Going back to barefooting

Hello everybody,

I'm new to this forum. I joined because I'm going barefoot again - sort of, not quite completely right now but that's the idea. I figured I'd join a group of like-minded people. Here's my story:

15 years ago, I lived in Utah. Back then I was in a lot of pain due to my knee prosthesis that was taking time to heal, and I had been for years. I was popping a lot of painkillers and going from one doctor to the next to get more pills. One day I met a doctor who was also a chiropractor. He told me "I'm not prescribing you anything. Your problem comes from your shoes. Go barefoot and the pain will subside." I asked him if he was serious. He said "Give it a shot for a few days. The worst that can happen is, you'll look like an lunatic for a few days". I thought, what the hell. So I did what he said: I dumped the shoes, and 48 hours later, the pain was gone. Amazing!

Long story short, I spent the next 3 years barefoot. I went barefoot everywhere year round - on the street in the heat of summer, on the ski slopes in winter, at work, at home... everywhere, all the time. It was great, apart maybe the constant skin cracks due to the thick skin I had developed under my feet and the dry weather there. People did take me for a bit of a lunatic - particularly my colleagues at work, since I was a middle manager working in suit and tie. But I never really had problems anywhere. I never got thrown out of a restaurant or a store because I didn't wear shoes. People just looked at me funny, but it was pretty much a case of live and let live.

Then I moved to Europe. There, it's a different story: if you go barefoot, you're either a drifter or you're crazy. In fact, a policeman friend of mine told me they had instructions to arrest barefoot people wearing "normal" clothes (i.e. not looking like a typical drifter) because they're usually people who escaped from an insane asylum - and in fact, those institutions didn't give shoes to their patients for the very purpose of being spotted by the fuzz if they run away. After observing the local society for a while, I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to go barefoot freely like in the US. Especially in my line of work. So I started wearing shoes again, much to my chagrin. I always chose the thinnest-soled shoes possible, but I just couldn't go barefoot anymore, for practical social reasons.

Fast forward to now: a few weeks ago, I sustained a pretty bad foot injury. Suddenly I couldn't wear shoes anymore. The slightest pressure on top of my injured foot hurts like hell. So I started to go to work in sandals and socks, which is the only kind of footware I could stand for more than 10 minutes. My colleagues started chuckling at my appearance. A two-piece suit and sandals clearly don't go together... But they accepted it because, well, I had a good reason to look odd.

Then recently I discovered a certain kind of "barefoot shoes" - the brand of which I won't mention, so I'm not accused of advertising for it - that puts zero pressure on my foot and lets me walk almost normally all day long. So I started going to work with them, with thin black socks underneath. They look odd, and barely like shoes, but they still look like "proper" footwear nonetheless. So I don't contravene my company's dress code or shock our visiting customers. And with the excuse of my injury, my colleagues understand that I'm looking for alternative solutions to my walking problem. So after a few snide comments, my funny shoes are now totally accepted at work - which is nothing short of amazing, considering how strict and old fashioned my company is.

But more importantly, these "shoes" are so thin my feet started to remember those happy years 15 years ago in Utah. And they started to crave feeling the ground again. So I decided to go barefoot again. Not for a while yet, since my injured foot needs to stay bandaged for a few months, not at work since i want to keep my job obviously, and probably not in town because it's not socially acceptable here (the special shoes will do there too). But as soon as I can, I'll start hiking barefoot again. I can't wait!

So, that's my story. Hopefully I'll rejoin the ranks of happy barefooters again soon

 

Welcome! Hope you are able to spend enough time barefooted to maintain your foot health. I started barefoot hiking to strengthen my ankles for skateboarding. It strengthened my whole body core and greatly improved balance.

 

Thanks! Yes, barefooting forces you to walk differently - one would even say normally. For me it was not striking the ground with my heel so hard at each step that initially cured my knee problem.

I already spend most of my day either truly barefoot (at home) or in my sock-like shoes. The only time I wear stiff-soled shoes is when I cycle with my clipless sandals, which is actually desirable to transfer power to the pedals efficiently.

 

That's it. Just go with the flow and do exactly
as you like. If it doesn't hurt anybody else then so be it.

 

I recently twisted my ankle as I was rushing from my car to keep an appointment. Yes, I was wearing shoes, and I regretted my stupidity. My thick shoe sole caught the pavement at a bad angle, and etc. Go barefoot!

 

Take care, friend……and don't be too hard on yourself. We all wear them sometimes when we're away from Eden.

 

Well, I guess I'm not as hardcore as I once was. I wish I could go barefoot all the time (at least when my foot is healed) but I must admit I can do without the social stigma.

So for that, my super-duper barefooting shoes are an excellent compromise: my feet are a mere millimeter off the ground, I can feel what I walk on (or rather, I would describe it as feeling the ground with the volume turned down a bit, if that makes sense), I can feel the rain, I can feel the wind, I can feel the heat and the cold. Yet I only register as a guy wearing funny-looking shoes in society.

It's extremely relaxing: I feel barefooted and free from moralizing stares at the same time, and I can go anywhere confident that I'll be completely invisible. That's a luxury I never really had back when I had truly forgone shoes, and I must admit it's quite intoxicating.

I think I'll stick to true barefooting when I out in the sticks, and pseudo-barefooting when I have to share my space with others who don't get it.

 

Last year, at age 54, I came to the realization that I hate wearing shoes. I always went barefoot at home. But after that epiphany, I said, WTF and followed my life verse from the Tao te Ching: "Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner." So I bought some Amuri sandals from Zero Shoes and started wearing them everywhere. I wear them to work, and almost as soon as I get to my desk, I kick them off and go barefoot. It is amazing at how much more relaxed I am. Talking to customers 10 hours a day, sometimes the stress can build up. But just being able to flex my toes, or feel the coolness of the feet of my chair, or the softness of the top of my other foot has done wonders to keep me relaxed. I can't walk around barefoot at work, though many times, at the end of the day, I just pick up my sandals and go barefoot to the time clock and then out to my car. My sister says that I'm crazy for wearing sandals in February in Arkansas, but I don't care. As long as it gets up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside, during the day, I'm fine. I find that about 30 degrees is my cutoff of being able to go outside comfortably in barefeet on dry pavement. If the pavement is wet, the temp must be much warmer.

 

72 Years Old And Skateboarding....???....



Cheers Glen.

 

Yup.......but the kids are the real heroes. What they do is magic. Most of these kids have really crappy home lives with no dads around, but skateboarding is their salvation. Over the years I’ve sponsored a good many for their equipment. A lot of times I’m the only adult at the park so I get to be the first aid guy when they get broke and bloody. I get broke and bloody too. Two concussions, both shoulders separated, sprains and tears. A while back I overheard a 13 year old say to his friend........”that fall would’ve killed my dad.”

 

Well, it's over a year since I posted this thread. I've changed job and joined a less anally-retentive company, and I've been eschewing the shoes permanently for a good 9 months now. I feel much happier for it: I had forgotten the feeling of freedom from not having my feet encased in shoes - and not giving a turkey about what others may think.

But if I'm honest, I don't think others think anything at all really: surprisingly, I haven't had any negative remarks whatsoever - not one. Maybe it has something to do with having the looks of a middle-aged man now. Maybe people figure I'm past the age at which I'd be worth being lectured on propriety...

I only get flak every once in a while from one particular lady in the company who seems to have a deep psychological problem with feet. Unfortunately, she's head of HR But she look so obviously mentally disturbed by my being barefoot that she refrains from making too much of a fuss over it, because she knows she doesn't look completely right in the head when she starts rambling about it. Anyhow, as long as my job is done properly, she don't have much ground for complaints.

For some reasons, I seem to have to walk on very coarse gravel a lot more often than I expected. As a result, my feet have become rock-hard - a lot more so than 15 years ago. Even knowing how tough feet can get, I'm amazed at what I can walk on now.

So, that's me being a happy full-time barefooter again. I'm sure glad I've rejoined the ranks

 

That's good news, BarePeter! Wonderful to be barefoot.

 

That’s great that you have a good life with happy feet. I’m happy for you. You must be extra busy. Talk some more on the forum so we can see how it goes.

 

Bare feet are happy feet!

 

am i the only one who thinks barepeter sounds like a much dirtier name than it's supposed to be?

 

How so? I didn't mean to adopt a shocking nickname. But if I did wrong, I'm happy to request a change.
My given name really is Peter, to my credit.

 

Pay no attention to I'minmyunderwear. He has a dirty mind!

Although once he pointed it out I could see what he meant. But no need to change your name if you don't want to.

 

yeah it's not "shocking" or changeworthy or anything. but yeah, i have a dirty mind and your name is bare peter; you see where i'm coming from...

 

You Are Indeed The Only One......This Does Not Surprise Us In Any Way....



Cheers Glen.

 

Keep the name, Peter.