New York Magazine has a very interesting article about shoes and how they are ruining our feet.
Last year, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled “Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?” in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European), comparing their feet to one another’s, as well as to the feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet. Among the modern subjects, the Zulu population, which often goes barefoot, had the healthiest feet while the Europeans—i.e., the habitual shoe-wearers—had the unhealthiest. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Bernhard Zipfel, when commenting on his findings, lamented that the American Podiatric Medical Association does not “actively encourage outdoor barefoot walking for healthy individuals. This flies in the face of the increasing scientific evidence, including our study, that most of the commercially available footwear is not good for the feet.”
One of the newest designs discussed in the article is the Vivo Barefoot, which has a surprising link to the Alexander Technique.
Tim Brennan [is] a young industrial-design student at the Royal College of Art. Brennan was an avid tennis player who suffered from chronic knee and ankle injuries. His father taught the Alexander Technique, a discipline that studies the links between kinetics and behavior; basically, the connection between how we move and how we act. Brennan’s father encouraged Tim to try playing tennis barefoot. Tim was skeptical at first, but tried it, and found that his injuries disappeared. So he set out to design a shoe that was barely a shoe at all: no padding, no arch support, no heel. His prototype consisted of a thin fabric upper with a microthin latex-rubber sole. It wasn’t exactly a new idea. It was a modern update of the 600-year-old moccasin.
Brennan brought his shoe to Clark [inventor of the Wallabee shoe], and after some modifications, they came up with a very flexible leather shoe with a three-millimeter sole made of rubber and puncture-resistant DuraTex that they call the Vivo Barefoot.
February 16th, 2009 at 10:06
My opinion: The air circulation in shoes and flexibility of the material are very important.
February 24th, 2009 at 22:47
…Vivo Barefoot..not sure where i could get a supplier of these…any ideas?
February 24th, 2009 at 22:58
Try here: http://www.terraplana.com/vivobarefoot.
February 12th, 2010 at 07:10
Vivo Barefoot needs to go back to the basics, focus on their original concept of ultra-thin sole, wide toe box, no arch, no heel…with some very basic designs that will appeal to the masses…
Instead, Vivo Barefoot is branding itself as a completely esoteric shoe much the same way as the Prada Sport line was. It’s a mistake. It was the Prada Sport line that coined the term “Prada Ugly”. It is any wonder that the same man who designed the hideous shoes of Prada Sport is also designing Vivo Barefoot?
I have an old pair of Vivo Barefoots from I think 2003…not sure the exact date, but even the quality was so much better than what is offered now. The old vivo barefoots cradled your feet in soft breathable leather, now it’s synthetic crap that gets smelly quickly.