We need more barefoot shoe options with thicker soles

Why having more "ground feel" isn't always a good thing

Barefoot-inspired boots with thicker soles

When it comes to healthy footwear, there’s a lot that barefoot shoes seem to get right: having a wide toe box so your toes aren’t squished is a good thing; wearing shoes that are completely flat is better for your posture and foot health than wearing heels; and shoes should be flexible enough to allow full range of motion of the foot.

But there is less certainty as to the optimal thickness of the sole. Many barefoot shoe companies aim to have the thinnest soles possible (5mm is common but I’ve seen some thinner than that) to allow for more “ground feel,” which is said to help with proprioception and foot strengthening. Thin soles definitely do make you feel more underfoot, but for some people, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Overstimulation & compensation injuries

Lee Saxsby, a running coach and biomechanics researcher who has worked with Vivobarefoot and Joe Nimble in developing their shoe designs, has this to say about one possible downside of wearing thin-soled shoes:

“It is important to remember that if the human brain receives too much sensory input it will be perceived as potentially harmful and be felt as pain in the organ being stimulated. Too much light is felt as pain in the eyes, too much noise is felt as pain in the ears and too much ‘ground feel’ is felt as pain in the feet.”

(Source)

Now, on the surface, that might not sound like a huge deal. But when you experience lingering pain or injury in a vital part of your body like the feet, you run the risk of developing a secondary injury, which is called a “compensation injury.” When your feet are in constant pain, your body’s natural response will be to reduce further damage to the area by shifting the load to other parts of the body, and if this goes on long enough, you can end up getting hurt elsewhere because other areas are being overworked trying to fulfill a function they weren’t intended for.

As a person with hypermobility, this is a phenomenon I am all too familiar with. It’s important to pinpoint the source of pain and deal with it before it sets off a possible chain reaction of injuries. If your shoes are causing you pain, your body might be telling you they’re not working for you.

Thin-soled shoes & other types of injuries

Aside from overstimulation, there are several other reasons someone might want to forego shoes with thin soles. Wearing shoes without any padding can lead to heel bruising, as well as contribute to the degeneration of the fat pads on your feet, which doesn’t sound like a good time to me.

If you have Morton’s Neuroma, it’s definitely a good idea to switch to flat shoes with a wide toe box to relieve the pressure on your foot, but wearing unpadded shoes with this condition can be incredibly painful and should be avoided. Of all the many foot injuries I’ve experienced, this has got to be the worst. Imagine with every step you take, it feels like there’s a pebble in your shoe that you can’t get out, accompanied either by a strange numbness or the feeling of being stabbed over and over in the ball of your foot. Now imagine having that in both feet simultaneously. I spent a month straight unable to leave my bedroom during the worst of it, and it’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Katy Bowman, a big proponent of barefoot shoes and author of the book Whole Body Barefoot, points out a few other ways barefoot shoes can potentially lead to injury, and how some people might benefit from having more padding:

“We have a habit of picking a ‘natural’ habit and jamming it into our unnatural lives. So, [we walk] long distances on cement or asphalt. And this takes the thing we want, like more natural foot movement, while also creating unnatural loads that, in many cases, can create fractures and overloaded foot bones. So, train smart. You might need more walking in natural environments, or a little more padding if you’re on hard surfaces all the time.”

(Source)

I don’t blame anyone for wanting to live a more natural lifestyle, but we need to balance that desire with practicality. If concrete and asphalt didn’t exist, wearing barefoot shoes (or no shoes) would likely be fine for most people today. But since many of us live in unnatural environments and have to walk primarily on manmade surfaces, we should choose footwear that reflects the reality of the world around us—not the reality we wish existed.

Sole thinness & flexibility

Having highly flexible soles is a prized attribute for many barefoot shoe wearers. Being able to roll your shoes into a ball may look impressive—and flexibility is important for full range of motion—but a lot of barefoot shoes provide much more flexibility than is strictly necessary. The flexibility of the shoe needs only reflect the flexibility of the foot, and a healthy foot doesn’t exactly roll into a ball.

It is possible for shoes to be too flexible for some people. For example, due to my hypermobility, my toes bend more than they should. When I combine having overly flexible toes with overly flexible, thin soles, what happens is my toes get bent too far back while walking, putting excess pressure on my toe joints, and that pressure is intensified when walking on concrete. It’s an extremely uncomfortable sensation, to say the least, and it’s something I haven’t experienced with any other type of footwear—not even conventional shoes with thin soles.

Aside from human health concerns, thinner materials are generally not going to last as long as thicker ones. So unless your barefoot shoes are resoleable, you’re going to have to throw them away when the soles wear out and buy a new pair, which is not very eco-friendly or wallet-friendly.

Adding insoles is not always enough

It’s common to suggest adding insoles to barefoot shoes to provide more shock absorption, but there is a limit to how much an insole can do. Let’s say a person needs 15mm padding under their feet. You can add a 5mm thick insole to a shoe with a 10mm outsole, but you can’t add a 10mm insole to a shoe with a 5mm outsole. Unless the shoe was designed for it, there will not be enough space inside for both a thick insole and a human foot.

There’s also the fact that insole foam is much less dense than the types of EVA and rubber that are used in soling, so adding thicker insoles is not going to have the same dampening effect as a thicker outsole. People often equate padding with squishiness, but in my experience it’s better to have a balanced firmness to the sole as opposed to squishiness, especially if you’re going to be standing for hours at a time.

The demand for thicker barefoot shoes is there

Several times per week I come across people online looking for barefoot shoe recommendations with thicker soles because thin soles hurt them. People will usually suggest the standard 2-3 brands, but almost invariably someone will chime in to suggest that the person looking for recommendations should try adding this or that exercise, change the way they walk, and allow enough time to adapt to barefoot shoes.

While I’m sure they mean well, this kind of advice seems to imply that if someone wants thicker soles they’ve failed in some way, rather than acknowledging the possibility that barefoot shoes just aren’t right for everyone. There are people who want to carry on with their daily lives without worrying about getting injured by landing too heavily while doing something as simple as walking down the sidewalk.

I’ve reached out to a number of barefoot shoe brands asking if they’d consider making a few models with thicker soles, and so far the answer has been a resounding “no.” But perhaps these companies would do well to take note that Altra and Lems—which have thicker soles than typical barefoot shoes—are among the most popular zero drop brands currently on the market, and their shoes can be found in many stores across the US. It’s also worth mentioning that Altra was acquired a few years ago by VF Corporation, the parent company that owns Vans, North Face, Icebreaker, and several other big name brands. This would seem to indicate that VF Corp foresees broad appeal in the market for this type of shoe.

Stores in the US that carry Altra

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to footwear. Barefoot shoes are great for some, but there are many people who can’t wear them for a variety of reasons. We need more shoes that have a wide toe box and a flat, padded sole. Although I did put together a list of cushioned zero drop shoes, it wasn’t easy to find ones that ticked all the boxes. There are simply not enough options currently, and it would be nice to have a few more styles to choose from that aren’t geared toward fitness or outdoors activities.