Is The Tide Turning For Barefooters? REI Stores Set The Example.

A member of The Society for Barefoot Living, John, from the Boston area, just had an amazing victory at REI stores (outdoor recreational supplies). He had been declined service due to being barefoot at an REI store and then sent a letter to the president of the company. It's kind of long, but I wanted to copy his entire report, which is well worth reading:

Hello Everyone,

As some of you may know I sent a letter to the president of REI and within a few weeks got a phone message from the Mountain\Eastern territory Retail Director.

I have called the director back several times over the last couple of weeks (leaving messages) and also sent her two emails. As of yesterday morning I had heard nothing and just hoped that she was busy.

Well, at around lunchtime, she called me back. She apologized, saying that she was on a trip. I'll need to paraphrase most of this because I can only remember her exact words in a few places. My head is still spinning.

First she apologized for my treatment in the store. I thanked her and assured her that I was not upset, just disappointed since I really like the store. I also assured her that the store manager was polite and professional with me at all times. Then she said, "You really got us all thinking here". and continued to explain that they are aware of the barefoot running and hiking movements and they know some people go barefoot for health reasons. OK, so far so good.

The director said that she asked store managers how many barefoot customers they see come through the stores. Sure enough, some managers reported barefoot customers. The store with the most barefooters seemed to be one in Colorado, right in the same state as her office.

She then said that they looked through the company policies and, although many in upper management THOUGHT bare feet would be excluded from the stores, they found no such statement. She called it a "phantom policy which only existed people's minds".

She said the next worry they addressed was, "You know, we sell food... and you've got the whole health code thing". I asked her what they found. She said, "Well, we found that there are no health codes out there that would stop a customer with bare feet". Wow, this was starting to sound pretty good. Maybe they found that info on our site :)

She said that next they considered liability issues. She said that just like "our phantom dress policy", which so many people thought existed, "we had people worrying about phantom injuries, things people thought could happen but really probably wouldn't".

I would guess the ice axe fits this category pretty well :)

She said they sorted out the things that really could happen and little by little realized that the stores were actually pretty safe. She said they researched old records looking for customer injuries as related to what might happen to a bare foot. They found one real injury in the records. Someone stepped on an inventory control pin and put it into their foot. And, she said, "that guy was wearing flip flops... and he still got stuck". She said the store personnel already know to keep them off the floor.

[Note: Inventory control pins are those plastic mushroom heads with a sharp nail about an inch long sticking out. They stick through garments and lock into the electronic alarm tags. I HAVE seen them on the floor in stores, pin facing up, but it's not too common. They are a bad design. We know why the guy got stuck. he was wearing sh@@s, was careless, and couldn't feel the pin until it was too late.]

The lady then said that they reached the conclusion that it is not necessary to prohibit barefoot shoppers and that they notified the managers of the stores, telling them to instruct the workers as such. Wow, I still can't believe this...

The lady said, "We want you back as a customer and you are welcome to shop barefoot".

She then asked that I stop by the counter and ask for the manager on my next visit to the store. If it's not the same guy, she wants me to introduce myself and tell him that I'm a barefooter. She wants the managers to get to know me. The manager that I already met should be expecting me and the staff should have already been instructed. She said, "You won't have any more trouble.”

And THAT, my friends, is how it should be. If there is an REI near you, Go There! And Go Barefoot!

Barefoot Running Movie From RunBare

Almost everyone in the barefoot running community has heard of Michael Sandler. He has shared his inspiring story with us through his book, Barefoot Running (published by his company RunBare) and his whirlwind running clinic tours over the past few years. Today, Michael and Jessica released a trailer for their upcoming movie on barefoot running. That’s right. Barefoot Running, the movie.

To be clear, this is not a movie for the cinema. It is not a documentary of the barefooting movement (we’re still waiting for that). It is primarily an instructional “how-to” film, though Michael and Jessica do spend quite some time simply celebrating barefoot freedom.

Several barefoot running enthusiasts have already produced short video clips, both humorous and instructional, but what RunBare has coming out this Fall is on a whole new level. Their DVD is a full-length, professional quality film, as entertaining as it is educational. I have had the pleasure of previewing several chapters and the quality of the film is spectacular. It is exactly as they describe: “Seventy minutes, 17 chapters filled with amazing running, scenery, and entertaining lessons about barefoot running.” The film is stunning for no other reason than the running footage through the breathtaking Maui scenery and the National Geographic quality music. Seriously, the folks at RunBare have outdone themselves with this one!

Catch the trailer here, and then be sure to get the full-length film in August. 

Your Day Without Shoes 2012

Would you like to spend an entire day without shoes? Does it sound fun? Does it sound scary? Does it sound challenging? Maybe it just sounds… interesting. If you’d like to give it a try, then this Saturday, May 26, is the day for you!

Your Day Without Shoes is an annual event started by ThePrimalfoot Alliance to promote foot health and barefoot freedom. If you don’t know it by now, shoes are THE cause of virtually ALL of our foot problems in the United States, from bunions to blisters, corns to calluses, flat foot and fallen arches, athlete’s foot and toenail fungus, and of course, that infamous stink. Going barefoot really is SO MUCH healthier than wearing shoes, but we unfortunately live in a shoe-obsessed society. For the sake of our health, and the freedom to enjoy simply going barefoot from time-to-time, we must liberate our feet. This Saturday, spend the entire day barefoot. And don’t just sit around the house; purposely go public in your bare feet. If the thought of that sounds scary, let that be an indication to you of how shoe-obsessed our culture is. However, there is good news: most people want going barefoot in public to be socially acceptable!*

Your Day Without Shoes was started in part as a response to a campaign by TOMS shoe company (“One Day Without Shoes”). The TOMS campaign asks people to go barefoot for a day to raise awareness for poor shoeless children in Africa. I’m not going to discuss TOMS or the fact that it’s a for-profit company misrepresenting itself as a charity, but I will say that A LOT of people participate in their campaign. Many of these people are undoubtedly good people and think they are doing a charitable service, but I am also convinced that many of these people also participate because the campaign gives them an “excuse” to enjoy a day barefoot. When questioned, they say they are “raising awareness” and point to the large shoe company sponsoring the event. What jerk of a manager would kick you out because you’re suffering through the day barefoot to “raise awareness” for poor children? Besides, if they DO kick you out it only proves TOMS’ point: going without shoes is hard. Actually, the only point that is proved is that we live in a shoe-obsessed society. Which is why we need Your Day Without Shoes to highlight that our obsession with footwear is actually an unhealthy one and that we need the freedom to go barefoot for our own good health. If you really want to point them to a higher authority to justify your barefootedness, why not show them a copy of The Barefoot Book? (shameless plug!) Or just print-off the fact sheet found on my website. 

So, what do you say? Are you ready to spend an entire day without shoes? 

*according to a non-scientific but likely accurate facebook poll conducted by The Primalfoot Alliance (link).

The Society for Barefoot Living & The Primalfoot Alliance: Steps in the Right Direction

If you are reading this blog, you are probably interested in the health benefits of going barefoot more often. Maybe you’ve started barefoot running (or you’re thinking about it). Maybe you have a particular foot ailment and found this blog while searching the internet for answers. Maybe you are die-hard “barefooter” and follow anything and everything barefoot.

This blog exists to promote an idea, or actually a simple set of premises:

1.       Going barefoot is healthier than wearing shoes in almost all circumstances.

2.       Going barefoot should be a non-issue (that is, it should be socially acceptable).

Premise #1 is a fact. It is based firmly on science and a proper understanding of human ambulation. There is simply no dispute that shoes negatively affect our bodies in multiple ways and that going barefoot is both natural and healthy. There are disputes about the safety of going barefoot, but most fears are based on ignorance and misunderstanding, both of which are easily remedied in open-minded people.

Premise #2 is a goal. Most of you reading this blog live in a Western society which generally expects you to wear shoes virtually everywhere, all the time. Fortunately, that expectation is not codified in laws, only in social norms. It is perfectly legal to drive (barefoot) to a shopping mall where you can shop (barefoot) in every store and eat (barefoot) in the food court. For this we can all be truly thankful! However, if you attempt to do this you may run into social resistance, from store managers, security guards, even other customers. I believe the only way we can change this social expectation is to not acquiesce to society’s demand that we put on shoes.

I realize that confrontation is uncomfortable and I recognize that most people don’t even want to become hardcore barefooters, but I also believe firmly that most people want to go barefoot more. Indeed, a facebook poll revealed that 3 out of 4 people would go barefoot in public if it were socially acceptable. News flash: If 75% of us want to do it, it is socially acceptable!

It’s hard to take those first bare steps into the public realm. Nevertheless, it can be done. I routinely drive (barefoot) to my local mall where I shop (barefoot) and eat (barefoot) in the food court. The last time I went to my local mall I was seen by no less than three security guards and none of them said a word to me. Last year, I was escorted to the exit by a guard for being barefoot in that same mall. Times have changed. But why have times changed (and relatively quickly)? It would no doubt be arrogant to think I alone caused this change, but my persistence has surely been a large factor. After my ejection experience last year, I waited a few months and started going back to the mall again (still barefoot). I have done this for every place I’ve ever been ejected. My discovery: they stop hassling me.

If you want going barefoot in public to be an option, I would encourage you to just do it (yes, that’s irony).  Nothing is more powerful at turning the tide than your willingness to just do it. Not only is it liberating to you, it’s liberating to those who see you. When (not if) confrontation arises, be ready to educate, but always educate politely. If the discussion turns nasty, you turn… and walk away. Don’t be a jerk; that just gives us barefooters a bad reputation.

So, what’s up with the title of this post? I want you to know that if you long to go barefoot and carefree, you are not alone. Many other people share that longing and we’ve formed  groups to share stories, encourage each other, and advocate for the cause. If you’ve made it this far in this post, I encourage you to join the Society for Barefoot Living on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/societyforbarefootliving/). If you want to advocate for barefoot freedom, check out The Primalfoot Alliance and consider how you can help. Finally, if you want to truly understand your feet, how they are supposed to function and how shoes harm us, then of course you should check out my book, The Barefoot Book: 50 Great Reasons To Kick Off Your Shoes.

What is Tyranny?

What if the government criminalized a healthy activity? What if jogging, for instance, was made illegal because it increases your immediate risk of a heart attack. Of course, running reduces your risk of a heart attack in the long-run, but what if the government got their facts wrong or just didn’t care because the act of running was deemed too risky? What if the government mandated that you take a medication you don’t want to take? What would you do if the government forced you to do something you know is bad for you?

In Ohio, a committee made up of elected officials decided that citizens must wear footwear or face arrest (for criminal trespass) at the Statehouse, the government complex ironically called “The People’s House.” This decision came after a long and protracted fight by a man named Bob Neinast, an Ohio citizen who frequently makes (made) use of the Statehouse, barefoot. Bob goes barefoot because he enjoys it and because doing so genuinely relieves shoe-induced aches and pains. Although he is an Ohio citizen and the Statehouse is where citizens go to conduct business with their government, Bob is not allowed there unless he conforms to their idea of decorum.

Actually, the reason stated for the shoe rule is safety. Here is where the government has their facts wrong. The irony is that shoes are responsible for the vast majority of the foot problems we have in the United States, from bunions to fallen arches to athlete’s foot. High heels put at least 20,000 women in the hospital each year [1], but officials didn’t ban heels from the Statehouse.

For Your Safety is quickly becoming the most hated phrase in America, and for good reason. Since 2001, For Your Safety has been used to tread on more freedoms than any other excuse in our nation’s history. In Ohio, whose safety is really being preserved by this shoe rule? If it’s not about safety, why are our officials blatantly lying to us? If it’s about decorum, is this the business of our government?

Just laws are those that protect us from others who wish to physically harm us or our property. A law aimed at protecting me from myself is an unjust law and a tyrannical meddling of the government into my personal affairs. Liberty is the freedom to do as I please as long as I’m not demonstrably harming someone else. Thomas Jefferson said it like this:

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

Several members of the Ohio General Assembly were part of the committee (JCARR) that voted to uphold the new shoe requirement at the Statehouse, a rule that was created in direct response to a citizen (Neinast) going safely shoeless in the Statehouse; a rule that serves no purpose but to obstruct the actions of Neinast and other citizens [2] on public property. The rule demonstrates tyranny. Since the Legislators that support this rule don’t seem to understand the true nature of law and liberty, I urge the citizens of Ohio to dismiss and replace those Legislatures at their first opportunity. They are Sen. Frank LaRose (SD27@ohiosenate.gov), Sen. Kris Jordan (SD19@ohiosenate.gov), Sen. Dave Burke (SD26@ohiosenate.gov), Rep. Bill Hayes (614-644-2500), Rep. Mike Duffey (614-644-6030), Rep. Cheryl L. Grossman (614-466-9690), Rep. John Carney (614-466-2473),and Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard (614-466-8010). Senators Charleta B. Tavares (SD15@ohiosenate.gov) and Michael Skindell (SD23@ohiosenate.gov) voted against the rule and they are to be commended. The minutes for the meeting are not yet posted online, but will be here when they become available.

A few miles south of Ohio, Beth Harwell is Speaker of the House in Tennessee. She is known for going barefoot on the House floor as shown in the photo. In Columbus, Madame Speaker could be arrested, hand-cuffed, and taken away from the government property for this dangerous barefoot activity (actually, she would be hauled off to another, even less genial government property). Thank goodness that House Speaker Beth Harwell and the Legislators of Tennessee have more sense than those in Ohio.

Footnotes:

1. DP Manning and C Jones. High Heels and Polished Floors: The Ultimate Challenge In Research On Slip-Resistance. Safety Science 19 (1):19.

2. The Statehouse is often used for weddings and special events; bridesmaids, keep your shoes on or face going to jail.

Advice for Going Barefoot Successfully

The seasons are changing and the weather is warming up in the northern hemisphere. People are ready to kick off their shoes and I’m getting lots of emails about barefooting and, in particular, how to avoid hassles when  going shoeless in public. Here are some tips to avoid the “shoe police”:

1. Walk with confidence! This is the number one rule of successful barefooting. When going out in public barefoot for the first time (or first fifty times!), many people feel self-conscious about it. Unfortunately, this puts a massive bulls eye on your back and makes you a target for confrontation. I guess it’s a body language thing. Anyway, the converse is also true: the more confident you are in your bare feet, the less likely you are to get hassled. So when going out and about barefoot, hold up your head and walk with assurance. After all, you are the one making the healthy and natural choice, not all those shoddies just mindlessly following the culture to bunions and stinky feet!

 

2. Wear jeans or long pants/dresses. Having said the above, it also might be useful to evade comments or confrontations by being stealthy. Wearing long pants like jeans, especially those that are a bit long and cover most of your feet, will make your barefooting less obvious. Certainly, wearing booty shorts will make your bare feet stand out more!

3. Wear barefoot sandals. Barefoot sandals are exploding in popularity. Many people wear them just because they’re straight up cool, but they can also help you avoid confrontations, especially if worn with jeans or long dresses. If you are not familiar with barefoot sandals, just do a Google search and you can find tons of info and/or pictures of them. I predict they will be sold in mainstream outlets (like JC Penny) before much longer, maybe even this summer. At first glance, barefoot sandals look like traditional footwear, but they have no soles. Millions are available for women, but there’s even two or three masculine versions out there, too. (I have some).

 

4. Be the only one, but not alone. For some odd reason, you're more likely to get called out when you go shopping barefoot alone, so try to go with friends or family whenever you can. And while I certainly encourage people to go out barefoot in groups (that is great fun and often brings its own kind of success), it can also lead to its own kind of trouble. Only twice have I gone to a restaurant, for example, with a group of barefoot friends. Both times we got confronted; once we got kicked out and the other time we managed to convince the management to let us stay. Actually, both experiences were fun! (It's much more fun getting kicked out together!) But if your goal is to shop, eat, etc. and just be left alone, being the only one barefoot in a group helps a lot.

 
5. Go to barefoot-friendly places first. Until you get some barefooting experience (which increases your confidence), you might want to go to barefoot-friendly places. Local parks, trails and other outdoor venues are usually good to barefooters. Outdoor community events like concerts or festivals are also great for bare feet. When you gain some confidence you can explore grocery shopping, retail stores and other indoor public spaces. Consider yourself a barefooting expert when you conquer the shopping mall sans shoes!

Those are my best tips. Please leave a comment if you have other tips to share, or just to tell us about your public barefooting experience!

The Barefoot Professor Misrepresented By Shoe Consultant

I had the great pleasure of participating in a roundtable discussion on barefoot running at the recent UKSEM conference in London last week. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to meet hundreds of fascinating coaches, doctors, scientists and athletic trainers from around the globe. The roundtable discussion (titled “Natural Running – Advantages & Disadvantages”) was a memorable opportunity for me as I got to share the stage with experts on barefoot running and shoes. The five experts on the panel were Daniel Lieberman (Harvard), Benno Nigg (University of Calgary), Matthias Marquardt (Natural Running), Simon Bartold (ASICS) and myself. The discussion was moderated by Ross Tucker, a young scientist from the University of Cape Town who is a consultant for Adidas South Africa.

Unfortunately, Ross Tucker and I must not have been at the same roundtable discussion at UKSEM. In his summary of the discussion published on his blog today, Ross managed to completely misrepresent my statements on barefoot running. Let me set the record straight.

Ross started the roundtable discussion with the question: “'Shoes are evil. They do not help, they may even cause injury. Barefoot running is natural, and will help prevent injury, and therefore everyone should be encouraged to run barefoot'. Do you buy or sell this concept?"

Ross says that “only Daniel Howell outright bought the concept.” Unfortunately, that is completely untrue. My response to his “buy or sell” question was “Both. Buy and sell. 90% buy.” How does this translate to “outright bought the concept”?

Ross’ mischaracterization of my position doesn’t stop with this opening remark; he continues it all the way through his summary article.

Ross said in a blog for The Guardian and reiterated in his summary of the discussion that there are likely some “people who simply cannot adapt to barefoot running.” Although Ross Tucker may be “certain of this case,” it is pure conjecture. Neither of us have any scientific evidence on this point, but I say it’s equivalent to positing that some people (living in a hypothetical glove-wearing society) cannot adapt to using their bare hands upon taking their gloves off.

Ross accuses me of not recognizing that “being barefoot as a runner exists in a larger context, and that context includes about 100 things that make us different from our ancestors.  For example, we sit at desks for 8 hours a day, we sleep on comfortable mattresses, we drive, and we "hunt" our food in supermarkets and not in bushlands, we play in shoes (when we're not playing on computer games), and we grow up in them and then at 30, we are faced with a possible change (as a result of this debate).  Not one of those things happened before, but every one of them COULD be a contributing factor to injury risk.  In other words, weakness of supporting muscles and tendons as a result of years of disuse and TV-watching might mean that being "natural" is a more risky option that being in shoes.  There is a real possibility, as stated earlier, that some people need shoes in order to run.” (emphasis in original).

Of course I DO recognize that barefoot running exists in a larger context and I actually stressed this point during the discussion. I said that it’s unrealistic to spend decades growing up in shoes, wear shoes throughout the week, then take them off for a few minutes to run barefoot and expect your feet to perform well. This is one reason why I think we all should be walking barefoot more. Ross seems to be saying that because we eat McDonald’s junk food and watch TV too much, we should abandon doing anything that’s natural for our bodies. Actually, it might seem that Ross Tucker has a bone to pick with me since he quoted a tweet in which I called his above arguments “bull.” But he obviously misunderstands my point; Yes, there is a technique to running barefoot and (as I said in my book) we must be slowly weaned from shoes (i.e., rehabilitated), but unlike Ross I believe that everyone can do it barring some unusual medical problem. It is the suggestion that some people will always need big, bulky running shoes that I think is bull.

Ross also accuses me of making “a very basic mistake” by equating natural with better. He claims that antibiotics are not natural (actually most of them are) yet our lives have been enhanced by them, therefore natural is not always better. Ross clearly thinks he’s making a suitable analogy, but he’s comparing apples to oranges when he compares antibiotics to shoes. For the record, I agree that natural is not always better. There is no doubt that man-made products (or “unnatural” uses of natural products like antibiotics) have benefited mankind, but this doesn’t mean that all man-made inventions benefit mankind. Unlike antibiotics, shoes have a demonstrably negative effect on human anatomy and gait; I’ve written a book detailing these effects.

Finally, Ross neglected to mention that I said there will always be a need for shoes – under the harshest terrain or weather conditions, for example. My philosophy is that shoes are tools, use them when necessary but not otherwise. And when shoes must be worn, choose those that have a minimal impact on foot anatomy and gait biomechanics. What I “buy” is that traditional running shoes with bulky cushioning, elevated heels, arch supports and toe springs are man-made concoctions that have an unnatural impact on human stance and ambulation; they likely cause injuries and can be done without.

So, Ross Tucker, I have a question for you: Misrepresenting your “opponent” is the best way to advance your argument –  buy or sell?