shoes

[poptart]

Anyone use barefoot/minimalist/zero drop shoes?  I'm transitioning to them starting with a pair of vibrams I picked up over the holidays.   These things are amazing btw.

[Calm]

9 hours ago, poptart said:

Anyone use barefoot/minimalist/zero drop shoes?  I'm transitioning to them starting with a pair of vibrams I picked up over the holidays.   These things are amazing btw.

Just Birkenstocks.  

If my second toes weren’t so long that they screwed up my step, I would be so into these.  Went barefoot in my youth whenever possible, including running in snow.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Calm

[Chum]

15 minutes ago, Calm said:

Went barefoot in my youth whenever possible, including running in snow.

Same. Our dirt road would ice over for a few months in winter. I'd walk the 400 yards to the mailbox and back barefoot.

[Orthodox Christian]

14 hours ago, Chum said:

Same. Our dirt road would ice over for a few months in winter. I'd walk the 400 yards to the mailbox and back barefoot.

When I tried, in my teens to pretend to be a cool bohemian, I tried the barefoot thing. My mother was not amused, stating that being barefoot was vulgar. So that was it, I gave it up...not sure if it was to please my mum, or I couldn't cope with the idea of being vulgar. However, I found out from someone who knew my mother as a child, and he said that her family were very poor and they ran around barefoot. Maybe her reaction was due to her unhappy childhood memories. 

[rodheadlee]

23 hours ago, Calm said:

Just Birkenstocks.  

If my second toes weren’t so long that they screwed up my step,

I resemble that. I wear Teva salt water sandals when I'm not at work. When we went cruising in our sailboat for six years I didn't wear shoes. I wore sandals or went barefooted. That was really tough going back to work.

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by rodheadlee

[Olmec Donald]

23 hours ago, Calm said:

If my second toes weren’t so long...

Mine too.

I was once told that having a long second toe was a sign of being a smart-@$$.

I think it's just a sign of having a short big toe.

[Calm]

44 minutes ago, Olmec Donald said:

Mine too.

I was once told that having a long second toe was a sign of being a smart-@$$.

I think it's just a sign of having a short big toe.

Make sure your shoes are supportive and you exercise your toes, otherwise you may get lasting pain in your feet which gets misdiagnosed for 25 years.

[Olmec Donald]

1 hour ago, Calm said:

Make sure your shoes are supportive and you exercise your toes, otherwise you may get lasting pain in your feet which gets misdiagnosed for 25 years.

I walk barefoot inside and outside in the grass a lot.  

I used to compete in a sport that was played barefoot, and my toes were perpetually taped to one another, either as prevention of toe sprains or as treatment for them.  I don't miss that part of it.  

Edited January 13, 2022 by Olmec Donald

[poptart]

On 1/11/2022 at 10:32 PM, Calm said:

Just Birkenstocks.  

If my second toes weren’t so long that they screwed up my step, I would be so into these.  Went barefoot in my youth whenever possible, including running in snow.

Nothing wrong with Birkenstocks, oldest brother wears em to work.  That sucks, assuming you've tried?  Mom went barefoot everywhere as a child, have to wonder how bad the syringe problem is in Hawaii now, sad.

On 1/12/2022 at 1:47 PM, Orthodox Christian said:

When I tried, in my teens to pretend to be a cool bohemian, I tried the barefoot thing. My mother was not amused, stating that being barefoot was vulgar. So that was it, I gave it up...not sure if it was to please my mum, or I couldn't cope with the idea of being vulgar. However, I found out from someone who knew my mother as a child, and he said that her family were very poor and they ran around barefoot. Maybe her reaction was due to her unhappy childhood memories. 

It's really interesting to see how different cultures do things, family back home still goes barefoot in places, that and sandals, no shame at all.  Then again, they are Polynesian/Asian.

[The Nehor]

I used to jog barefoot. Took a while to build up calluses.’

Later had to learn how to do a basic pedicure on my feet to get the stupid calluses off. Took about a week. Was weird to have feeling in my feet again. I still am barefoot whenever acceptable but I don’t jog anymore. I do my kickboxing workouts barefoot but I think that is normal.

[poptart]

5 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I used to jog barefoot. Took a while to build up calluses.’

Later had to learn how to do a basic pedicure on my feet to get the stupid calluses off. Took about a week. Was weird to have feeling in my feet again. I still am barefoot whenever acceptable but I don’t jog anymore. I do my kickboxing workouts barefoot but I think that is normal.

I leave em on, protection and what not.  It is I think, most martial arts are that way. If you know anyone who does kendo their feet have thick calluses from all the footwork, they could probably walk on glass (joking...)

Another thing that comes to mind walking barefoot, hobbits.  Don't have the hairy feet but I think the hobbits had that part right along with everyone else.  Everyone loves the elves and dwarves, hobbits where the smart ones I think. 

[sunstoned]

On 1/14/2022 at 3:47 PM, poptart said:

Nothing wrong with Birkenstocks, oldest brother wears em to work.  That sucks, assuming you've tried?  Mom went barefoot everywhere as a child, have to wonder how bad the syringe problem is in Hawaii now, sad.

It's really interesting to see how different cultures do things, family back home still goes barefoot in places, that and sandals, no shame at all.  Then again, they are Polynesian/Asian.

We had a lady who would come to church in bare feet.  I was amazed by how upset many of the members of my central Utah ward became.  My wife was RS president and she would received multiple requests each week for her to convince the sister to start wearing shoes.  I use to wear my Birkenstocks to work and to church.  No one complained, but then again I did wear them with socks.

[James 1 5]

On 1/11/2022 at 12:14 PM, poptart said:

Anyone use barefoot/minimalist/zero drop shoes?  I'm transitioning to them starting with a pair of vibrams I picked up over the holidays.   These things are amazing btw.

As a child I almost cut off one of my toes after stepping on some broken glass that I didn't see and I went almost everywhere barefoot, so I need some amazing shoes.  I like air soles and thick padding with arch support.

[poptart]

6 hours ago, James 1 5 said:

As a child I almost cut off one of my toes after stepping on some broken glass that I didn't see and I went almost everywhere barefoot, so I need some amazing shoes.  I like air soles and thick padding with arch support.

That happened to a cousin I knew, we were walking in a lake, poor guy stepped on an open beer bottle.  Thing is, nowadays you have to watch everywhere you go, thanks to the heroin problem needles are all over the place now.  Thing is, at least in the winter I stick to trails, once I get enough daylight I add in trailrunning to the mix, open glass isn't as much of an issue there.

[Rain]

On 1/12/2022 at 1:47 PM, Orthodox Christian said:

When I tried, in my teens to pretend to be a cool bohemian, I tried the barefoot thing. My mother was not amused, stating that being barefoot was vulgar. So that was it, I gave it up...not sure if it was to please my mum, or I couldn't cope with the idea of being vulgar. However, I found out from someone who knew my mother as a child, and he said that her family were very poor and they ran around barefoot. Maybe her reaction was due to her unhappy childhood memories. 

My mother-in-law was really bothered by bare feet.  She never mentioned the word vulgar, but I have the impression she meant something close to that.  

[Orthodox Christian]

3 hours ago, Rain said:

My mother-in-law was really bothered by bare feet.  She never mentioned the word vulgar, but I have the impression she meant something close to that.  

I think it was because shoelessness also meant raggedy poverty. My mother was determined to drag herself out of it, and she did, although not to riches. And looking back I think she viewed poverty in general as having a vulgar aspect to it, having suffered it as a child, I think she was ashamed of it.

[Paloma]

Though I've worn mainly closed shoes and typical summer sandals for the last 30 years, before that I spent 14 years as a missionary in Africa where I wore loose "flippies" or 'thongs' almost every day.  The main reason I avoided closed shoes was to avoid getting our  soil  (Kalahari sand) inside my shoe.  With flippies, I got used to the type of gait where I was helping the sand slide right through my flippies with every step I took.  

Like you, Calm, the toes next to my big toes are longer than any of my other toes.  And that particular toe on one of my feet is very long.  In fact, every year in the 'cold season' (i.e. May to September)  when the temperature could go down to almost freezing in the evening, and overnight and early morning (and up to 80 degrees in the daytime!), that one toe would get red and sore.  I wondered if it was gout!

That still happens now, very rarely, but I do associate it with the cold as I now wear socks and closed shoes since I'm no longer in Africa.  When that toe starts to get red and sore now is during an occasional spate of very cold weather in the summer while my bare feet are in sandals.