What's The Buzz?

It seems that every publication that writes about running these days publishes a piece on barefoot running. It's a topic that is gaining "traction" as running enthusiasts, on their never ending quest for faster times, push the envelope.

The barefoot craze is fueled by Ken Bob Saxton of California. He maintains that running in shoes, is the antithesis of the way humans were "meant" to run, through the evolutionary process. As such, he maintains that by running in the traditional running shoe, we become less efficient and more prone to injury, which is caused by wearing the running shoe. Studies have been done that do show that barefoot running improves efficiency by about 5%. So, does that mean it's time to toss away your trusty pair of running shoes?

Not so fast! The studies that have been done (and they're aren't many of them) have been conducted on folks who are not your "typical" runner. The "subjects" would fall into, or close to, the elite category from a performance standpoint. That means they were pretty efficient to begin with before the study. Because of their status, they also were much more conditioned than the everyday runner. That would make them less likely to be injured as a result of that conditioning.


Despite the results of these studies, none have been able to show a definitive link between injury and traditional running shoes, that would allow them to conclude that running shoes cause injury.

Barefoot running will cause a runner to change their biomechanics from heel striking to a forefoot strike. The studies have not been able to show a correlation in reduced lower leg injury vs running in shoes. The studies have shown that barefoot running increases pronation which CAN and DOES cause injury! There's also glass, rocks, acorns and other assorted goodies that can subject the unshod runner to risk!

At Fleet Feet Mahwah, we've had less than a handful of inquiries about "barefoot running shoes," but frankly, these have come from people who we did not know, who appeared to be caught up in the buzz after reading about the phenomenon. We get inquiries from that same type of person looking for the shoes "that will exercise my feet for me," so, I'm not expecting that many of us "mainstreamers" will be flocking to our routes sans shoes any time soon.

We'll see some people at races running barefoot now and then but, I would be surprised to see the demise of the running shoe that we've come to know and love! In fact, there are some model updates that just came out that are super!

The bottom line is, I've yet to have a podiatrist tell me that they are about to recommend that their patients throw away their running shoes and run barefoot. They counsel their patients against being barefoot in the house, and wearing non supportive shoes like flip flops and "UGG's" because in their opinion, they can cause injury.

Let's face it, if we were meant to run barefoot, we should be walking barefoot too! I've yet to read a single article on the barefoot running topic suggest we do away with wearing shoes altogether!