Barefoot running

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Does anyone do barefoot running. Not actually barefoot but with barefoot trainers. I have problems with the ligament under the arch of my foot which isn’t helped with supportive footwear.

Not me, but I looked into it.
Very expensive shoes.
You're supposed to ease into it, take time to adjust & transition.
The barefoot shoes are actually only suitable for tarmac, pavements (probably flat) -- can't do rough trails or any wet.
Apparently no socks.
Most blogs talk about it taking a while to get used to, encourages a very different foot strike.
I never see them except very occasionally somewhere like California (dry climate, all pavement, nobody actually running in them, just pop to shops shoes).
Some folk love them.
Other folk say the shoes wear out stupidly quickly & there's no good science behind it.

An alternative is maximalist like Hoka which are neutral shoes with a minimal heel-toe drop. They require a mid sole strike, like bare foot shoes, but are more comfortable.

DailyWailSucksSnails I'm not sure your analysis is very realisistic, and must have a very narrow definition of barefoot shoe, which does always suffer different definitions.

Zero or very low heel-toe drop, wide toebox and flexible soles, for some zero cushioning is required, and there's plenty of cheap ones of these available, for others heavy cushioning like Hoka and others as johnnycomelately1 said.

I see lots of people using barefoot shoes, personally I only use them for walking around in general use, for trail running (wet, muddy, slippery) up to 10km racing but I don't use them for general pavement running - where I tend to use just low drop (4-6mm) shoes, not for any other reason than I find a particular trainer comfy when taking it easy, I suspect I'd be happy with Hoka's but they've always been too expensive, much more expensive than my now cushioning barefoot shoes.

ChoudeBruxelles do you use barefoot shoes outside of running?

What do you call "cheap"?
I pay like £30 for my running shoes that last ... 700+ miles?, maybe.

My current race shoes (a merrel glove of some sort) have over 1000 miles on them and cost less than 30 quid on sale, and are fine. My walking around in shorts merrel gloves with loads more wear on them and a bit of shoe goo on the sole must have many thousands of miles. Wear is certainly lower on full barefoot, because they don't need replacing due to the cushioning dieing, it's just until the sole is actually worn through.

Certainly the list price tends to be at the same point as the middle of "normal" running shoe range, so more than the 30, but you can generally get bargains and the single wide width and the need to only buy length makes it relatively easy to buy cheaply online. Freet currently have lots on sale between 30 and 40 quid for example.

I tend to find formal barefoot shoes much harder to buy than running, when you do need to spend the money on vivobarefoot or so to get something that looks good.

Don't do it!

I used to use barefoot running shoes and was at Half Marathon level. I wrecked my feet. I've been recovering for 4 years. I can't stand for very long at all anymore, can't even walk the kids to school.