Barefoot & Minimalist Shoes

BAREFOOT SHOES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

• Roomy, foot-shaped forefoot which allows your toes to spread. Traditional shoes squeeze the toes at the front. Toe spread is important to improve balance and overall foot flexibility/foot function especially around the big toe joint. This can impact on ankle/knee/hip/back alignment.
• Flat soles (‘zero-drop’ from heel to toe). By having no heel height differential, posture improves. We were not designed to move wearing a shoe with a heel. Even traditional trainers have 8-12mm heel height. Adapting to this ‘zero-drop’ can take a while as your foot and lower leg ‘re-learns’. The achilles tendon and calf in particular can feel a little strain as they work a longer range of motion in the flat shoe, having grown use to the heel.
• Fully flexible upper to allow natural foot movement. A good barefoot shoe should be able to be rolled into a ball. In this way, you can be sure they will affect your biomechanics (ie the way you move) as little as possible, allowing the foot to condition and strengthen naturally.
• Flexible ‘thinner’ outsoles provide grip whilst allowing the foot to ‘connect’ with the ground. We are designed to receive feedback from the surfaces on which we move. This helps our balance and reaction to changes in the surface. Our feet have 200,000 nerve endings to help this but traditional shoes with thick, stiff outsoles prevent this working effectively.

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