Why are your feet ready to be thrown to the trash can?

You don't have to wait until the end to read the answer.

Because you've been wearing shoes since you were a child.

And not just any shoes.

You've been working, walking and playing sports for years in a narrow, stiff shoe that squeezes your toes and deforms your feet.

These shoes, the ones you find in any shoe shop, shorten, weaken and stiffen your muscles, tendons and ligaments, and make your bones weak and brittle.

You may think I'm exaggerating but... if there's a hidden pain that nobody talks about, it's foot pain.

What's more, it's an accepted pain, as if we all have to suffer from it.

And when you realise that it doesn't have to be like that, the years have gone by.

Years, where you have mistreated and deformed your feet.

Do you want to know what has happened to them?

One, your bridges are asleep.

Traditional shoes with arch support prevent your strong arch supports from working.

And if they don't, you're turning off the switch on the great shock absorbers and stabilisers that nature has given you.

Sending these wonderful structures into neglect and causing your feet to collapse when you take off your shoes.

Two, your feet have the flexibility of an iron bar.

Your feet evolved to bend and move in all directions: forwards, backwards and sideways.

And most importantly, to adapt to the shape of the ground you walk on.

When you put them inside a sleek but rigid shoe, you limit their freedom.

Imagine how you could move around the world wearing a straitjacket every day.

Putting your feet in such a shoe prevents them from swinging, balancing and sharing loads, as they need their greatest virtue, flexibility.


Three, your Achilles tendon has shortened and your calf muscles have to go to the physio every now and then.

Have you ever checked how much drop your shoe has?

I mean the difference in height between the back and the front of your shoes (also called heel).

Most likely you have a drop of more than 8 mm or a heel of 2.5 cm.

But I'm not talking about stiletto heels, I'm talking about everyday shoes, for walking, going to work or doing sport.

Some will tell you that this elevation helps to protect the foot by cushioning it.

But what it really does is that you land more on your heel, limiting the movement of your ankles (dorsiflexion).

Your body adapts to this "heel" by shortening your calf muscles and stiffening your Achilles, so it loses its load-bearing capacity. And it can support up to 2000 kilos.


Four, your toes are mounted, clawed or bunioned.

Look at your shoes.  

Now look at your foot.

Where is it wider? Front or back?

So why are your shoes the wrong way round than your feet?

In shoes like that there is NO way to avoid bunions and to keep your toes straight, spread out and give you stability.

I'm done.

Either you use your feet, or you lose them.

And when you lose it, the pains will come, the hidden ones, the ones that nobody talks about.

Simple.

Use your feet and avoid the pains.

The perfect thing would be barefoot.

The good thing, with minimalist footwear.

• Vivobarefoot Primus Lite III: For everything you can think of (for Women, Men and Children)

Health starts with your feet.

Antonio Caballo.