Nike, Back to the PAST

What Nike's Chief Designer says in a documentary is important for you to know.

Even if he wants to sell you shoes from the movie "Back to the Future".

And it's important because it has to do with the health of your feet, and it coincides with what another person connected with Nike said.

It happened around 2005, when Nike representatives visited the Stanford University track and field team.

These are routine visits to see how the teams they sponsor are doing.

When they arrive, they notice that the guys are running barefoot.

Surprised, they turn to the coach and ask him if he is missing shoes.

The coach replies that no, they are simply running barefoot because he has noticed that the guys get injured less and run faster.

And because the reinforcements of the shoes isolate the foot from its natural position and the foot doesn't get stronger.

That made the representatives think. The coach was highly respected by Nike and his words could not fall on deaf ears.

And they did not.

Because Nike used that discovery to launch shoes that simulated barefoot running, what is nowadays called minimalist or healthy shoes.

The same ones that in 2007 I tried to buy in a shop in Madrid and that the shop assistant refused to sell me. I told about it here.

A pair of shoes that Nike didn't know how to sell, or the public didn't understand.

If Nike said that the shoes with inner air chamber were the best for the knees, how is it that now these shoes didn't have them?

Back to the present and Nike's chief designer.

He says that basketball players' feet are ruined because they wear the shoes too tight and their feet get ruined and deformed.

And he adds (this is the important thing):

If you take care of your feet and they have more circulation, ground adaptation and comfort, your feet will be healthier and you will be able to move better.

And this is the same as what the Stanford athletic trainer says, with the difference that Stanford athletes trained barefoot and Nike's chief designer wants to sell you an automatic lacing system.

So that when the players are on the bench, the shoes get automatically unlaced so the foot get free, has more blood flow and recovers faster.

To make it clear, imagine that you wear a straitjacket to work. The kind you would wear in an insane asylum.

This shirt is intelligent and when you have to do something with your hands, it open itself, but the moment you do nothing it closes automatically, leaving you more tied up than Anibal Lecter when they change his cell.

Well, that's what Nike is now trying to sell you, but for your feet.

A stiff, narrow, heavy shoe with a raised heel, but......tatatatatachan..... with an automatic lacing system.

Well.

The message they both send is clear.

A foot is healthier if:

• It has more circulation. If the shoe tilts your big toe towards the inside of your foot, it is taking blood away from it.

• They adapt to the ground. Your footwear should be flexible and thin-soled, so that your foot can adapt and feel where you step.

• They move better. Your shoes should not have lateral reinforcements or buttresses. This takes away the mobility of your foot and damages your knees.

And to achieve this you don't have to go into the future.

You just have to choose the right shoe for every occasion.

Or use one that works for everything, such as the:

• Xero Shoes Prio
• Lems Primal 2
• Vivobarefoot Geo Court II
• Be lenka Prime

Men's or women's. Women and men.


Health starts with your feet.

- Antonio Caballo -

Sources: book Born to Run and Netflix documentary Abstract (season 1, episode 2).