Nike sells you cushioning and also run barefoot

Today's topic is about cushioning, Nike and its advertising:

"Your feet are your foundation, wake them up, strengthen them! Connect with the ground..."

And it has arisen because reading about the evolution of the human being, I have been surprised by how little is known about the subject and that each researcher puts forward his own hypothesis.

Although there is one thing they agree on. The two-legged being from which we come, be it Austrolopitecus or Homo, left the tropical forests of Africa 7,000,000 years ago and began to walk upright on the savannah.

Keep in mind the fact of the years. Why in just 50 years, the creator of Nike changed the function of the foot forever. What evolution perfected in millions of years, he changed in a few decades.

Let's talk about athletics.

Bill Borwerman, the father of Nike, was an athletic trainer looking to improve performance.

That word should tell you something. Performance works against health. Always.

Well, Bill believed that by increasing your stride and landing on your heel you would tire less over longer distances.

This is false, but of course, Bowerman, who started running a little in his 50s, didn't test his ideas. He just put rubber in the heel of his shoes and gave them to his runners.

In his book "Jogging" he compares his invention to the traditional way of running in which hard, flat shoes were used, and says: "the traditional way of running, landing on a flat foot, cushions the stride and reduces the impact on the rest of the body".

To run in the opposite way by landing on the heel, which he had invented, you need the cushioned shoes that he had also invented.

He gave you the problem (heel running) and the solution (cushioned shoes).

I remind you of Nike's father's goal: to run long distances with less effort.

He wasn't looking for less injuries or more health, just performance, as if you were a Formula 1 car with new tyres every few laps.

But you can't change your knees every race, and running on your heels in cushioned shoes destroys your knees.

Sooner or later you will have to undergo surgery.

This warning should be written on every Nike box, like a pack of cigarettes.

Back to the Nike ad at the beginning.

In 2002 when barefoot running began to sound, like Bowerman had already died, Nike officials went to ask his sporting father, one of the most respected athletic trainers of all time, Arthud Lydiar.

Arthud was blunt:

"Shoes that let your feet function as if they were barefoot are the shoes that work for me.
If you protect an area, it weakens. If you wear it, it gets stronger.
Nike makes shit."

Harsh words that Arthud also said to Bowerman in life, to which Bowerman replied that once you get into the business it's all about "making money".

Selling isn't bad, cheating on what you sell, yes, it is. Unwittingly, Bowerman's goal of making honest trainers went down the drain. And all for going against our evolution.

But it has its merit. What he has achieved by selling shit (in Arthud's words) is amazing.

And this is the pure reality and I tell you so clearly.

Now you have two alternatives:

1. Run on your heel and look for the cushioning you won't find in 2 cm of rubber,

or else,

2. Run naturally or traditionally and use your leg-foot metre as an intelligent and adaptable shock absorber.

What Nike said in their advert:

"Your feet are your foundation.
Wake them up! Strengthen them!
Connect with the ground.
Natural technology, enabling natural movement.
Power to your feet.

Run Barefoot!"

• Primus Lite All weather for men.

• Primus Lite All weather for women.

Shoes so you can run like we've always run.

No fairy tales, just evolution.

- Antonio Caballo -