Barefoot-inspired Footwear
One alternative to going barefoot is to wear thin shoes with minimal padding, such as moccasins or thin sandals, which result in similar gait to going barefoot, but protect the skin and keep dirt and water off. The Tarahumara wear thin-soled sandals known as huaraches. These sandals have a single long lace with a thin sole made from either recycled tires, commercially available replacement outsole rubber, or leather. The practice of wearing light or no shoes while running may be termed "minimalist running".
Before the modern running shoe was invented, plimsolls, or thin-soled canvas shoes, were worn by children in the United Kingdom for physical education classes as well as soldiers for PT training. Inexpensive "dime store" plimsolls have very thin footbeds (3mm elastomer/rubber outsole, 1mm card, 2mm eva foam) and no heel lift or stiffening.
Some modern shoe manufacturers have recently designed footwear to mimic the barefoot running experience, maintaining optimum flexibility and natural walking while also providing some degree of protection. The purpose of these "minimalist shoes" is to allow one's feet and legs to feel more subtly the impacts and forces involved in running, allowing finer adjustments in running style. The Vibram FiveFingers has separate slots for each toe and no cushioning. Conversely, the Nike Free line of footwear features a segmented sole which provides greater flexibility while still having an amount of cushioning. This line is based on a scale from 1–10, where 1 is barefoot and 10 is a typical athletic shoe sole. The Free line of shoes is designed to be a 5, which is halfway between barefoot and full cushioning. Saucony introduced the Kinvara line of shoes which feature a dropped sole. This technology halves the thickness of the sole and removes much of the heel cushioning to encourage more of a midfoot strike for the foot. Extending their line of minimalist shoes, Saucony released Hattori in April 2011 which was their first zero-drop shoe. Following the trend, by 2011, minimalist running shoes have been made available by most of the major shoe manufacturers.
The United States Army recently banned the use of Vibram FiveFinger toe shoes for image reasons. However, many other barefoot-inspired shoes that do not feature individual toes can still be used in its place. The United States Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and United States Coast Guard, however, have approved minimalist shoes, including Vibram FiveFingers, to be used during physical training.
Sales of minimalist running shoes have grown into a $1.7 billion industry. Sales of Vibram FiveFingers alone grew from $450,000 in 2006 to $50 million in 2011. In the summer of 2012, both Vibram and Adidas were sued in the United States regarding deceptive claims of increased training efficiency, foot strength, and decreased risk of injury resulting from use of their minimalist running shoes. These lawsuits follow on the heels of recent settlements by Skechers and Reebok with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that their barefoot shoes work your body in ways no shoes ever had before.
Read more about this topic: Barefoot Running