The question is – why barefoot? Why is our footwear so wrong nowadays and why current fashion trends are far away from what is best for your feet…

Let’s see how our footwear is important to us.

From the moment we are born, we aren’t lacking shoes, right? We arrive fully equipped with feet that are ideally suited to learn to crawl, walk, run, climb, dance, and participate in other human activities. Going barefoot isn’t the removal of shoes but remaining how we are in the first place.

Human feet are meant to function without footwear. Each foot contains thousands of nerve endings. One-quarter of the bones in our body are below our ankles. Our bodies are intended to use the intricate system of joints, ligaments, and tendons in our feet. Shoes limit the functioning of this system and block our bodies from the world around us.

When we move on natural surfaces, our feet operate efficiently. They receive lots of functional training, while normally, depending on our activity, we take approximately 9,000-14,000 steps a day, and with bare feet, actually, every step is training.

Did you know that our bodies and our brains work best in a maximum sensory environment?

WITH SHOES

• The upper body is tall and straight.
• The landing leg is straight and forward of the torso as the foot touches down.
• The heel is the first part of the foot to strike the ground.

BAREFOOT

• The upper body is short and sleek.
• The landing leg is beneath the torso; slightly bent to better absorb impact.
• The forefoot is the only part to touch the ground and lightly at that.

We live in a society where footwear is more like a fashion trend than a means to protect your health. Clothing norms are continually changing, however, and we think it’s about time to change the social expectation that all of us should have shoes on anytime we step outside our front doors or at least consider what kind of shoes you are going to buy next time!

We live in Ottawa. A city with a rich tradition of enjoying the great outdoors. Having good shoes if you’re a running athlete or anything you’re doing on your feet, you should have appropriate footwear because this there’s no excuse with the technologies available to us now. You should be able to get shoes that have good arch support that can support you. Whether you’re a runner, a cyclist, or a weightlifter, you should have some good shoes or check for barefoot shoes, because it comes from the bottom of your feet, your knees, your hips. If something’s wrong in one of those three areas or even your back it will proceed from another area until there’s dysfunction.

We all enjoy the freedom of being barefoot. Spreading out our toes and feeling light on our feet. Of course, modern life means that kicking off our shoes isn’t always possible. But that doesn’t mean we have to leave that barefoot feeling behind!