200 euros thrown away

The phone rings:

- 'Antonio, can you bring me some Primus Trail FG 41 for women from the warehouse?'

- 'What colour?'

- 'In black'

- 'OK, I'll be there in 10 minutes'

Rafa calls me to bring some shoes to the shop and when I arrive, a woman is waiting at the door.

She's eating a sweet and when she sees me with the box in my hands, she smiles.

'Are they for you?' -I ask her.

'For me', -says another woman from inside the shop.

Her Spanish is like my English, kind of Indian.

These two women are on a trip. They want to tour Spain in their camper van (it has a bed and all the necessities of life).

One is from Switzerland and the other German, and both are smiling all the time.

When she tries on her shoes, I see that on the other foot she is wearing identical ones, but in Deep Blue color.

'I wanted the same ones, but in a different colour,' Rafa says when he sees my face.

I'm surprised because the woman's shoes are new and I ask him why he wants another pair.

She replies that they are on a trip and don't want her shoes to fail.

Better safe than sorry, the saying goes.

She shows the thumbs up. The size is right.

'Very nice to have a shop like this,' he says, smiling.

'Thank you!' -I reply in English.

'Feet are the most important thing if you are going on a trip. We are travelling by car and our feet are like wheels. If they break down we can't go on'.

I nod excitedly. Most of the time we have to explain why you have to wear shoes that don't damage your feet.

In this case it's the other way round. They are the ones who tell us about the benefits of wearing natural or minimalist footwear.

And furthermore they give us a nice metaphor to remember.

'We are travelling by car and our feet are like wheels. If they break down we can't go on'.

This is the reality. The one you can't hide even if the shoes have cost you a fortune.  

Spending 200€ on a shoe doesn't guarantee anything. Neither does the brand of shoe.

It happens to me a lot when I'm introduced to someone.

They try to justify their shoes with the brand or the price, but even so, they complain about their feet.

Tingling, mounted toes, claw toes, deviated thumbs, spurs....

All for 200€,

or nothing for half that:

Vivobarefoot Addis (for women, children and men).


Health and travel start with your feet.


-Antonio Caballo.