2011 - The Year of Barefoot Living?

Last year was a banner year for barefooting. Although Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run was released in 2009, I think it had its biggest impact on the world in 2010. This is probably because the book was published in July; people spent the next few months (i.e., the winter 2009) reading the book and then put it into practice in spring 2010. That summer several more related books hit the market: Jason Robilliard’s The Barefoot Running Book and Michael Sandler’s Running Barefoot continued the running-barefoot-is-best theme, but my book, The Barefoot Book, took the concept a step further and demonstrated how shoes are not just harmful when running but also when walking, standing and when just plain wearing them. Like Born to Run, The Barefoot Book was published in the summer. Will the public, after a year of experimenting with barefoot running and a winter to contemplate barefoot living, be ready this summer to take barefooting beyond exercise and into daily life? I believe the answer is YES.

If 2010 was the Year of Barefoot Running, then I believe 2011 will be the Year of Barefoot Living. Maybe I’m just filled with New Year wishful thinking, but I truly believe the tide will turn this year with respect to going barefoot in public. I base this hope on several observations:

1/ The Barefoot Book is generating a lot of conversation. Since the release of the book, I have been interviewed by The Washington Post, Popular Science magazine and dozens of radio shows from New York to New Zealand. I’ve appeared on national and cable television, the Drudge Report and even a documentary in Korea. Clearly, people are interested in the topic of barefoot living and the mainstream media is picking up the conversation. Wow! [Most of these can be found at www.thebarefootbook.com]

2/ Positive comments are on the rise. Every now and then an article appears online about some ‘barefooter’ or living barefoot. In keeping with the popularity of the subject, those articles usually generate a lot of reader comments. In 2010, there appeared to be more articles than ever on the subject and the comments seemed more positive than in the past (I haven’t done a rigorous study on this). My Washington Post article written by Daniel De Vise, for example, generated over 150 comments in just 48 hours. By contrast, the ten following articles written by De Vise obtained no more than 14 comments. The Today Show article about me garnered 128 comments and most of them were positive.

Online articles about barefooting still receive negative comments, but they are the same old comments we’ve seen for years (e.g., broken glass, dog poop, etc.). This time, however, those negative comments are being overwhelmed with intelligent responses debunking the myths. And when the article itself is negative, it gets slammed! The article “Poly students should eliminate barefoot trend” quickly received 26 responses, all which were critical of the article and in favor of barefooting.

3/ Barefoot running precedes barefoot living. In my own experience and that of many barefoot runners I know, barefoot running led to more barefoot living. It’s an obvious and natural next step. Once you experience the thrill of running barefoot you want to experience the thrill of driving barefoot, shopping barefoot and just living barefoot. No one denies that barefoot running went main stream last year. Will all those runners start going to the mall barefoot? No, but some will and all of them will be more open to the idea. And even those who don’t run see others running barefoot and so the idea that bare feet are okay in public is gaining traction.

The days are getting longer (in America) and summer is coming. Let’s make 2011 the Year of Barefoot Living!