barefoot shoes?

Barefoot shoes have become super popular lately. Here's why!

Arch support was first introduced in the late 1800's and started becoming more popular in the 1970s. Shoes became thick, with inches of cushion & support between the bottom of your feet and the ground. The thought here is that our feet are weak and need to be supported. 


But our feet have 29 muscles. When we're constantly wearing runners, trainers or high heels that are narrow and don't let our toes splay out in their natural form, we begin to tell the feet to conform to the shoe we've put them in and just stay put. Over time, this causes misalignment of the foot, foot pain, muscle weakness and this changes how are hips and other part of our body move in order to accommodate for the feet. 

If you have upper back pain because you're sitting at a desk all day, and your upper back muscles are weak, you don't just wear a brace to keep you up right. You go to physio and get exercises to strengthen the muscles of the upper back.

If you have patellofemoral syndrome because of a muscle imbalance pulling on your knee causing pain, you don't put it in a brace for the rest of your life. You strengthen the thigh muscles to track the patella in the way we want and fix the actual problem.

Why do we think our feet need to be supported? Why are we not strengthening the 29 muscles of the feet?!

Barefoot shoes are gaining popularity as they are wider to accommodate for the actual shape of the foot. They are flexible, allowing your foot to touch & leave the ground in the way it was biomechanically designed. They also have no arch support, which may take some getting use to, but ultimately gives you the opportunity to build up the muscles to support you naturally in the way the foot was designed.

In addition to wearing barefoot shoes, being barefoot more often, stretching and strengthening the toes, and doing foot exercises will help strengthen the feet. You may notice once your feet get stronger that your hip & back pain go away!

There are different 'tiers' or styles of barefoot shoes that allow you to transition slowly to complete barefoot shoes. Some have more support on the bottom, or a bit of arch support, but have the wider fit. Make sure you do your research before committing to one shoe.

Anya's Reviews is a great website for more info: ​https://anyasreviews.com/foot-exercises-transitioning-barefoot-shoes/

The shoes I'm wearing here are the Wish I by Saguaro.
Saguaro Shoes sent me a free pair to test out and review.
This is my third pair and I would definitely buy more! They are super affordable compared to a lot of other brands. I'm usually a size 7, but for the Wish I's  "I WISH" (haha get it) I would have sized up. I find they fit a tad smaller than the trail runners and the sock shoes I have by Saguaro. They're still very flexible, wider fit, and super cute!