Barefoot Greg

I'm going to start running again and I need running shoes.

There's something I've learned from personal experience which has also been confirmed by scientific studies  reported in this NYTIMEs article: Expensive running shoes are a scam. We are designed to be strong runners and modern shoe technology is part of the problem. However, the good options are weird and wacky to many people and I may have to rely on surrogate options right now. But the truth is..

"We were born to run," proclaims Dr. Lieberman, an evolutionary biology professor from Harvard, in another NYtimes article.

Dr. Lieberman contradicts on a the popular belief that hunter-gatherers didn't run a lot. They did a lot of that despite the fact hunter gatherer people work much less than we do. We were designed to be great runners. Our head evolved to bob so we could run a longer distance without the force of impact that pigs and other animals have.

"Before bows and arrows and before horses were tamed, we did “persistence hunting” where we ran kudu, wildebeest and zebra into exhaustion. These animals can’t pant when they gallop. They overheat. People would find a big animal and chase it till it collapsed. You need no technology to do this, just the ability to run long distances, which all of us have. "

His findings were published in Nature and year later he was giving a lecture when he met a man named "Barefoot Bob." Wearing socks with duck tape wrapped around his feet, Bob said he didn't like to run in shoes. Shoes hurt him. So Lieberman started to wonder if the injuries people suffered while running was from the shoes they were wearing.

So he tested Bob and found his impact was less from his feet to his head while he was barefoot running.

Then Lieberman went to African and found strong runners running almost with no shoes at all with different impacts and strength.

But some runners have used this method. A Daily Mail article has a picture of Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila winning the 1960 Olympic Marathon barefoot.

This being said, shoes aren't bad. They were designed to protect people's feet from parasites in the ground. It's just that they are too complicated. Something simple is what is needed.

Lieberman himself runs barefooted in the summer times and wears shoes that fit like a glove. I've been looking at this style like Vibrams for sometime. I think its an improvement in design. But I find there are problems that have discouraged me from buying them. One, they are made of plastic. Two, they are 100 dollars and for the price too expensive for something designed with a thin sole. That will wear out quickly. I want to minimize my support of large scale corporations and having to buy more shoes every year gives more support and makes me poorer.

There are more eco friendly options. One is to design and make my own shoes. Esparadilles designs like Tom's shoes can be made yourself and ca Design your Own Espadrilles is a group of individualson facebook who each makes and sells their on Espadrilles.  Two, is to try "Barefoot Bob" style with its socks wrapped in duck tape. Even more ecofriendly and affordable than buying something like Vibrams which use so much plastic.  .

At this moment, I've opted for the second option.  This of until  I can make them myself.

One day, I can opt out of this abusive industry and make my own shoes with out the exploitation of other people. Then maybe some day after this day I can use natural materials  from plants I've gathered or animals I've hunted.

For now I'll be wearing my own Barefoot Bob sneakers while training. If anybody looks at me strangely I won't be surprised. But the good thing is that I don't care either. I'd rather make things simpler and more eco.

P.S.

I went for a run later in the day practically barefoot. I removed the inside padding from two sole pads from a pair of old shoes I have. I put my feet into the socks. I then put a sole under each sock and while holding the soles on the bottom of the socks, I put a sock over each foot.  Then I ran. My feet were landing on the balls of my feet. I didn't feel the normal tension I do in running shoes. I woke up today without the usual soreness. It's quite good.