Why barefoot needs an upgrade.

INSIGHT

Our feet need contact with the ground to receive information for brain-body healthy growth and development.

Before there was barefoot training, there was just living barefoot. Something that all of us still do daily whether or not we’ve developed perfect load-bearing arches in our feet to help our sprints or develop calluses that mimic the even, hardened paws of animals. The ‘barefoot’ mainstream movement took off over a decade ago with Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run research of the (infamous among running circles) Tarahummara tribe in Northern Mexico, famous for galloping vast distances in minimal shoes and sporting the most resilient feet (and as a consequence, health). Though common practice throughout cultures worldwide and documented in Greecian Olympian marathons and reintroduced in the early 21st century by dozens of barefoot advocates (leading to a Barefoot Runners Society), this runner’s secret and main-stay of foot & joint health has been permeating into the lives of non-runners who now realize they’ve kept their feet prisoner for decades too long, and are suffering the consequences throughout their bodies. Our feet (and our hands) are triumphs of mechanical engineering — composed of most of the skeletal bones in our bodies and make up complex relationships with our posture, body flexibility, mass and overall longevity. Stiff feet in all the ancient healing traditions were signs of stagnancy or early aging (or under-developed movement in children) and therefore a great place to gauge systemic health (are your feet cold, burning, discolored, limp, swollen, pained, itchy, clawed, fungus-infested?). Therefore, why do we only dress them with aesthetically pleasing (and achilles destroying) heels or even sporty minimal drop sneakers? Surely there are some categories in between where we can explore ‘outfitting’ our feet with healthy footwear that wouldn’t be classified as orthotics or athletics. Perhaps everyday footwear is ready for some stylish answers to barely-there options that also take into account our health from the ground up.

INSPIRATION

Nakefit

A safer way to be barefoot in public, Nakefit has innovated the barefoot movement with adhesive soles that you stick onto your foot and walk barefoot and carefree. Available in three colors and sizing charts (with the ability to cut for personalized foot shape), the soles are waterproof and hypo-allergenic. The only downside is that they’re disposable.

Walk on sand - without burning your feet.

Walk on boats - without slipping.

Walk on grass - to feel sensations shoes can't give you.

Walk on stones underwater - as they're waterproof.

Walk anywhere - without getting feet (entirely) dirty.

INNOVATION

“Soles”

Resealable adhesive shoe-soles that act as a bottom foot protector and distributor of critical soil minerals for minimalistic footwear that is not a sneaker.

• Form fitting re-sealable and breathable gel that adheres to the bottom of your foot and acts like a thick, distributed callous or animal paw.

• Customized to your foot shape after a kit is sent to your home with a malleable form that connects to an app when you make your order, sending foot specs to the main facility for manufacturing.

• Stylish, neutral colors that are neutral to match any wardrobe: taupe, mauve, grey, black, gold, tan.

• Soles last about 100 wears before needing to be sent back in closed-loop recycling for a new order with any requests for upgrade. A gait and weight distribution report is also given back to you once the soles are analyzed for walking patterns.

• Can be worn with or without shoes.