hey all you idiots who think barefoot running is a "fad"

If minimalist shoes are superior to regular shoes, why is it that not one of the major companies have done away with their traditional shoes in favor of "superior" shoes? If they really are that much better, surely that would have a major market advantage.

Barefoot is ideal on the right surface with the right person. I have chronic knee issues. Used to run gads of miles in Nike Frees and Asics flats. Now, 1/3 of that mileage bothers my knee. It hurts less in regular stability trainers with arch supports added in. Is barefoot ideal for me? Hell no, not anymore.

Not that I'm taking sides, but Nerp it's quite clear that more companies are coming out with shoes that are somewhat more minimal than the traditional trainers of today.

nerp wrote:

Barefoot is ideal on the right surface with the right person. I have chronic knee issues. Used to run gads of miles in Nike Frees and Asics flats. Now, 1/3 of that mileage bothers my knee. It hurts less in regular stability trainers with arch supports added in. Is barefoot ideal for me? Hell no, not anymore.

You are free to make your own decisions about your health, as long as you have insurance so that the rest of us can pick up your tab. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

Just be sure you are making an informed decision, which is not the same as the "obvious" decision.

They don't do away with traditional running shoes because the majority of their market is uneducated and looking for aesthetics over functionality. Also, people are resistant to change, and the marketers know that it is a lot easier to just keep updating models.

But like someone said, companies are now producing more minimalist shoes; my guess would be because it is becoming harder, even for the recreational jogger, to be uneducated about the benefits of barefoot/minimalist running.

My question for the conventional running shoe supporters would be: why are running shoes not shaped anything like the human foot? (our feet do not taper in at the mid-foot) There is no method to this madness, besides the fact that it will market better to people that want to look good.

This whole argument ended when the first person said "man was meant to run barefoot, but man was also not meant to run on pavement"

end of discussion. You can go barefoot for soft stuff, but shoes for pavement or courses with a bunch of rocks etc.

The Waterboy wrote:

This whole argument ended when the first person said "man was meant to run barefoot, but man was also not meant to run on pavement"

end of discussion.

I hear this a lot.

Assuming you believe in evolution, and that human evolution happens over millennia, can you explain where man was "meant to run"?

Go back 500 years, or 50,000. Where is the (natural) surface that you think is easier on the feet than clean modern pavement?

SniperNoSniping wrote:

They don't do away with traditional running shoes because the majority of their market is uneducated and looking for aesthetics over functionality. Also, people are resistant to change, and the marketers know that it is a lot easier to just keep updating models.

But like someone said, companies are now producing more minimalist shoes; my guess would be because it is becoming harder, even for the recreational jogger, to be uneducated about the benefits of barefoot/minimalist running.

My question for the conventional running shoe supporters would be: why are running shoes not shaped anything like the human foot? (our feet do not taper in at the mid-foot) There is no method to this madness, besides the fact that it will market better to people that want to look good.

Yeah, stupid, uneducated world class runners like Geb, who keep doing his easy runs in Adidas´bulkiest trainer. If only he, and all other world class runners, had listened to you...

johnny langenwanker wrote:

"Barefoot running on the proper surface would probably produce the best times."

-Jack Daniels

Where can I order some of that proper surface?

I did a search on eastbay, but they don't seem to have any in stock.

Great! All I need is a ten mile soft grass loop or a 400m grass track and I'll be good to go!

Let me know where I can locate these perfect training surfaces to go along with my perfect training conditions.

"It becomes difficult to know who to believe when world famous athletes endorse running shoes and are quoted as saying that these are the finest you can buy...a lot of them will promote a brand of shoe while actually running in shoes which are nothing like the ones you would buy."

-Arthur Lydiard

Was there a point to putting this quote in there? It has NOTHING to do with your original subject line of barefoot running.

just as an aside - I'm lined up at the start of the Empire State Building Runup yesterday and the guy next to me is barefoot. An insane toe crushing bangup at the start, then 86 stories of steel stairs, barefoot, then to top it all off, a 30 meter dash over ice and through hail.

that guy needs to teach tough lessons.

Of course he did try to convert me.

"Of course he did try to convert me."

A Shiite Barefooter, of course.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3898468#ixzz1CoJWi2rf

Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday

http://www.letsrun.com/save

More importantly why do you care if anyone runs in shoes or not?

You apparently are part of the fad group that has latched onto the barefoot thing, but please for the love god leave the rest of us alone.

Stop your preaching for God's sake!

Just my take on the subject but spikes were designed to make you run faster, ie. increase turnover and such, so I find it hard to believe that the fastest possible way to run would be barefoot. Also, many elite athletes do speeddrills or other training barefoot because they know there are benefits to barefoot running but they still do the vast majority of their training with shoes on

you do realize that spikes are incredibly minimalist to best copy barefoot running. because the less shoe you have the faster you are going to run. granted the actually spikes in the shoes give you more traction when running at high speed on the track, basically they help out on the turns in fast races. so it doesn't really seem to make sense that spikes make you think barefoot running isn't the best way to run, it seems it would lead you to the exact opposite conclusion.

If you think that world class athletes spend a lot of time being educated on the running shoes they use, your an idiot. World class athletes are the best advertising aids that these companies have.

There is research about this stuff, I don't get why people argue. Even Al Sal and Ritz are starting to realize it.

The research is of dubious quality and is done by "true-believers."

SniperNoSniping wrote:

If you think that world class athletes spend a lot of time being educated on the running shoes they use, your an idiot. World class athletes are the best advertising aids that these companies have.

There is research about this stuff, I don't get why people argue. Even Al Sal and Ritz are starting to realize it.

And who is doing the research for the cushioned running shoe?

Ohhh, the people selling them.

So no research should be trusted as all the research is of dubious quality. Therefore, you cannot tout the research as evidence for why we should all run barefoot. QED

SniperNoSniping wrote:

And who is doing the research for the cushioned running shoe?

Ohhh, the people selling them.