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The Kenyan junior women all ran barefoot in the world xc this year I believe - so maybe elite coaches are also gaining a renewed interest in the potential speed benefits?
What with RC150s not being made any more and manufacture of H-steets and similar being subject to the whims of fashion - who knows if they'll be available in a few years time - I've begun to wonder about designing my own shoes. Getting hold of a ~4mm EVA sheet seems easy enough. Soling rubber should be easy enough too. Cutting into desired shape and glueing etc shouldn't be difficult. The only difficulty i would see is in making a decent upper.
Not considered this until now - but maybe there is a small business opportunity here? There are a growing number of us to whom a really simple running shoe would appeal.
Anyone speak Japanese?
Interesting that the Pose shoe still hasn't seen the light of day - I wonder whether it's not as easy a process as it seems. You'd have thought there's a great business opportunity there, given that we're down to one retailer of 150s, Nike Jarowe Waffles seem to have all but disappeared and shoe-shop.com's supply of synthetic-upper H-Streets seems to have dwindled to only two sizes.
I have only attached these with tape, but feel a snug neoprene/velcro arangement around midfoot would work fine.
I'm wondering whether I would be able to remove the uppers intact from one of my many old worn-out pairs of 150s and reattach them to some home made soles of the kind you describe. It doesn't sound too tricky in theory, but I'm not sure how hard it would be in practice - I have a feeling it would take some real hacking to remove the 150s' uppers and that they might not survive the process...
It occurs to me that the ideal upper would basically just be a strongly elasticated sock which you could just stick on some minimalist soles. I think the difficulty would be finding a sock that was elasticated enough to keep your feet in place, and that was at least slightly waterproof but breathable at the same time. If you could find something to meet these requirements then it seems like it would be very easy to put together a very cheap, very light but comfortable minimalist "shoe".
What do you reckon?
Gravy: Excellent post. I can relate to what you said about seams and arch-support though it's not too bad for me. The biggest factor is the tightness of fit hence I use lock-laces, take the insoles out and wear thin socks. Initially the feet are a little sensitive but after a while they become numb and I can run much better/smoother.
Chaos: Have you considered the thickness of the skin on the soles of your feet? We go barefoot indoors. Mine seems to be fairly thick. When I visited some poor parts of India people walked around barefoot and the kids could quite happily runaround on dirt tracks. When we came down from the trees surely the skin on the underside would have been thicker??
A friend of mine makes bespoke designer shoes. In the past, I've spoken to him about making a "proper" minimalist shoe. Other then what's been mentioned, one of the other key requirements is that the price of the shoe should be cheap...very cheap. This is in fact easy to do as all the materials need to be lightweight and hence are easy to buy. Next step is make sure production costs are low.
The idea of a strong sock with a durable rubberized underneath is excellent. In a similar vein, I have a pair of very thin tri-bord surf shoes (4mm of rubber) from Decathlon (ie £4? a pair) which are brilliant except my feet get very sweaty. They feel like a pair of socks. Though the rubber is so soft it wears out to quickly on the pavement.
http://aeishoes.com/
"Light Weight Shoes for the Forefoot Runner"
They sound very interesting. I've emailed them for the pricing so will update you if and when I hear back.
The closest I came up with with were Martial arts shoes.
Martial arts shoes look good but I'm not sure about the leather uppers on most of them (or the durability of the cotton/canvas ones).
RC151J
"Hello Mark,
Right now I am charging $45 plus an additional $7 for foreign
shipping. That covers my costs. The shoes are in the latter stages
of development, and I would like feedback on them. I am making
changes as I determine needs and solutions. I only have the three
sizes 9,10, and 11 right now.
If you would like a pair, the easiest way is to have me send a Paypal
invoice. Then you can pay that and I'll make and ship the shoes
within a week.
Thanks for your interest,
Dave Schoenfeld"
So - who wants to be the guinea pig?
I'd be very tempted but I may have trouble convincing Mrs SVT, having bought 150s and Protons at the start of the month! I'll try, but I'm not sure whether my powers of persuasion are up to it. Mind you, if I give her £28.52 to spend on shoes herself she surely can't complain...
The one concern is that they seem to be very much off-road shoes and I'm a 95% road runner.
I'm a 100% road-runner but part of my route can include running over parkland & trails so can give these shoes a right bashing.
They look very interesting. It's a shame they have gone for a thicker carbon fibre plate in the sole rather than a much more flexible kevlar fabric mesh or I'd be getting my credit card out to place an order this minute. I'm not sure that stopping lateral foot movement and only allowing slightly restricted longitudinal movement is the ideal. If top African runners can happily run barefoot on trails, then I'm sure even those of us with most soft and pampered feet could manage with just enough protection to keep out anything sharp and a very small amount of cushioning. However, it's still great to see someone trying to bring out something like this, so all credit to them.
I was interested to note this part from the AEI site:
"Generally a forefoot runner will rely on bio mechanics to absorb or minimize the shock to his body. As the foot touches down on the ground, the arch can flatten to cushion the foot"
I think he is absolutely spot on about the arch of the foot needing the freedom to be able flatten out in order to absorb shock. This is why arch support seems to me like such a terrible idea in running shoes, particularly for fore-/mid-foot runners.
I think you e-mail the company, they can send you a PayPal invoice and you pay it (assuming you have a PayPal account set up).
It's a road/pavement version that we need now - I've searched for kevlar fabric socks/soled-shoes in vain. The only stuff I did find was the Vivo Barefoot range but they are firstly very expensive and secondly made in sweaty leather.
http://www.funky-footwear.co.uk/brand-VivoBarefoot.html
I also see that lateral stiffness as a problem. I'm just getting over some achilles trouble that i'm sure was caused in part by track reps in spikes (plastic spike plate - poor lateral flexibility.
This afternoon in the lovely sunshine I walked barefoot around the common across the road from my house. The skin on the bottom of my feet is much more sensitive than when I was (much) younger growing up in Aus. But apart from that it felt good. I even included some little sets as suggested in this month's RW article: balls of feet only, heels only, toes scrunched and sides of feet.
Anyway, I'm starting to think about using something like the Teva Proton for two 10-15 minute recovery runs per week. I'd build up to this gradually over a period of 4 weeks.
Anyone know of shops in central London that stock the Protons? I don't want to buy them over the 'net because I don't know about sizing.
Just spent the whole bank holiday weekend either barefoot or wearing Protons with no socks.
I assume the Protons are comfortable with no socks?