The HEAVIES Guide to Cool Barefoot Shoes

Minimal footwear is having a fashion moment, and that's probably good news for our feet. Plus, some slept-on footwear options.

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Suicoke Vibram FiveFingers NIN-SABO sneakers.

Earlier this summer I got sent a pair of barefoot toe shoes and socks from a brand called Peluva. The trainers weren’t really my style—though the socks were kind of amazing? little hugs for all your little piggies—but they did reignite a dormant part of me that loved wearing barefoot shoes. I very quickly copped a pair of Suicoke FiveFinger mules that I’ve been wearing almost every day (bought well under retail, of course, because your boy loves a deal).

I bought my first pair of Vibram FiveFingers back in 2012, inspired by Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, which is sort of the alpha and omega of the barefoot running movement. The book highlights the Tarahumara Indians of Northwestern Mexico, who would murk ultramarathon distances in super-thin chanclas. The book makes the argument that allowing our feet to do what they were designed to do, without the aid of cushioning, helps fortify the foot’s structure, alleviating pain and increasing strength and mobility, all the way up the chain: ankles, knees, spine, etc. Studies conducted since then seem to confirm that hypothesis. 

My reasons for initially buying barefoot shoes were more prosaic: I wanted gym shoes that I could (1) easily wrap in a plastic bag and throw into a work tote, and (2) didn’t require another pair of workout socks. (Plus there’s a not-so-small part of me that takes pleasure in fashion that’s mildly offensive to other people’s sensibilities.) Maybe a year in, I ditched the FiveFingers for my favorite pair of barefoot shoes ever made, the New Balance Minimus Trail Shoes, since discontinued, which didn’t have separate toe compartments but still possessed all the same advantages. (I also liked that you could just throw them in the wash when they started getting stinky.) 

Basically my uniform throughout August.

In the past few years, I’ve seen arguments popping up that Hokas and their ultra-cushioned soles may not be great for our foot health, especially if we wear them all the time. Which makes sense. While getting treatment for my back the other week, I asked my physical therapist Josh Park of MOCEAN if Hokas really were bad for our foot health, and he said… Oh yeah, dude, they’re terrible lol.

In that way, fashion’s renewed interest in minimal footwear makes perfect Socratic sense. The ballet-toe FiveFingers have recently been embraced by some of the more adventurous dressers in fashion, like Liana Satenstein of Neverworns, who called them “heinous-chic.” She theorizes that we’ll all be FiveFinger-pilled soon. In a more demure light, I saw that Issey Miyake brought back a version of my beloved New Balance Minimuses (Minimi?) inspired by the “concept of sensuous physicality and barefoot mobility.” (I’m seriously considering copping a pair.) And Laura Reilly of Magasin spent the summer traipsing around Europe in $45 Xero sandals that look like $900 Miu Miu. (Of course, big HEAVIES homie Errolson Hugh has occasionally been rocking FiveFingers for a few years now, and he is one of the most advanced humans alive.)

I don’t think FiveFingers will ever be “cool,” at least in a mass sense like Crocs, which were able to transcend their ugly reputation because consumers very reasonably rationalized that comfort transcends everything else. Barefoot shoes, on the other hand, are hard to wear. Most of the sneakers are hideous, or at best forgettable, like they were designed for a Shark Tank deck. And you can’t go out and crush five miles out the gate; there’s an acclimation period or you risk injuring yourself.

But doing the hard thing in order to reap the benefits later is kind of the whole HEAVIES deal, so I’ve been going down some rabbit holes to try to find other barefoot shoes that don’t scream venture capital bro who spends his weekends doing Spartan Races. (No shots, just not the energy I’m after.)

I’ve been chatting a lot with exquisite taster-haver Natalie So, a deputy editor at the Believer and a fellow barefoot shoe and foot health enthusiast. She was a big runner in college but had to stop because of tendonitis in her feet, and has been on a Quixotic mission to find a beautiful pair of minimal kicks, having spent untold hours reading about, like, rare European barefoot brands.

Here’s what she wrote in an email about her own barefoot journey after going through countless pairs:

“I got really into pilates (I'm now a certified pilates instructor, though I don't teach), I had one teacher who really emphasized foot health — so I began to look into barefoot shoes again, both as a way of strengthening my feet and as a palliative for my bunions (the fear of bunion surgery also looms!). At this point, having done my research, I'm fully sold on the IDEA of wearing barefoot shoes, but have not fully converted to wearing them — I probably only wear them about 20% of the time — due to aesthetic and comfort reasons that I'm hoping I can get over at some point...  For me, the most important thing right now is to wear shoes with a wider toe box... then eventually transition when there are more options I can visually stomach.” 

The pair she likes the most is honestly very sick, tasteful, and dare I say… avant garde. It’s called the Wildling Feder, and it looks sort of like the toddler-only Nike Sunrays that I wish came in adult sizes. “Unfortunately they're not the best shoes for when it's cold or rainy, but they're great otherwise,” says Natalie. “I think barefoot sandals are also the way to go, as they're fairly inoffensive-looking.” 

Wildling Feder

While I’ve been wearing the Suicokes a lot, I’ve been running in a pair of $50 Kineya Muteki tabi shoes from Japan. (Or rather, Vietnam by way of Japan.) (Natalie owns multiple pairs, though she thinks the fit is a bit weird.)

The company’s website is gorgeously lo-fi and states that the shoes are made in collaboration with a barefoot runner named Shoji Takaoka, who, I mean, just look at him… the man has immaculate vibes: “Mr. Takaoka asserts that running barefoot or in barefoot shoes can ameliorate knee and lower back injuries and help strengthen core muscles, which is beneficial for your entire body.” 

I could see these getting thrashed pretty quickly, but they tick a lot of boxes for me: washable, lightweight, and uh, they’re tabis and that’s spiritually very HEAVIES. The wide toe box makes me feel like a duck.

Running barefoot, with very little responsive force from the ground, has slowed my mile time considerably (from sub ~8 to ~10 minutes; I’m slow!). But that’s a concession I’m cool with. Steady does it. I’m not about to switch to barefoot full time—my other shoes need love too—but like Natalie, a few times a week already has my legs feeling strong and powerful, and my knees have never felt better. The dorsal surface of my foot even looks like it has a buff little bicep from all the flexion. Yup.

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