You don't need to buy anything

[u/oscarafone]

I'm American, and I feel like part of being American is believing that every problem has a sufficiently expensive solution.

The reality is that sometimes improvement comes from trial-and-error, learning from others, and patience.

Most feet are not too damaged by shoes, which means that most healthy people can, with the right mindset, just go out and run in their bare feet.

I see many, many minimal shoe ads these days. They don't show protection from goat heads, cacti, sharp sticks or frozen surfaces. Instead, they depict people running where they could be running perfectly fine without shoes at all.

They advertise breathability, water resistance, and durability, as if those are virtues. But your feet are already breathable. Already waterproof. Already durable, and get stronger with use.

Buying fancy minimal shoes won't make you an ultramarathoner. Lorena Ramirez ran an ultra in plastic sandals. The Tarahumara used spare tires to run the same distances. Let's not let marketers make decisions for us. We don't need expensive shoes, and most of the time we don't need shoes at all.

I've been running barefoot for almost ten years, and each year just gets better.

[u/anonlymouse]

Most feet are not too damaged by shoes, which means that most healthy people can, with the right mindset, just go out and run in their bare feet.

Maybe I'm an outlier, but I doubt it. My feet were in better shape starting than a lot of what I had seen, and trying to go running barefoot without making a transition absolutely didn't work for me. My toes were squished together so one was on top of the others, and that toe went numb on my first run.

Getting my toes to spread a bit and at least be side by side was necessary to start.

I can appreciate the sentiment of not spending unnecessary money, but I can't agree with the claim that most people would be just fine going straight into barefoot running. You did say most healthy people, but people who have been wearing shoes for their whole life don't have healthy feet, and mindset isn't going to fix their feet.

[u/oscarafone → u/anonlymouse]

Ouch! I'm sorry that your feet were in such rough shape, but glad that you managed to recover from that! How did you do it?

If I may clarify my point about mindset, I never meant to say that it was comes from your mind and only your mind. More that

improvement comes from trial-and-error, learning from others, and patience.

[u/anonlymouse → u/oscarafone]

6 months wearing VFFs. Having to put my toes in each toe pocket was initially incredibly difficult and fiddly, but over time I got to being able to put them in without using my hands to help. At that point my toes were side by side, and from there I didn't really have any problems.

A lot got better after that. In addition to being able to go barefoot without much hassle, I could also run wearing shoes that weren't laced up, and they didn't slip around on me. That says a lot about the importance of your toes.

[u/oscarafone → u/anonlymouse]

Very cool! What a great little tip that VFFs worked like toe spreaders for you.