
How We're Wrecking Our Feet With Every Step We Take - kareemm
http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/
======
kemayo
I bought some Vibram Five Fingers recently, and I have to admit that they are
ridiculously comfortable, despite being essentially toe-socks with a thin-but-
strong sole. I've been walking around inner-city Saint Louis in them, over
broken glass and gravel, and my feet hurt less than when I was wearing my
previous lightweight walking shoes.

It's honestly a little weird, getting rid of all those things like arches and
padding that seem so necessary, and discovering that they're actually doing
nothing for you.

Edit: Of course, in a few weeks I'll have to switch back to big waterproof
boots for the winter. Alas.

~~~
jbarciauskas
Have you ever considered how necessary the "toe" aspect of them are? If the
problem is the sole, well fine wear something with a thinner sole. But then
you'd really feel like you're just wearing flip-flops or ballerina flats for
men. The genius of the Vibram Five Fingers in particular over all other
alternatives that meet the same end of improving your gait is that they look
ridiculous (read: distinctive). That's why they get all the press mentions
(possibly in addition to having a good PR firm) and that's why people wear
them: they start conversations. I'm not discounting the value you see in them,
but I'm curious if there were other similar products that you considered, and
if you find any particular value in the toe-sock nature.

~~~
Groxx
Quite important, actually, I'd bet. They keep your toes from toeing-in like
essentially every shoe does. Just look at how many people have bunions -
they're almost _exclusively_ caused by shoes, plus some genetic causes which
typically start _much_ later in life.

There's also a _very_ big difference in toe strength from having them be able
to move separately, and I've had a noticeable improvement in balance from
wearing them. And I'm pretty stable anyway. When your toes are stuck moving
together, they don't develop any ability to do so, and toes are pretty
important to walking / balancing.

(edited for toes instead of bunions, as I think it makes a better case)

------
bootload
_"... One of the lead researchers, Dr. Bernhard Zipfel, when commenting on his
findings, lamented that the American Podiatric Medical Association does not
'actively encourage outdoor barefoot walking for healthy individuals. This
flies in the face of the increasing scientific evidence, including our study,
that most of the commercially available footwear is not good for the feet'
..."_

Lots of expert & product placement in this article. I call a Sub ~
<http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

~~~
silentbicycle
Same here. This at least the third time I've seen this kind of article in the
last couple years, and that same brand of shoes has eventually been mentioned
each time. (I remember the articles because those shoes are _really ugly_.)

It's sneaky, because by even bringing the issue of running barefoot up, they
get to look like the pragmatic choice, unlike all those members of _the Evil
Shodding Conspiracy_.

~~~
kemayo
This article is from back in 2008, and does go through waves of popularity, so
you might have seen the same brand of shoes each time because it's this same
article each time. :)

~~~
silentbicycle
You're right - I missed the date. It's been different articles before, but the
time sounds about right.

------
hugh3
I remain skeptical of anyone trying to tell me that I'm suffering from a
horrendous disease for which there are no symptoms. The whole thing smacks of
pseudoscience.

Back problems are very common. Digestive problems are very common. Foot
problems? Not so much. Most old people have feet which are still perfectly
functional and comfortable, and the shoes they wore most of their lives are
less comfortable than shoes are now. Even women who have spent most of their
lives in high heels do not, for the most part, seem to suffer from serious
foot problems.

So where's the horrendous downside, that I seem to be missing, of shoes?

~~~
joe_the_user
The argument you give could easily be made about cigarettes or any other well
known health hazard. "I can't see what's bad about X, many people X all their
lives and they seem fine".

~~~
hugh3
Not really, the increase in lung disease due to cigarettes was very
noticeable.

These supposed foot problems which supposedly 80% of 40-year-olds have are
apparently invisible and symptomless. How is this different to someone telling
me that my aura is misaligned or that I have too many body thetans?

~~~
joe_the_user
Huh,

The increase in lung disease is not noticeable in the sense that you could not
connect cigarettes and lung disease without scientifically studying it. In the
1920's, you'd find claims cigarettes helped the lungs.

I'm not certain about the direct shoe-body-misalignment thing. But I know
physical therapists can measure habitually shortened or stretched muscles in
people and this is a condition that will often cause physical problems as a
person gets older even the person doesn't notice anything at the moment of
measurement.

See: [http://www.amazon.com/Muscles-Function-Florence-Peterson-
Ken...](http://www.amazon.com/Muscles-Function-Florence-Peterson-
Kendall/dp/0683045768) The standard reference for physical therapists.

And do people get up votes these days on HN for taring any opponent with over-
the-top New Age rhetoric?

------
sonnym
Single page: <http://nymag.com/print/?/health/features/46213/index1.html>

------
WalterBright
I find it curious that it's impossible to find simple leather moccasins to
buy. Most of these "barefoot" shoes seem way overengineered and overpriced.

~~~
kemayo
Moccasins certainly do meet many of the same goals as these shoes. But the
area they're missing in is having enough of a sole to feel confident while
walking through an urban area. There's enough random broken glass on the
ground that I wouldn't entirely feel comfortable knowing that there's just
leather between me and it.

I'll agree that the "barefoot" shoes are on the more expensive side, but I'd
expect that's a function of being in a relatively niche market.

------
slackline
I started running regularly in VFFs. Previously I didn't run much at all.
After a couple months I started running in my old sneakers (I forgot the VFFs
when traveling). The transition back was unpleasant (ie knee and ankle pain),
to the point where I kicked off my sneakers and ran barefoot on the treadmill,
which stopped the pain. This doesn't imply the VFFs are better for me, as the
reverse transition could have caused pain as well. FWIW I'll probably buy
another pain though.

------
crazydiamond
I had a similar experience as the guy who began to play tennis barefoot. In
the 80's I was a long distance runner, had innumerable injuries running with
best running shoes money could buy, and expensive orthotics.

Finally, i began to run barefoot and never had an injury again. Barefoot
running also encourages you to land your feet softly on the ground, in
addition to the major benefit of not weakening tendons and ligaments etc by
supporting/raising them.

------
julius_geezer
Barefoot walking is great. But I live in a climate where we get a snow or two
most winters, and enough cold weather even without snow that a Zulu might be
willing to risk his pedal health and put on shoes. I live in city that has
broken glass on its concrete pavements, and plenty of stones on its park
trails. I think I'll keep my shoes for now.

~~~
tomjen3
If you haven't do try to walk barefoot in the snow, just a couple of steps.

After that you will be glad you did it, and you will be glad that you have a
pair of shoes.

~~~
pyre
Why do you shoes need to have soles though, vs being something like a
moccasin?

------
phr
I spent this spring and summer walking about an hour a day, first in Vibram
Five-fingers. I have a funny twist in my step on the left side which wore
holes in a couple toes in the first 30 miles, so I switched to cheap Wal-Mart
sneakers (it's hard to find ones with no arch-support), and eventually flip-
flops. Once I got used to the flip-flops, I started taking them off on a
smooth asphalt road that climbs a gentle hill near my house. I keep an eye out
for obvious dirty spots, and figure several hours of Eastern Washington summer
sun probably kills most of the really nasty stuff. Once my feet toughened up a
bit, I added another stretch of asphalt that's quite a bit rougher.

My feet feel better than they have in years, and I now seem to have arches!
Both feet were pretty flat, but I now have a nice arch on the right side, and
some on the left.

------
Chris_Newton
For what it's worth, I think MBTs are great. I first tried them a few years
ago, before they were trendy and available in mainstream stores, while I was
having some therapy for a recurring knee problem. My physio had suggested that
the cause might be turning out more with one foot than the other, and since
MBTs encourage a better walking action, they seemed like they might help.

I can't say whether it was the specialist physio exercises or the MBTs that
did more to help my immediate problem at the time, but I can vouch for many of
the claims that MBT marketing tends to make. They do reduce that nasty impact
on each step (which you probably don't notice until you have another problem,
but then you _really_ do). They did encourage me to walk with both feet
aligned properly, and on the odd occasions that I've had a similar problem
again over the years, switching back to MBTs for a while has rapidly cured it.
You definitely feel the more active use of certain muscle groups when you
first switch to them, but in my case I found that after using them for a few
days, all kinds of minor irritations that might be explained by relative
weakness/imbalance in those muscle groups started to clear up.

They _are_ expensive shoes, but if the pairs I've had are at all
representative, the quality means they last way longer than expensive-but-not-
that-expensive regular shoes anyway. I always have at least one pair in good
condition now, and at the first sign of any irritation in my legs (usually if
I haven't been doing much physical training for a few weeks and I'm getting
out of condition) on they go.

The only major downside I've found is that because of the curved sole, MBTs
aren't particularly comfortable to stand around in for extended periods. These
shoes are made for walking, not standing (or running/sports).

For the record, I have no commercial interest related to MBTs, I'm just a very
satisfied customer.

------
tomjen3
And if you don't wear shoes, you end up with cuts from glass and stones.

Pick the less of the evils.

~~~
hugh3
Glass and stones, thorns, various disgusting substances, surfaces that are too
hot, surfaces that are too cold, and my personal favourite, bees.

Too much time spent walking outside barefoot as a kid led me to step on a lot
of bees. Get stung by enough bees and eventually you'll probably develop a bee
sting allergy, like I have. Now, the next bee I step on could kill me.

Anyway, there's a lot of things on the ground which suck in one way or
another. Our ancestors invented shoes for a reason, and it wasn't because Nike
marketing told them to.

~~~
staktrace
> Our ancestors invented shoes for a reason, and it wasn't because Nike
> marketing told them to.

Agreed, but only partially. Our ancestors invented shoes because they provided
a benefit, and continued using shoes because of that benefit. What they didn't
(and couldn't really) know was the cost that came along with it. Now we have
the science to find out exactly what that cost is. Ignoring that cost isn't
going to make it go away.

That being said, if, with full knowledge of the costs and the benefits, you
decide to wear shoes anyway, then that's your choice and I can respect that.

------
brianbreslin
as someone who switched to vibrams 6 months ago, and not having been an avid
runner before (I do play soccer a lot) due to knee and ankle pains from heel-
strike running, I've noticed distance running has become infinitely more
enjoyable than it used to. That aside. I think people are missing the point of
this article. The point is more about the WAY we are walking/running than what
we are wearing. The solutions out there (thick soled running/walking shoes)
are merely trying to alleviate the pressure caused by this poor WAY of walking
(heel strikes, etc).

The fact is, when we were kids running around barefoot, we ran on the balls of
our feet, because that is the instinctual way to run.

~~~
Mz
_The fact is, when we were kids running around barefoot, we ran on the balls
of our feet, because that is the instinctual way to run._

Funny, I belong to some autism boards. "Toe walking" is considered indicative
of ASD -- ie it is viewed as pathological. Makes me wonder if that view is
partly a product of a culture where we are so used to shoes that we simply
don't know how to walk/run without them. My oldest son sometimes runs the
trash down barefoot -- roughly a quarter of a mile -- and he runs on the balls
of his feet when he is barefoot. I have read this is the norm with barefoot
runners.

~~~
brianbreslin
well is toe walking like walking on your tip toes? thats not the same as
walking on your balls of your feet/forefoot.

interesting though, i'd never heard of a link between autism and "toe
walking," but i suspect you are right, this is one of those situations where
society has shoe-style-walking so heavily ingrained in our minds that we see
something else (even if its natural) and think something must be wrong.

~~~
Mz
Oh, I'm sure it _can_ be indicative of something. But I have two ASD kids and
they are doing well in part because I was careful to not pathologize every
little thing they did. Lots of things "normal" people do get viewed as
pathological once someone qualifies for some label or other. I think that is
extremely harmful.

I really can't say for sure what they mean by "toe walking". I filter out a
lot of what gets said as "noise".

------
DrStalker
A Terra Plana store opened up near me so I went in to try the vibro barefoot
shoes, since I needed new footwear.

I bought a pair as soon as I tried them on because they are so immensly
comfortable; it feels less like a shoe and more like a snug, high-tech sock.
Any health benefits are a bonus. (It may have improved my posture slightly,
but I never paid attention to this before so can't be sure)

------
expeditious
Long article. Would've liked to see video clips showing, "walk like this",
and, "instead of this".

------
joe_the_user
I got a pair of super-flimsy canvas shoes for $20 from Payless Shoes on Market
street two weeks ago. I've noticed that my calves aren't sore anymore and I
have generally more energy.

So the solution can be pretty easy.

~~~
hugh3
Counterpoint: when I walk six hours in my flimsy canvas Converse, my feet hurt
a lot. When I walk for six hours in my fancypants Saucony running shoes, they
don't.

I could try walking around for six hours in my bare feet, but I'm pretty sure
I'd slice my foot open on something.

~~~
c0riander
I'm not sure how flimsy Converse are, actually. The top of the shoe is canvas
and flexible, sure, but bending the sole (at least on mine, which are
relatively new) is pretty difficult, and that's what impedes "proper" foot
motion. I get pain if I walk a long time in Converse, as well, but for me I'm
pretty sure it's because the toe box in them is rather narrow and doesn't let
me spread my toes enough. When life calls for sneakers, I usually pick other
shoes -- but sometimes, vanity wins.

For a really flimsy canvas shoe, I'm imagining something along the lines of
the cheapest Keds.

