Are Barefoot Shoes Good for Running?

Yes for most healthy runners, and no in the way most people try it. A barefoot running shoe does not make running safer by itself. It moves the work. A thin, zero-drop sole pushes you off your heel and onto your midfoot, which takes load out of your knees and puts it into your calves, Achilles and feet. If those are ready, you end up a stronger runner. If they are not, you get the injury list halfway down this page.

Which means the shoe is not really the decision. The transition is. Buy the shoe, keep your old mileage, and you will hurt yourself in a new place.

What counts as a barefoot running shoe

Four things, and a shoe needs all four to qualify. A sole thin and flexible enough to feel the ground through. A toe box wide enough for your toes to splay when you land on them. No height difference between heel and toe, which is what zero drop means. And almost no cushioning, so your foot and lower leg absorb the landing instead of the foam.

What you get out of them

The whole case rests on the strike pattern. Landing on the middle or front of the foot instead of the heel spreads impact through the arch and calf rather than sending it up the leg, and it usually arrives with a shorter stride and a quicker turnover, which lowers the force of every landing. The small muscles in your feet and lower legs finally have to work, so they get stronger. Ground feel improves, so you adapt your stride to the surface without deciding to.

“Running barefoot or in minimalist shoes is like strength training for your feet.”

Dr Irene Davis, Harvard Medical School

There is an efficiency argument on top. A 2022 study in the journal Sensors found the foot’s core muscles and arch add recoil energy during the stance phase, while runners in shoes bounced up and down more, wasting energy. Read that finding carefully though. It measured running barefoot, not running in barefoot shoes. The shoe is standing in for the bare foot, and nobody has shown the two are the same.

What it costs you

Tendons adapt more slowly than enthusiasm. The calf and Achilles work a zero-drop sole demands takes weeks to months to build, and the standard failures inside that window are stress fractures, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. Those are three of the injuries the benefits list is supposed to help you avoid, which tells you how much the transition matters and how little the shoe does on its own.

The rest is simpler. Minimal cushioning means minimal protection, so sharp gravel and hard ground both register. And some feet, some gaits and some existing conditions do not suit these shoes at all, which is a conversation for a physio rather than a blog post.

What the research actually says

Mixed, and the mix is the useful part. The strongest finding against a casual switch comes from Oregon State University Cascades, which looked at young runners and found the loading rates linked to stress fractures and plantar fasciitis more than doubled running barefoot and nearly doubled in minimal shoes, measured against traditional ones. That is not a reason never to do it. It is a reason never to do it abruptly, and a reason to be more careful with a teenager than with yourself.

The number quoted most often in favour is that 69% of people who switched reported better performance, many of them alongside fewer recurring injuries. Check where it comes from before you lean on it. The source cited at the bottom of this page is a survey of 65 people written up on a personal blog, not a controlled trial, and people who chose to switch and then filled in a survey about it are exactly the group you would expect to report success. It is worth something. It is not worth what a journal citation would be.

The form change is the actual product

You can buy the shoe and change nothing, in which case you have bought a shoe with no cushioning to carry on heel striking in. That removes the protection without adding the technique, and it is the single most common way this goes wrong.

The change is five things. Land on your midfoot or forefoot. Lift your cadence towards 180 steps a minute so the strides get shorter and quicker. Keep your torso upright with your core engaged. Shorten your stride until your foot lands under your centre of mass instead of out in front of it. And keep the footfall soft. Noise is the easiest of the five to check on yourself: a loud slap usually means you are still reaching ahead of your body.

“The Shoes That Fix Bad Running Technique”, from the Barefoot Strength channel.

How to switch without hurting yourself

Two shoes people usually start in

Xero Shoes and Vivobarefoot are the two brands with a proper barefoot running range, and these are the models most people land on first.

Vivobarefoot Primus Lite

An ultra-thin puncture-resistant sole under a breathable mesh upper made from recycled materials, with a wide toe box and very little weight to it. Light and flexible is the whole design brief.

Xero Shoes HFS II

A 9mm sole that includes a thin BareFoam layer wrapped up around the upper, so it looks chunkier than it is, over a removable 3.5mm insole. Zero drop, wide toe box, laced like an ordinary trainer. Vegan materials throughout, if that decides things for you.

Who should think twice

Frequently asked questions

References

• Barefoot Shoes Transition Study (the 65-person survey behind the 69% figure)
• Barefoot and Minimal Shoes May Increase Injury Risk in Young Runners
• New Study Finds Running Barefoot is More Efficient Than Running With Shoes
• Effects of Highly Cushioned Shoes on Running Performance
• Foot Strike Patterns and Injury Rates in Runners