Social Workout

Purists

Barefoot Running and the Paradox of Choice

Last week CJ spotted a dude doing a handstand in Vibram fivefingers "shoes," and we had to dig deeper. Turns out fivefingers are a rich vein to mine. This was not your normal product for Vibram, which invented the rubber-soled hiking boot in 1935, and now churns out 34 million rubber soles a year. The "shoes" were the brainchild of an Italian industrial designer who managed to convince Marco Bramani, grandson of Vibram's founder, to give it a try: The human foot achieved mechanical perfection over millions of years of evolution, our man argued, and we've done nothing but screw it up by wearing Manolos and Nikes.

Whether entirely true or not, the response among some people has been evangelical. Lifestyle entrepreneurs like Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Workweek) rave about the fivefingers in long articles on the Huffington Post -- affirming that raised heels and running shoes have made us soft. These shoes let us "reclaim our rightful arch strength, our stability, and undo the damage of years of unnatural posture," writes Ferriss. Then there is Barefoot Ted, a motivational speaker/blogger and personal trainer in Seattle, who seems not to have met flimsy, archless footewear he doesn't love dearly. Who knew there was a barefoot running movement?