Some talk about barefoot shoes a while ago got me thinking.
I have (and still do) occasionally take off socks and shoes and do some actual barefoot walking, but sometimes the surface isn’t always the best for walking on.
Anyway.
I’d seen the Vivo shoes and I just don’t like the look of them. And I liked the prices even less, especially since the thin soles can have a short life span.
So I scoured the internet (well, Amazon) and found a pair of barefoot shoes I liked the look of.
Having had them just over 6 months now I thought I’d do a review for anyone else interested.
Not wanting to promote any single make or supplier I won’t provide a link to the ones I bought – but ask and I will.
I went on to Amazon and searched ‘barefoot walking shoes.’
Loads came up. The vast bulk fall into the ‘socks with a rubber sole category’, which appealed to me because I like that lightness. However, what didn’t appeal were the colours of most of them – neon and bright colours proliferated. No, not my kind of thing at all. After scrolling several pages I came across a pair that were olive green. Perfect!
Even better, they were just £35.
That, I thought, is a price worth taking a punt on. At that price I wasn’t expecting them to be the most durable but I thought that if I got on with them I would invest in a more expensive (so better, yeah?) pair.
A few days later and they were here. I liked what I saw.
I put them on. I liked them even more. I loved them. It was a revelation.
It’s worth pointing out here that on my right foot I have a very boney heel. It can make wearing shoes very uncomfortable which is why I always wear light and flexible footwear (I own one pair of shoes that I only wear when I absolutely must (weddings, funerals, interviews) and not at any other time!).
I was surprised how thick the grip on the shoes were, even if the actual sole is very thin indeed. I wondered if the thick grip may offset the ‘feel’ one is supposed to have in barefoot shoes. I walked around the garden in them. No, the extreme flexibility and softness of the rubber meant the foot moved around the earth and flexed to every lump and bump.
I was getting more impressed and looked forward to trying them out on the hills.
I took delivery of them back in September/October last year, so early Autumn.
So what was it like using them in anger?
Great. Really great. Loved ‘em.
Soft, flexible and, when worn with a pair of socks, warm enough.
Due to the time of year I got them I was initially lucky with the weather. It was still warm and dry. As Winter came along I stopped wearing them for a bit. They are not waterproof! But then, they are not meant to be. In warm, wet weather, you could wear them, without socks, and though your feet will get wet they will also dry out quickly. In cold, wet weather, when wearing socks, that won’t happen and you’ll be left with cold wet feet, which isn’t ideal. Of course, you could wear waterproof socks to get around that. But, given the slushy mud, it became a faff, so I just went back to normal wet weather boots. Mind you, when it was cold, but dry, I did wear them.
So, how did they stand up to it all?
I was acutely aware, even from the beginning that barefoot shoes have a reputation to wearing out very quickly. That’s the nature of the beast, to be honest, and you have to accept that.
What I did, to mitigate against that, is only wear them off-road. Yeah, I may have worn then a hundred yards or so from where I parked to the track, but I didn’t wear them around town or for long stretches on tarmac. I consciously made that decision to enhance the lifetime of them.
That said, once the weather started drying I wore them more and more frequently. I live in the south east and my playing ground is up on the North Downs – where it’s all chalk and flint. When it’s dry up there it can be as hard as any tarmac. Even worse, because sharp flint nodules stick up all over the place.
With that in mind, they’ve stood up remarkably well. Both shoes, on the heels, have lost chunks of rubber. I would suggest that is due to the flint. Otherwise, the wear is pretty even and I’d say there’s loads of wear still left in them. How they far during the Summer, when the ground will be at its hardest and I will wear them every time I go out, remains to be seen. So as you see them, that’s the wear and tear they’ve taken during one Autumn and Spring.
On to comfort. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Barefoot shoe wearers will tell you it takes a bit of getting used to. I thought that may happen. But no, it was like second nature to me. In hindsight that may because, as I said earlier, I wear thin soft footwear due to my right heel and also because when I get home socks and shoes are the first things off and I always walk around home and the garden barefoot. Always have. So maybe my feet were already used to it. I had no troubles acclimatising.
So overall? Yeah, love them to death and i'll buy another pair as soon as they die. Best £35 spent.
I have (and still do) occasionally take off socks and shoes and do some actual barefoot walking, but sometimes the surface isn’t always the best for walking on.
Anyway.
I’d seen the Vivo shoes and I just don’t like the look of them. And I liked the prices even less, especially since the thin soles can have a short life span.
So I scoured the internet (well, Amazon) and found a pair of barefoot shoes I liked the look of.
Having had them just over 6 months now I thought I’d do a review for anyone else interested.
Not wanting to promote any single make or supplier I won’t provide a link to the ones I bought – but ask and I will.
I went on to Amazon and searched ‘barefoot walking shoes.’
Loads came up. The vast bulk fall into the ‘socks with a rubber sole category’, which appealed to me because I like that lightness. However, what didn’t appeal were the colours of most of them – neon and bright colours proliferated. No, not my kind of thing at all. After scrolling several pages I came across a pair that were olive green. Perfect!
Even better, they were just £35.
That, I thought, is a price worth taking a punt on. At that price I wasn’t expecting them to be the most durable but I thought that if I got on with them I would invest in a more expensive (so better, yeah?) pair.
A few days later and they were here. I liked what I saw.
I put them on. I liked them even more. I loved them. It was a revelation.
It’s worth pointing out here that on my right foot I have a very boney heel. It can make wearing shoes very uncomfortable which is why I always wear light and flexible footwear (I own one pair of shoes that I only wear when I absolutely must (weddings, funerals, interviews) and not at any other time!).
I was surprised how thick the grip on the shoes were, even if the actual sole is very thin indeed. I wondered if the thick grip may offset the ‘feel’ one is supposed to have in barefoot shoes. I walked around the garden in them. No, the extreme flexibility and softness of the rubber meant the foot moved around the earth and flexed to every lump and bump.
I was getting more impressed and looked forward to trying them out on the hills.
I took delivery of them back in September/October last year, so early Autumn.
So what was it like using them in anger?
Great. Really great. Loved ‘em.
Soft, flexible and, when worn with a pair of socks, warm enough.
Due to the time of year I got them I was initially lucky with the weather. It was still warm and dry. As Winter came along I stopped wearing them for a bit. They are not waterproof! But then, they are not meant to be. In warm, wet weather, you could wear them, without socks, and though your feet will get wet they will also dry out quickly. In cold, wet weather, when wearing socks, that won’t happen and you’ll be left with cold wet feet, which isn’t ideal. Of course, you could wear waterproof socks to get around that. But, given the slushy mud, it became a faff, so I just went back to normal wet weather boots. Mind you, when it was cold, but dry, I did wear them.
So, how did they stand up to it all?
I was acutely aware, even from the beginning that barefoot shoes have a reputation to wearing out very quickly. That’s the nature of the beast, to be honest, and you have to accept that.
What I did, to mitigate against that, is only wear them off-road. Yeah, I may have worn then a hundred yards or so from where I parked to the track, but I didn’t wear them around town or for long stretches on tarmac. I consciously made that decision to enhance the lifetime of them.
That said, once the weather started drying I wore them more and more frequently. I live in the south east and my playing ground is up on the North Downs – where it’s all chalk and flint. When it’s dry up there it can be as hard as any tarmac. Even worse, because sharp flint nodules stick up all over the place.
With that in mind, they’ve stood up remarkably well. Both shoes, on the heels, have lost chunks of rubber. I would suggest that is due to the flint. Otherwise, the wear is pretty even and I’d say there’s loads of wear still left in them. How they far during the Summer, when the ground will be at its hardest and I will wear them every time I go out, remains to be seen. So as you see them, that’s the wear and tear they’ve taken during one Autumn and Spring.
On to comfort. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Barefoot shoe wearers will tell you it takes a bit of getting used to. I thought that may happen. But no, it was like second nature to me. In hindsight that may because, as I said earlier, I wear thin soft footwear due to my right heel and also because when I get home socks and shoes are the first things off and I always walk around home and the garden barefoot. Always have. So maybe my feet were already used to it. I had no troubles acclimatising.
So overall? Yeah, love them to death and i'll buy another pair as soon as they die. Best £35 spent.
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