A beautiful romance, overall, but one small, thorny point is that scientific research on barefoot running (and the difference between shod and unshod harrying) is still a bit limited, especially from performance and injury standpoints.

 

Nonetheless, the barefoot bandwagon is surging forward, carrying along with it expensive products which allow runners to mimic barefoot running. The Nike Free shoes introduced to the market a few years ago represented an attempt to reproduce the patterns and forces of barefoot running without the trouble of actually putting one’s soles on the line.

 

And one current form of naked-foot imitating is to run clad in Vibram Five Fingers light-weight “shoes.” The Vibrams are thought to allow the bare-skin experience without abrasive experiences between the corpus callosum of the plantar surfaces of runners’ feet and the road or trail.

 

In a study carried out at the Institute of Sport Medicine and Sport Science in Rome, eight experienced barefoot runners ran with the Vibrams, with regular running shoes, and with nothing at all on their feet. When running barefooted, the athletes made contact with the ground in a more plantar-flexed position at the ankle, compared with shod hurrying (i. e., they tended to be mid-foot strikers without their shoes). When unshod, the runners had shorter contact times with the ground, more-abbreviated stride lengths, lower impact forces with the ground, and higher stride rates.

 

How did Five Fingers check out? Well, the Vibrams were linked with lower oxygen-consumption rates and diminished peak impact forces, compared with wearing shoes. As was the case with barefoot running, Five-Fingers pacing produced potent plantar-flexion for ground contact.

 

So, this Roman research rang a positive bell for barefoot running, since impact forces were lower and economy was enhanced. Five Fingers seemed to win, too, but wait: There was nothing necessarily special about the Vibrams, no unique characteristics which produced the plantar-flexed landings, lower peak impact forces, and drop-offs in oxygen consumption. It’s just that the Vibrams were much lighter and thinner than regular running shoes, allowing the barefoot mimicry to go on.

 

And since that’s the case, there’s really no reason to shell out $80 for a set of Vibrams which probably cost no more than five dollars to make. A pair of good-old fashion, teddy bear bedroom slippers will protect the soles of the feet from rocks and glass on one’s favorite running route, and they will also be associated with more-plantar-flexed landings, smaller impact forces, and nicer economy.  Plus, the darned things are inexpensive. You can get seven pairs of them, one for each day of the week, for the price of a single set of Five Fingers and enjoy all the benefits of bearfoot running.