Why put shoes on your feet that weigh a ton, make the muscles in your feet lazy, and make you prone for foot injury? Barefoot shoes are supreme for day to day use, they support natural walking and climbing and lead to fewer injuries.
Why put shoes on your feet that weigh a ton, make the muscles in your feet lazy, and make you prone for foot injury? Barefoot shoes are supreme for day to day use, they support natural walking and climbing and lead to fewer injuries.
I used to use vibrams and I liked them for rocky scaling (waterfall climbs, etc).
The soreness you’re describing might be from your feet using muscles they’re not used to. Beginner rock climbers experience the same thing (me amongst them) but I didn’t have that feeling nearly as much when I hiked with barefoot shoes because my muscles already were stronger from climbing.
I think there’s benefits to barefoot shoes but you really need to use them for a while to decide if they’re right for you.
Maybe don’t dive straight into hikes, just walk around in them a bunch and then do some easy elevation hikes with tree roots and move on from there.
I don’t use them anymore but when I did I really liked them for tough, rocky elevation hikes that didn’t rise to the level of actual rock climbing. The added flexibility and tactile contact made it much easier for me to find and keep my footing.
I’ve worn barefoot shoes near daily for about 6 years now, hiking and dressing up for vendors is basically the only time I have to bring out something else. I’ve even tested several for hiking, but the ones I’ve had just do not cut it when even a minor amount of grip is required.
I have tried Vibram with their five fingers series and they were great for walking or a super light trail. I even did treadmill running with them for awhile which was a rough experiment. For me though, they had the same problem when hiking, has been several years though, maybe I should give them another shot.
Interesting. I never used them much for trail hiking, and it’s been so long I honestly don’t remember how well gripped for that.
But I liked them a lot for scaling rocky terrain, was a lot easier to get my feet contorted into cracks and stuff that a normal toe didn’t want to play as nice with.
Overall I didn’t love them much except for that style of use so I got rid of them when they were worn and haven’t gotten any more of them because I don’t live in an area with that type of terrain any longer.