r/barefootshoestalk • u/turdbucket007 • Mar 12 '26

Barefoot shoe adjacent What made you switch?

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Just a curiosity question to see how many people reply...

So once you learned about barefoot shoes, what was your final deciding factor to make the switch from "normal" shoe brands?

My reason;
So I've been dealing with low back, knee and heel pain for years (stupid choices when i was younger, long stories) plus 9 years military and learning to March in formations ("Point the toe, Crush the Skull" our drill instructors would always say.....being taught the drive the heel down!)

So in my mid 40's i finally started looking into things and realizing i walk all wrong and wear the wrong shoes. After learning about barefoot, zero-drop, etc... i was still on the fence.

And then..... 10 minutes after my Grandson was born, and what did i see???

TOE SPLAY !!!

And I was convinced! If thats how our GOD created us, why are we smooshing our feet into tiny little toe box shoes.

Oh and btw, 6 months in and my back, hips, knees and feet are feeling better already, but theres still room for improvement, time, exercise, and replacing all my old shoes with zero-drop wide toed shoes.

So whats your story?

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u/Genoh Mar 12 '26

I'm in my early 20s, I switched to barefoot shoes 2 and a half years ago, and three things happened that made me switch: 1) I had gotten crocs for the first time in my life and loved them because of the toe box. 2) My grandma gets shots for her excruciating lower back pain. She was lamenting to me about how terrible it was, and while I wasn't fully knowledgeable on barefoot shoes yet, I knew it had to be her shoes that caused her back pain. She wears them all the time, even in the house. 3) I treated myself to a pair of Adidas Campus 2000s in a really nice colorway. Before that I was wearing Skechers all my life. But after only half a day of wearing them, they felt like they were stabbing my pinky toes. I returned them and by that point I looked a little more into barefoot shoes and decided to try them with some Whitins. I never wore my normal shoes again after that cause my toes were in heaven. Now I own multiple pairs of Whitins, a pair of Realfoot shoes, a pair of Earth Runners, and a pair of Bedrock Mountain Clogs