What is the Point of Minimalist Shoes?

The point of wearing minimalist shoes is to improve or even reverse irregularities in foot structure and function caused by long-term use of traditional footwear, which are often too narrow and too stiff for the feet to be engaged at a basic level. This is why traditional footwear cause narrow, weak, un-resilient feet that have difficulties adapting to new levels of hard training.

Running in a minimalist shoe is equally important as walking in them as runners who wear narrow running shoes were found to have a higher rate of pain in the middle and front of the foot as compared to runners in a shoe with a rounded, wider toe- box, like a minimalist shoe.

Lending evidence to this came from a study by Branthwaite et al., in the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research revealed that a narrow running shoe increased peak pressures around the middle and front of the foot with a greater pressure time integral as well:

• Increased peak pressure around the medial forefoot when running is a major risk factor for stress fracture of the 2nd metatarsal head, shown below:

It gets even worse.

According to Mann (2007), the front of your foot is meant to expand during ground-contact, however a narrow running shoe prevents this from happening, and adds more pressure on the forefoot, particularly increased lateral pressures, which changes the nail matrix orientation, such as nail plate thickening, leading to toe pain. The worst case scenario from this is that the seal between the nail plate and the nail bed breaks, allowing fungus to enter the nail unit, Mann reported.

Why Wider is Better

One of the many functional benefits of a minimalist shoe is the wide toe-box which allows the dorsal digital area to splay out more fully, which in turn, dissipates plantar pressures more evenly over the foot without creating any dangerous hot-spots that could lead to metatarsal fracture.

In contrast, pointy-toed running shoes tightly warps the natural contours of the digits (toes), where the 1st and 5th digit are most affected, with increased time to peak pressure and contact.

Lastly, the current study showed that footwear with a rounded toe-box, which correlated to the natural anatomical contours of the foot, was associated with the lowest pressure values, and therefore, a lower risk of a metatarsal stress fracture.

The Take Home Message

Based on this and other current data, running or walking in a narrow shoe increases mechanical strain on the foot, while reducing the functional strength of the muscles and soft tissues in the foot, which in turn, contributes to other foot aliments, like flattened arches, in addition to causing an abnormal foot shape.

The good new is, there’s less stress on your foot in a minimalist shoe because of the wide, anatomically correct shape, which allows your entire foot to expand, which expands the surface area of contact, thereby reducing uneven tendon, muscle and bone stress on the foot. And, don’t forget that the unrestricted, flexible fit delivers a constant stream of engagement to promote more soft tissue growth and muscle strength development of the foot and leg.

Equally important, minimalists shoes are flat because they have no cushioning under the heel. This was found to put your foot in a better position to secure a low-impact, more stable forefoot strike landing when running as compared with traditional running shoes, which were found to facilitate a heel strike, which is the most force-intensive way to connect with the ground. Read more here on all this!

If you’ve enjoyed my blog post, you’ll love my YouTube channel, here, where I discuss why minimalist shoes works for everybody and why forefoot running is safer and more economical than heel strike running!

---

References:

Branthwaite H., Chockalingam N and Greenhalgh A. The effect of shoe toe box shape and volume on forefoot interdigital and plantar pressures in healthy females. J Foot Ankle Res, 2013; 6(23):2-9.

Mann, A. Narrow shoes behind refractory nail thickening. Skin & Allergy News.32.7 (July 2001):p 34.

If you’d like, you can support Run Forefoot and help keep it going by making a donation in any amount of your choosing:

Or, you can support Run Forefoot by shopping at the BEST Barefoot Shoe Brands, and be sure to bookmark these links 🙂

Lonowear: https://lonowear.com/?ref=cedsholh

Saguaro: https://www.saguaro.com/?ref=9bVA8fEkmDvB-I

Vibram FiveFingers: https://amzn.to/3VQLAUI

Vivobarefoot: https://amzn.to/3vycQOY

Be Lenka: https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7600968-13947200

Xero Shoes: https://xeroshoes.com/go/Run_Forefoot

Iguaneye: https://www.iguaneye.com/?ref=8tfXVc92

Soft Star Shoes: https://shrsl.com/3mp1b

Wilding Shoes: https://bit.ly/3lIygQP