| Since I posted last week about my semi-barefoot huarache sandals, I have gotten a lot of positive responses from them.
One person commented on this blog that he thought my soles were actually bare and it was just the straps. I actually have a pair of ‘barefoot’ sandals that just include the top and at first glance looks like a standard flip flop.
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These actually work great if you are wearing jeans or any pants where the hem covers your heel. I often wear shorts, even in the coldest of winter days so the barefoot sandals tend to draw even more attention than bare feet, thus defeating the purpose of tricking the shoe police.
With the huarache sandals, the top is virtually bare and with the soles, you can customize it any way you choose to achieve the full barefoot feeling.
Since they do not contain any arch support and do not inhibit your walking in any way, these are the perfect alternative for those who want to go bare but cannot in certain situations.
A couple of weeks ago, I revised the sole so that the only part of my sole that was covered were the portions touching the ground – that is the balls, heels, and the outer part of my sole, though I left the toes completely open on the bottom.
Now even though the sandals got plenty of attention, observing me from the back, a person can see that I have something on my feet. The bummer is that I am so used to my soles completely touching the ground that anything interposing feels foreign to my feet.
That’s what prompted me to take a walk to my car where I had a pair of scissors and make further adjustments so I can continue to go barefoot while looking like I had something on my feet. Based on the knowledge that bare soles are most visible from the back, and outside part of foot, I cut away until I had something that left 75% of my sole bare.
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While leaving the heel intact almost in its entirety, I eliminated the sole covering the ball of the foot, leaving only narrow strip going around the outside of the foot to where the toes start, mainly to preserve the strap connecting it to the top of the foot.
I cut away more at what was left at the front so the joints of my toes were completely exposed, allowing me to be able to press down on the ground with my toes.
At this point, I can’t really call it a shoe, since in actuality, the arches are completely exposed, while the toes and balls of the feet are in full contact with the ground. They are more like foot ornaments, designed to give the impression of having on shoes.
Also helping this is the fact that due to walking barefoot consistently for over 10 years, my gait has become more of a natural one where I allow my body to guide my feet into their natural motion, gripping with my toes unhindered to give me that push, which allows the arches of my feet to go through the cycle of expansion and contraction,
where I finally land on the balls of my feet, thus repeating the cycle of pushing off the ground with all five of my toes – opposed to the standard toe-heel motion caused by wearing shoes which do not allow movement of the feet.
Since my feet move in the natural motion, my feet do not come up high enough for others to see that the vast majority of my sole is in fact bare!
Now so far there were a few occasions where bystanders realized that my feet were bare. Normally I do not mind this at all unless it’s in a place where there are shoe police or owners fearful that someone would call the Department of Health and might possibly get bad grades and fines for other problems.
One such place, the owner has been exceptionally polite to me about it and explained that while he knew there were no regulations against bare feet, his only fear was that some Department of Health employee might go out of his way to make their visit worthwhile by finding something else.
So in events like that I ‘pretend’ to have footwear on by lifting my heel slightly to show the tiny slab of vibram underneath.
And on other occasions people thing I’m actually wearing shoes. One person and his friend who I was sitting next to couldn’t stop complementing me on them and they got to learn a bit about huarache sandals, barefoot running.
One of them said he tried on Vibram Five Fingers but didn’t like the colors that the store had in stock- so I pointed him in the direction where he can get a nicer colored pair.
It is quite amusing while walking, having people look down to see what’s on my feet – at first seeing that they’re bare, but then from behind – seeing that little piece of vibram that completely throws them off.
Hopefully more and more people will realize the fact that shoes are not needed for most occasions and let the barefoot people be, but for now. .I’m still going bare!
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