It took a while to get my head around the barefoot vs barefeet discussion. If I got it right barefoot is simple, no constraint, light and no rise footwear. Barefeet is just bare feet not even socks.
So why did I end up here, well I used to walk everywhere in my hiking boots. Never got on with trainers or "smart/business" shoes. And truth to be told it got expensive to get a good pair of boots and then have to think about re-soling them within a year.
I've been to two good stores in the UK, where they measure you up for a pair of good hiking boots. The interesting thing is that both places said I had narrow feet and found that I've got two different sizes, 10 1/2 and 11, aka 45 and nearly 46. This probably explained my struggles with finding shoes and boots that fitted me well. (oh, I could have a good old rant about shoe manufacturers and their interpretation of shoe sizes, but that's for another post)
Though if my memory serves me right, when going to get sized up in Denmark as a child, at the local store, they said I had wide'ish feet and I've always felt very comfortable in shoes like ECCO and KEEN and other wise shoes.
My main pair hiking boots for years were Altberg and I've had a second pair of Hanwag's. Both started out brilliantly and solid pair. This is one thing I really like about barefoot shoes, you can feel the ground and gives you a good feed back on what you are walking on. Where traditional hiking boots you just stomp, stomp, stomp.
After a while I did notice that I "spilled" over the sole, especially on the outside of my foot/shoe. I had stretched the leather wider than the sole. So when on rocky terrain I could sometimes feel the stones hit the side of my foot.
This was the main reason why I was looking for something else to wear, as I clearly had wider feet and I want the freedom and it felt wrong to have that "aaaahhhh that's nice" and somewhat sore feeling everytime I took my shoes off.
So I wanted something light to be comfortable in and easy to put on and slip off. For some reason even before I started to search for new shoes I got an ad on my daily trawl of the internet, for a pair of shoes that just looked like they would suit my needs.
And for about £25 too, what could go wrong, well everything. Because I can't stop talking about the benefits of barefoot shoes wearing. After I read and watched everything I could about wearing barefoot shoes. So a pair of Saguaro was ordered and they were nice, light and very flexible.
Back then, about 7-8 years ago, most of the reviews and write up I found were about barefoot running, not walking and hiking. That didn't stop me, as I read more and more about the benefits like stronger feet, ankles and even better postures and less back pain.
All of them agreed that it was painful thing to do, because everyone learned the hard way to take it easy when switching from "normal" shoes to barefoot shoes. Don't go straight to running, or in my case walking, your normal distances, build it up.
Therefore I took it easy, first around the house, then out to the bin, then short dog walk, a little more everyday. Even with that slow approach I could feel my muscles in my feet especially, being sore after a walk.
You also have to relearn how to walk, shorter and lighter stride and not on the heel, more on the mid and front foot. It really gave you this ground feel, not to go all hippy dippy, but it was suddenly nice to walk again especially out on the moors away from tarmac and concrete, flat and boring surfaces.
Yes, there were a few times when not thinking about how and where I walked, which is something you need to do at first, I stepped on a stone and it did smart. You do get used to the rough under food and the thin soles rather fast, though I had an advantage, us Danes do have Lego proof feet.
Though when you learn how to walk again, you don't notice certain things that you had lost and spent a whole day tearing down the house find. Felt not a thing the whole day.
In the 7-8 years of walking in barefoot shoes, my bad knee haven't moaned at all, heck even after I started barefoot running last year, nothing. My lower back feels as strong as when we did pilates years back and haven't moaned either.
I think it took me about 6-9 months before I started to forget to think about walking and would happily go out for longer and rougher walks, without wearing my normal hiking boots.
I did twist my ankle once while wearing barefoot shoes for about 2 years. The only way I could have avoided it would to have ice spikes on the sole. I was out walking Tilley and I wasn't paying fully attention to what she was up to. So when she changed direction to go and greet Elvis the sheep, I had to do hop and skip to avoid stepping on her. This resulted in me landing on a wet and muddy tree root.
I got that tell-tell shooting pain where you just know that the ankle would be out of action for at least a day and you have to be gently on it for a few more days.
As I started to walk back to the house the pain started to disappear and I only had to have a cuppa, not leg up and ice packs, upon our return. The next day I didn't even feel a twinge in my foot.
I'm very sure, that if I haven't been walking in barefoot shoes for a few years beforehand and had build up my strength in my foot and ankle, and worn my normal hiking boots, this wouldn't have been the result.
The biggest draw back with going barefoot, is that all your footwear have to be exchanged, as you start to build up muscle in your feet, your foot get wider. It feels weird to be walking in normal shoes again and can be rather painful too.
2-3 years into wearing only barefoot shoes, we went out on a hike that needed boots (it was just before I got the VIVO Tracker Forester ESC). After 4 hours with my Altberg's on, my feet were killing me, when I took the boots off it wasn't a nice and a relaxing feeling, it was painful.
After the obligatory post cup of tea after a hike, nature called, and it was the most painful walk I've done in my life, everything had cramped up in my feet. I've had the VIVO Barefoot boots on for longer and harder walks since, without any pain, the only thing that happened was that my toe got a bit colder.
Now, there's no excuse to not wearing barefoot shoes, more and more companies are making barefoot shoes. Sometimes they do a zero drop and wider toe box version of their normal shoes, which is a good place to begin and then as you get used to barefoot walking, you can go thinner and thinner soled. Various companies are also make children or business versions now.
The only gripe really is that they are often expensive, but VIVO Barefoot shoes are doing revivo.com a second hand store for old pre-loved shoes along with a repair and re-newing service, but their shoes do last much longer than the Saguaro ones I have.
