more barefoot-style shoe, they could notice fewer problems like bunions, plantar fasciitis, and hammer toes, Sachs said.
“With shoes, the more that we engineer them, the less our feet are able to do the work themselves, leaving us more exposed to potential chronic injuries and less able to adapt to the stressors of life,” he explained. “Working out with minimalist shoes allows us to ‘invite our feet to the workout,’ rather than having them hang out on the sidelines in a highly engineered shoe.”