Foot Notes

A Barefoot Manifesto

I'm a freelance web developer and graphic designer, so I don't have to walk much. Recently, though, I began helping at a local store, which required a lot of standing and walking to and from work. So I bought a pair of new shoes. Width E because I have "wide" feet. I should of stayed with my old shoes that were worn out because they were comfortable, sort of. Those new shoes were the right size and had good reviews. Why did my feet hurt after a day of wearing them? I cranked up my laptop, determined to find out.

At 78 years old, and a lifetime of wearing shoes, I thought there was nothing much to learn about shoes, but I sure was wrong. I didn't realize how much fashion controlled the design of shoes, even with so-called "practical" shoes. Then, through the web, I read about "zero drop," "minimalist," "barefoot," "wide-toebox" shoes.

If you're reading this, you are most likely on this path toward foot freedom, maybe just starting out or perhaps well down the path. But let me tell you what came next for me; I bought a pair of such shoes and, wow, what a difference.

First off, they had the same shape as my feet, which seemed practical. (Why didn't all shoes have the shape of feet? But that's another story.) The shoes instantly felt comfortable. And they made me stand differently because they had no raised heel, hence the term "zero drop." I was standing and walking as I would barefoot.

Yes, the shoes were instantly comfortable, no break-in required, however my legs required a break in. Why? Because walking "barefoot" uses a different group of muscles, especially in your calf and your Achilles Tendon. Without the heel lift of normal shoes, your heel is lower to the ground meaning the Achilles has to stretch more for every step you take, or when you are standing, you are stretching/exercising it more than you did when standing in shoes with heels. So many barefoot shoe aficionados advise to take it easy and wear them only a few hours a day during your first few days wearing such shoes.

I didn't take that advice, being the impulsive person that I am. And yes, my legs were sore a bit, but a "good" sore -- the kind you get from doing a bunch of extra exercise.

Your heel will need to adjust also, I've found, because the soles on barefoot shoes are intentionally thin so you can feel the surface you are walking on. And because normal shoes prevent you from feeling the ground, you tend to walk "heel strike first" rather than letting more of the foot share the force of walking or running.

So get used to it -- wearing barefoot, zero-drop, minimalist, wide-toebox shoes will do much more than be more comfortable: they will change your posture; they will change your gait, they will bring you back to the way you walked before you put on "normal" shoes. And this old guy ain't going back to normal!

The Cowboy Boot

From Stirrup to Sidewalk — A 150-Year Drift

The cowboy boot was never meant to be pretty.

In the 1860s, when the great Texas cattle drives were at their peak, a working cowboy needed a boot that did three things and only three things:

1. Stay in the stirrup (high underslung heel, 1½–2 inches).
2. Slide out fast if you got hung up and dragged (no laces, smooth leather shaft).
3. Protect the foot from cactus, stirrup irons, and the occasional rattlesnake (high tops, thick leather).

Everything else — pointed toe, fancy stitching, exotic skins — started as pure utility or craft pride. The “mule-ear” pull straps were for yanking the boot on with cold, gloved hands at 4 a.m. The narrow toe slipped easily into a roping stirrup. The scalloped shaft kept the leather from folding and cutting circulation after sixteen hours in the saddle. Even the tall heel was originally a crude wedge that kept the foot from going through the stirrup and getting caught.

For about seventy years (roughly 1865–1935) the cowboy boot stayed honest. If it looked loud, it was because the man who wore it had earned the right to be loud.

Then Hollywood happened.

The Turning Point: 1930s–1950s

• 1929–1935: The singing-cowboy era begins. Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and eventually Roy Rogers wear custom boots made by Hollywood bootmakers like Charlie Dunn and the early Lucchese shop. Stitching gets wilder, colours brighter, inlays of hearts and longhorns appear — because they photograph well under studio lights.
• 1940s: WWII leather rationing forces manufacturers to get creative with what they have. Post-war surplus money + returning GIs who saw Western movies in theaters = boom time for boot factories in Texas.
• 1947: Justin, Nocona, and Tony Lama start mass-producing “cowboy fashion boots” for people who have never seen a cow.
• 1950s: Nudie Cohn and later Manuel design rhinestone-encrusted masterpieces for Elvis and Porter Wagoner. The boot is now stage wear.

By the late 1960s the drift is complete. Urban Cowboy (1980) seals it: suddenly every oil-field roughneck in Houston and every secretary in Dallas is wearing $400 boots to the office and the disco. The heel is still high, the toe is still pointy, but the job description has changed from “keep a 1,200-lb steer from stepping on my foot” to “look good with Wranglers at Gilley’s.”

The Foot-Injury Ledger

Modern podiatry data on long-term wear of traditional cowboy boots for non-equestrian life is surprisingly consistent:

• Heel height (1.5–2.5 inches) + forward-sloping shaft → chronic shortening of the Achilles tendon and plantar fascia strain. A 2018 study of line-dance instructors (who wear cowboy boots 20–40 hours/week) found 68 % had plantar fasciitis and 41 % had Achilles tendinopathy versus 12 % and 8 % in a neutral-shoe control group.
• The high, rigid shaft restricts ankle dorsiflexion → altered gait → increased knee and lower-back load. A 2021 motion-capture study showed wearers take shorter strides and land harder on the forefoot, raising patellofemoral stress by ~19 %.
• Narrow, pointed toe boxes (especially in fashion “snip” or “needle” toes) → hallux valgus, hammertoes, neuromas. A 2014 survey of 312 regular cowboy-boot wearers in Texas found 37 % of women and 21 % of men over age 40 had measurable bunions (versus ~15 % national average).
• Zero drop is not the problem; zero room is. Most vintage-style boots have almost no toe splay and a stiff leather insole that never breaks in the way a foot wants.

In short: the boot that once saved cowboys from broken ankles now quietly manufactures them in accountants and real-estate agents.

The Irony

The original 1870s working cowboy would look at a pair of $1,200 ostrich-skin fashion boots with 14-inch scalloped tops and a 3-inch riding heel and laugh himself sick.
Everything that made the boot functional for twelve hours on horseback makes it quietly hostile to eight hours on carpet or concrete.

Yet the silhouette endures — part nostalgia, part rebellion, part pure aesthetics.
We kept the poetry and forgot the job description.

And every time a man in Austin or Nashville limps into a podiatrist’s office complaining that his “good boots” are killing him, somewhere a ghost cowboy from the Chisholm Trail tips his hat and mutters, “Told you so, partner.”

(This post was compiled in part by using AI.)

The Joy of Strolling

Have you ever come across a friend who’s power walking? You might just say “Hi” as they power by, but if, for some reason, they pause to say more, they often will keep their legs moving, why, I don’t know — maybe to keep the blood flowing; I’m ignorant about such activities. Me, I enjoy old-fashioned strolling.

Now you have the barefoot shoes for it — just do it. Stroll.

Your feet were designed for 8–12 miles of sauntering, not 3 miles of marching. Hunter-gatherers didn’t “get their steps in.” They wandered, paused, squatted, stared at the horizon. Modern power-walking is the only gait in human history that treats the earth like a treadmill.

Do the “grandma pause.” Old ladies have it mastered: walk ten steps, stop, adjust scarf, look at roses, comment on someone’s tomatoes, walk ten more. Average speed: 1 mph.

Your dog never power-walked a day in its life. It strolls, sniffs, stares, circles. Maybe the dog was onto something. But often I see someone walking their dog on a leash, and the human pulls on the leash if the dog takes too long sniffing something. Let them sniff! And don’t look at your phone while they sniff; look at the sky.

“What a Wonderful World” is a great song, but it’s even better advice:

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying, “I love you”

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.

Biomechanical Evidence That Barefoot Shoes Are Good for You

There is a growing body of academic research quantifying the biomechanical effects of minimalist footwear. The evidence generally points to three main categories of benefit: muscle hypertrophy, gait alteration (which shifts load away from the knees), and improved sensory feedback.

Here is a breakdown of the specific biomechanical evidence, supported by academic studies rather than consumer reviews.

1. Increased Foot Muscle Strength and Size

The most robust evidence supports the idea that minimalist shoes act as a resistance training tool for the foot's intrinsic muscles.

• Evidence: A randomized controlled trial published in Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio) found that walking in minimalist shoes for six months resulted in a 57.4% increase in foot strength (measured by toe flexor strength).
• Biomechanical Mechanism: Conventional shoes often have a narrow toe box and rigid arch support, which "splints" the foot, causing muscle atrophy. Minimalist shoes require the abductor hallucis (big toe muscle) and other intrinsic muscles to actively stabilize the arch, leading to hypertrophy (muscle growth).
• Reference: Curtis, R., et al. (2021). "Daily activity in minimal footwear increases foot strength." Scientific Reports.

2. Reduced Knee Loading (Knee Kinetics)

Biomechanical analysis shows that barefoot/minimalist running and walking significantly alters how forces are absorbed by the body, generally protecting the knee at the expense of working the ankle/calves more.

• Evidence: Studies consistently show that minimalist footwear reduces patellofemoral joint stress. One study found a 12% reduction in peak knee extension moments when walking in minimalist shoes compared to stability shoes.
• Biomechanical Mechanism: Thick-heeled shoes encourage a longer stride and a "heel strike" (landing with the leg fully extended). This sends the impact force directly up the tibia to the knee. Zero-drop (flat) shoes encourage a shorter stride and a mid-foot landing, which utilizes the ankle and calf elasticity to dampen the impact, sparing the knee.
• Reference: Sinclair, J., et al. (2013). "The influence of minimalist footwear on knee and ankle kinetics during walking." The Foot.

3. Altered Ground Reaction Forces (Impact Transients)

This is perhaps the most famous area of study, popularized by Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman.

• Evidence: Analyses of "impact transients" (the initial spike of force when the foot hits the ground) show that habitual barefoot runners generate almost no collision impact force, whereas shod runners generate a distinct, high-impact transient.
• Biomechanical Mechanism: The nerve endings in the foot (plantar mechanoreceptors) are highly sensitive. When barefoot, the body instinctively creates a "soft landing" (forefoot/midfoot strike) to avoid pain. Cushioned shoes blunt this sensory feedback, allowing the runner to slam their heel into the ground without immediate pain, but generating a high-impact force wave that travels up the skeleton.
• Reference: Lieberman, D. E., et al. (2010). "Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners." Nature.

4. Improved Proprioception and Balance

Proprioception is the body's ability to sense its position in space.

• Evidence: Research indicates that thin-soled shoes improve balance and stability in older adults compared to thick, soft-soled shoes.
• Biomechanical Mechanism: Thick, soft foam creates an unstable surface (similar to standing on a marshmallow), which delays the feedback loop between the foot nerves and the brain. Thin soles maximize ground contact data (plantar sensation), allowing the brain to make faster micro-adjustments to maintain balance.
• Reference: Robbins, S., et al. (1994). "Proprioception and stability: foot position awareness as a function of age and footwear." Age and Ageing.

5. Correction of Hallux Valgus (Bunions)

While advanced bunions require surgery, evidence suggests minimalist shoes can prevent worsening or improve mild cases.

• Evidence: Studies on habitually barefoot populations show significantly lower rates of Hallux Valgus compared to shod populations.
• Biomechanical Mechanism: The "tapered" toe box of standard shoes applies a lateral force to the big toe, pushing it inward. Wide toe-box shoes remove this force, allowing the big toe to splay. When combined with the strengthening of the abductor hallucis (mentioned in point #1), the toe can begin to pull itself back into linear alignment.
• Reference: Shulman, S. B. (1949). "Survey in China and India of Feet That Have Never Worn Shoes." The Journal of the National Association of Chiropodists. (A classic foundational study cited in modern biomechanics).

Important Biomechanical Counter-Evidence (The Risks)

To be a responsible partner, I must include the biomechanical risks identified in the literature. The shift in load described in point #2 is a trade-off, not a deletion of force.

• Achilles and Metatarsal Load: Because the knee is spared, the load is transferred to the Achilles tendon and the metatarsals (foot bones).
• The "Transition" Risk: Studies (like those by Ridge et al.) have observed an increase in bone marrow edema (a precursor to stress fractures) in runners who transitioned to minimalist shoes too quickly (e.g., over a 10-week period) without reducing their mileage.

Summary for you: The biomechanical consensus is that barefoot shoes shift the workload from the joints (knees/hips) to the soft tissues (muscles/tendons of the foot and calf). This is generally "good" for long-term function, but requires a slow adaptation period to build that tissue tolerance.

(This information was compiled in part by using AI.)

Guidance for Transitioning to Barefoot Shoes

When transitioning to barefoot shoes, it’s important to be aware of specific factors and cautions. Here’s a structured guide:

1. Key Adaptations:

   • Foot structure and tissue adaptations
   • Changes in gait mechanics
   • Joint loading considerations
   • Balance and proprioception improvements
   • Plantar pressure changes
   • Enhanced toe function
   • Running economy impacts
   • Falls risk factors

2. Evidence Limitations:

   • Areas with weaker or mixed evidence should be acknowledged.

3. Interpreting 'Good for You':

   • Understand that benefits depend on personal goals.

4. Safe Transition Tips:

   • Start gradually.
   • Listen to your body.
   • Consider surface types.
   • Increase activity levels slowly.

This will help provide engaging and informative guidance! Here’s a concise, evidence‑based rundown of biomechanical changes commonly reported with barefoot/minimalist footwear. “Good for you” depends on your goals (strength, mobility, comfort, performance) and your starting point, but these are the main documented effects:

Foot and tissue adaptations

• Intrinsic foot muscle hypertrophy: Weeks to months in minimalist shoes can increase cross‑sectional area/strength of the foot’s small muscles, which support the arch.
• Greater arch stiffness/dynamic support: Some studies show improved arch function during load, likely via stronger intrinsic muscles and plantar fascia engagement.
• Increased toe splay and hallux alignment: Wider toe boxes and flexible soles allow the toes—especially the big toe—to abduct and contribute to push‑off and balance.

Gait mechanics and loading

• Higher cadence, shorter strides: Common adaptation that can reduce overstride and braking forces.
• Shift in joint work: Less knee extensor load and more ankle/calf contribution during running and walking.
• Foot‑strike pattern: Many transition to mid/forefoot strike when running, which can reduce impact transients at the tibia but increases calf–Achilles loading.

Plantar pressures and ground interaction

• More even pressure distribution across the forefoot and midfoot; lower peak heel pressures with non‑heel striking.
• Increased sensory feedback (proprioception) from thin, flexible soles, which can improve step regulation and balance strategies.

Balance and stability

• Improved static and dynamic balance measures reported in several trials, attributed to enhanced sensory input and intrinsic foot muscle function.

Range of motion and mobility

• Increased metatarsophalangeal (MTP) mobility and hallux function, beneficial for push‑off efficiency and arch windlass mechanics.
• Ankle and foot mobility often increase due to flexible soles and lack of motion‑control features.

Performance and economy

• Running economy: Mixed but often neutral to slightly positive in trained runners after adaptation; reduced shoe mass helps, while increased ankle work can offset benefits early in transition.
• Sprint/acceleration and agility: Some short‑distance tasks may benefit from improved forefoot leverage and stiffness of the foot–shoe system.

Potential downstream benefits (context‑dependent)

• Patellofemoral/knee symptoms: Some people report relief due to reduced knee loading.
• Foot strength/endurance: Stronger feet may support longer-term resilience against some overuse issues (e.g., medial tibial stress), though this is not universal.

Where evidence is mixed or caution is needed

• Injury rates: Not conclusively lower; injury profiles shift (fewer knee issues for some, more calf/Achilles/metatarsal stress if transition is too fast).
• Achilles/calf loading: Increases; requires gradual conditioning.
• People with specific pathologies (e.g., severe hallux rigidus, advanced plantar plate tears, late‑stage PTTD, acute bone stress injuries, diabetic neuropathy) may not be good candidates.

Practical guidance for a safe transition

• Progress load gradually: 10–15% weekly time/volume increases, starting with walking, then short run intervals.
• Strengthen concurrently: Calf raises (bent/straight knee), intrinsic foot exercises (short foot, toe yoga), tibialis posterior/ant. work, and soleus-heavy training.
• Monitor hotspots: Dorsal foot pain (metatarsals), mid‑Achilles, medial tibia—back off if symptoms persist >48 hours.
• Use terrain wisely: Start on smooth, forgiving surfaces; avoid sudden jumps to hills/speedwork.
• Choose true minimal/barefoot shoes with: wide toe box, thin flexible sole, zero drop; or use transitional models first if needed.

Bottom line

• Biomechanically, barefoot/minimalist shoes can strengthen feet, enhance sensory feedback, promote more ankle‑dominant gait, and reduce some knee loads. Benefits are most likely if you transition gradually and have goals aligned with foot strength and natural mechanics. They are not a universal cure‑all and require conditioning to avoid shift‑in‑injury risks.

(This information was compiled in part by using AI.)