But that’s easy to explain. It reminds me of an OLD song. Remember “Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S”? (if so, that dates us both). We’re “Xero with an X.”

Just in case someone hears Zero Shoes and doesn’t hear about the X part, we’ve created a few domains that, hopefully they’ll find if they type in the wrong thing in the search engines.

No need to go to these sites, they just point people back to XeroShoes.com, but I’m listing them here, frankly, to help get them ranked so that people who type zero shoes in the search engine will find one of them and get to the right place. Make sense?

Anyway, the list of “redirect” sites we’ve created is:

• zeroshoe.com
• zero-shoes.com
• zero-shoe.com
• zeroshoes1.com
• 0-shoes.com

Why didn’t I get zeroshoes.com? Well, the guy who owns it wants a LOT of money for it. Way more than we have.

Hopefully one of those other “zero shoes” domains will pop up if someone’s looking for us and they’ll find the right place, xeroshoes.com (which, btw, will be live in it’s new incarnation in a day or so!)

For all of you who, for the last 3 years, have said to us, “You guys should be on Shark Tank!”:

1. You can stop saying it now
2. You’ll appreciate how good of a secret we’ve kept

While Lena and I were taking our first vacation since starting our company, we got an email saying that we’re scheduled to appear on Shark Tank on Friday, February 1st. The show is on ABC and airs at 9pm Eastern and Pacific, 8pm Central and Mountain time.

For those who don’t know the show, check out ABC.com. For those of you who know Dragon’s Den from the U.K. and Canada… same idea (in fact, 2 of the same Sharks).

In essence, Lena and I will be pitching 5 investors — the Sharks — to get an investment in our company and take it to the next level.

We couldn’t be more excited than to see what happens when we air, and when over 7 MILLION people discover our barefoot sandal company.

BTW, we appear as Xero Shoes on the show and, if all goes well, we’ll be using our new site at www.XeroShoes.com starting next week!

Fingers crossed!

We had 25 people on today’s teleclass about barefoot running, walking, footwear and more, including a number of people who called in from Europe (I scheduled the call so that Europeans would still be awake and could join us).

If you missed the call, or were on it and want to hear parts again, here it is. Enjoy (click on the arrow, below):

If you want to download the audio, right click or Ctrl-click on this link: Barefoot Teleclass

On this call, we had a great chat about everything from:

• Transitioning to being barefoot in cold weather
• How to walk barefoot
• The correct foot strike for barefoot walking
• Becoming your own running coach
• The difference between barefoot running and running in sandals
• Getting rid of “slapping” sounds when running in sandals
• Dealing with objections that schools have to minimalist shoes and, especially, sandals
• Great cues to eliminate overstriding
• Is there magic in the idea that your stride cadence should be 180 steps/minute
• How Xero Shoes have ruined some people’s lives (it’s not what you think)

I really enjoyed this call and was given one suggestion that I’m going to follow up on, namely, making this a monthly event.

As soon as the new website is up and running (soon, I expect), I’ll include a page that announces when I’ll be scheduling an ongoing Q&A call.

Let the fun continue!

• Barefoot running
• The transition to barefoot
• Minimalist shoes
• Training
• Xero Shoes (formerly Invisible Shoes)
• Distance vs. Sprinting vs. Speed
• … and anything else you can think of!

Time: The call is at 2pm Eastern Time, which is 11am Pacific time, and 1900 GMT (if you’re not sure what time that is, check www.time.gov

Dial in number: You can call in at no charge from the US (209.255.1000) or using any of the international numbers, below

Access Code: When you call, you’ll be asked for an access code. It’s: 951322#

No need no register, just call in at the correct time and join us for a fun and informative call!

It was an open format call where I just answered whatever questions came up. We discussed:

• Distance running form vs. sprinting form
• The proper way to walk when barefoot
• “Front side” vs. “Back side” mechanics
• Which muscles you should be using when you’re barefoot/minimalist
• Confusion about foot strike (and clarification about what’s correct)
• Barefoot running injuries and what’s the best kind of injury you can get (seriously)
• Why comparing sole thicknesses of minimalist shoes is meaningless
• What makes Xero Shoes (formerly Invisible Shoes) different than other minimalist footwear, including other sandals
• and a LOT more…

The call ran about 42 minutes and, no doubt, we’ll be doing more of them in the future. It was a lot of fun.

You can listen to the teleseminar here (click on the arrow):

… or download the audio. Right click (or Ctrl-Click) here: Barefoot Teleseminar

If there’s a question we didn’t get to, feel free to ask it in the comments section or on our Forum. I may answer it here, or I may wait and schedule another barefoot teleseminar and dive into it on the call.

At the moment I’m writing this post, it was 2 years and 364 days ago that Lena and I launched our barefoot running shoes store

I want to tell you the story of how it happened, because it’s a fun one. But first, let me tell you how we’re celebrating:

Save 20% on EVERYTHING in the store until midnight December 2nd!

The Sale Has Ended… Thank you all for joining us in our Anniversary celebration!

That’s 20% off DIY kits and custom-made Invisible Shoes with our exclusive FeelTrue™ outsoles in 5 different colors (which are ALREADY discounted), our Classic Vibram Cherry kits, the limited edition Colored Vibram Cherry, laces, and all the decorative add-ons.

Now’s the perfect time to get that extra pair you’ve been thinking of, a few laces to have around, a cute charm, a bead kit… and, of course, it’s a great time for gifts. Not sure what to get someone, no worries, because we now also have:

Invisible Shoes Gift Certificates 

Find gift certificates in the store (scroll down the page), or click here to get one (that link will open a new page).

One other cool thing for our Anniversary week:

Get Answers To Your Barefoot Running and Invisible Shoes Questions

On Sunday, November 25th, at 9pm Eastern Time, I’ll be hosting a live teleclass where you can get answers to any questions you have about barefoot running or Invisible Shoes (including, “When are you OFFICIALLY becoming Xero Shoes!?”).

There are only a limited number of spaces on the call, so dial in a few minutes early.

Sunday, November 25th, 9pm Eastern Time (if you’re not sure about the time, check www.time.gov)
Dial – (605) 475-4700
Enter Access Code – 261560#

 We had 2 Teleseminars… the recordings can be found here and here

Okay, here’s the story I promised:

The story of how an argument started Invisible Shoes

Two years and a couple months ago, I made a pair of Invisible Shoes for Michael Sandler, the author of Barefoot Running. After I laced up his huaraches on him, he said, “You should do this as a business and not just a hobby.”

Up until that point, I had made a couple dozen pairs of sandals, and I was busy with a lot of other things, so I said, “Well, that’s a fine idea, but probably not something I have time for.”

“Well,” he added, “I have this book I’m writing, and if you had a website, I’d put you in the book.”

“Oh… well, why didn’t you say so?!”

When I got home, I shared this brilliant idea with Lena. “How would you like to be in the shoe business?” I asked, and then told her about my conversation with Michael.

“Umm, I think it’s just another one of your distractions and it’s a horrible idea. We’ve got a lot of things that we’re working on, that are almost done, and this is just going to take away from everything you should be doing.”

Okay, maybe her completely accurate assessment isn’t an “argument” per se, but you get the gist.

“You’re right,” I told her… and then I waited until she went to bed and built a website.

Actually, it took about 2 weeks to launch. And the day after it did, we made our first sale. Within 3 months, this was our full-time job. Three months after that, we have some former lead designers from Nike and Reebok giving us business advice and helping us design our new products.

Now 3 years after that argument, we’ve sold over 22,000 pairs of Invisible Shoes to people from ages 6-86 in over 82 countries. And we’ve also got to give back, contributing thousands of dollars to the Tarahumara Childrens Hospital Fund.

We’ve moved out of our house and into an office, hired our Customer Service Manager (and ultramarathoner), Bill Babcock, our Shipping Manager, Kim Bullard, and our new Chief Development Officer (and co-founder of Avia Footwear and former head of Global Product Design for Crocs), Dennis Driscoll.

With Dennis’s help, we have a LOT of new things in the works (as someone who can’t keep secrets, it pains me that I can’t tell you what they are yet) for our 4th year in business!

But, most importantly, we have are so grateful for all of our “Barefoot… PLUS!” customers (many of whom have become friends) and for all the emails we get every day from people telling us how much they enjoying being able to…

Feel The World!

Thank you SOOO much!

Now click here and enjoy the celebration sale!

The Running Clinic site says about Xero Shoes, “As minimalist as footwear can get! …highly recommended and very minimalistic price.”

The rating system tries to resolve the confusion in the barefoot/minimalist footwear market, where many products are sold using the same terminology, by comparing products’ dynamism, flexibility, and weight. Xero Shoes ranked at the top in all 3 categories.

Sashen hopes the website’s rating scale becomes more popular so consumers can purchase what they truly want. “Most of the shoes that call themselves ‘barefoot,’” says Xero Shoes developer Steven Sashen, “are no closer to barefoot than a pair of stilts.”

“What we’re most proud of,” says Sashen, “is that none of the other products with a rating over 90% can be used for serious running. But we have thousands of runners, and even hundreds of ultramarathoners, who use our shoes.”

“Plus,” Sashen adds, “our closest competitor scored an 83, and the top-selling minimalist shoe, the Nike Free, only scored a 72.”

According to the website, “A perfect shoe should protect the skin from lacerations and cold, while minimizing the interface between the foot and the ground. The better the shoe is at replicating a bare foot situation, the [better].”

Barefoot? Shoes? Barefoot shoes?

Midfoot strike, heel strike, forefoot strike?

In today’s New York Times Online, Gina Kolata (whose writing and name I adore) goes after this question.

Really, you can stop reading after the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph… and since that’s the most important sentence, I’ll just quote it here:

Most of the scientific research is just inadequate to answer these questions

The reasons that the research is inadequate are two-fold:

1. Not enough research to explore the various aspects of the question
2. Poorly designed research

I can’t say much about #1 other than to hope that more research is done. But if more research is done poorly, then what’s the point.

So what makes some of the running research, especially the studies that examine barefoot running, so poor? A number of factors:

1. Bad cohort (the people in the study). Many of the studies solicit “barefoot runners” who’ve never actually run with bare feet. They may have spent some time in Vibram Fivefingers or, worse, in Nike Free… but wearing those is not the same as being barefoot (as many readers of this blog can attest). Many of the studies have too few runners. Many of the studies have runners that are, say, between the ages of 18-22 and on the college cross-country team (they’re not typical runners). And if the number of runners in the test is small enough, it may be hard to extrapolate from their results.
2. Missing factors. Many of the studies will look at one aspect of gait and ignore many others, and then try to conclude something about running mechanics. Rodger Kram’s recent study on cushioning, for example, doesn’t look at foot placement (overstriding or not), doesn’t consider weight (which can effect the value of cushioning), type of cushioning, etc. I’m not saying that it’s even possible to design a study that accounts for all these factors, but when you isolate things  too much, it’s hard to draw a useful conclusion… though everyone around you will draw it and then fight to the death defending or attacking it.
3. Arbitrary variables. Many studies are done with runners on treadmills running at a fixed pace. The obvious question: is running on a treadmill identical to running on a track? Not in my experience. Also, is, say, 5 minute/mile pace my usual pace? We know that if you increase your cadence without increasing your speed, you can reduce force on your body and decrease the amount of time you spend on the ground… so by controlling one variable, you could be affecting the results of the study.

Suffice it to say, I’m always glad when the media talk about running, and barefoot running in particular. But I find it unsatisfying when they merely regurgitate the “results” of a study without telling the reader whether the study is worth considering in the first place.

Then there’s the straw man problem, which is when you make up a person (complete with opinions) and then argue with that fictional person. There’s a lot of that going on. Many barefoot writers (including myself, Pete Larson, Bill Katovsky, Mark Cucuzzella) have noticed that individual differences may be more important than “one right way” to do things, and that it’s hard to get useful data by looking at genetic freaks (like Olympians). Yet the media loves to present these studies, and studies of studies, as if there’s no reasonable thinking on either side of the fence. Not true.

Again, as the article said up top: Most of the scientific research is just inadequate to answer these questions. Let’s hope that changes.

Barefoot Running – The Movie

Shot in Hawaii, the footage is STUNNING (it’ll make you want to run, run barefoot, run barefoot in Hawaii, or just move to Hawaii). I’m telling you, some of the shots in this movie make it feel like you ARE running around Hawaii, which as the Fall descends on Colorado, is quite a pleasant feeling.

And it’s practically everything Michael and Jessie know, and have been teaching, about barefoot running for the last 3+ years. I say “practically” because the section of footwear is notoriously lacking in a mention of us (or of huaraches, in general).

I asked Michael about this. He said, “When we got to that section of the video, it was just me and the director and one camera… and we didn’t have any of our sample footwear — including Xero Shoes — on the island. And we had just a few hours to get that section done!”

Apology accepted

He did, though, let me know that huaraches are featured in their upcoming book, Barefoot Walking (due out early 2013).

BTW, if you don’t know, Michael and Jessie were my introduction to running without shoes… and Michael’s comment that if I built a website for what was at the time a sandal-making hobby he would include us in his upcoming book… well, that was the beginning of Invisible Shoes (now Xero Shoes).

Congrats on an impressive and heartfelt project, M & J… and thanks for inspiring what has become the most satisfying business I can imagine.

Boulder, CO, October 2, 2012 – Dennis Driscoll, a 35-year footwear industry veteran who co-founded Avia Footwear and most recently worked as Global Design Director for Crocs, has joined Boulder-based barefoot running shoe start-up, Feel The World, Inc., the makers of Xero Shoes • Original Barefootware.

Driscoll’s roll at the bestselling “barefoot sandal” manufacturer is Chief Development Officer. Asked what attracted him to the product, he answers, “Xero Shoes are genuine, legitimate. We don’t have to create ways to differentiate our product, because it is actually different.”

Regarding the company, and its co-founders, Steven Sashen and wife Lena Phoenix, Driscoll adds, “They are a smart team who’ve already proven themselves and their business. I like that my experience with all aspects of the footwear business can have a big impact here.”

Sashen and Phoenix reciprocate the admiration. “It’s highly unusual for someone of Dennis’s skills and caliber to work for a company at our stage. We’re thrilled to have Dennis help take our product, and our company, to the levels we know they can attain.”

Dennis Driscoll started in the footwear business in 1978 with Osaga Athletic Footwear as the Director of Product Development. In 1981 he co-founded Avia Athletic Footwear as the VP of Product. Ten years later Dennis joined Wilson Sporting Goods as the Global Business Unit Director of Footwear. After a 7-year stint at Converse in senior product roles, Driscoll took a position at Doc Martens Footwear and moved to London as the Global Director of Product. In 2010, he went to work for Crocs as Global Design Director where he had a fourteen member design team in the US office and design centers in Padova, Italy and Tokyo, Japan

ABOUT:

Feel The World, Inc. of Boulder, CO, manufactures Xero Shoes®,  a high-tech upgrade on the traditional huaraches running sandal of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. Durable, stylish and affordable — Xero Shoes supply the fun and benefits of being barefoot, but with a layer of protection.  Feel The World, Inc. launched in December 2009. To date, over 25,000 customers, ages 1 to 91, in more than 73 countries wear Xero Shoes for walking, hiking, yoga and gym-going, Crossfit, kayaking, jogging, and even running hundred-mile ultra marathons. 

Well, three new dealers in the UK will let you do just that.

• Silent Running
• Born Barefoot
• Barefoot Britain

These are each independent dealers. They all have our Connect 4mm and Contact 6mm barefoot sandals kits in Black. And they all have our complete selection of lace colors.

At the moment, Barefoot Britain and Silent Running are authorized to make custom-made Xero Shoes.

And, at the moment, none of these dealers carries our new Colored Xero Shoes

We are proud and happy to have Simon (Silent Running), Tracy (Barefoot Britain), and James (Born Barefoot) on the Xero Shoes team. They’re all wonderful, creative, intelligent people (and runners), who are committed to helping you have fun and Feel The World.

I am extremely happy and proud to announce that you can now get Xero Shoes (our new name… website is almost done) in 4 WAY COOL colors.

In addition to our Coal Black, you can now get Mocha Earth, Electric Mint, Boulder Sky, and Hot Salmon.

Combine those with our different lace colors…

Well, here are a few combinations that you’ll see around our office:

Lena in her Mocha Earth with matching brown laces and a bunch of Brass Beads

Our office ultra-runner (and customer service manager), Bill, in Electric Mint with Purple laces (he puts 80-100 miles a week on these!)

Steven, taking inspiration from an 8 year old customer who was the first one to wear non-matching laces, in Boulder Sky with White laces and a Hand Pendant (on the left) and Hot Salmon with Red laces (right).

These new colors come in both Connect 4mm and Contact 6mm styles. And you can get them as kits or custom-made.

Click here to order your Xero Shoes Colored Barefoot Sandals

Well, thanks to Pete Larson at www.runblogger.com (who turned me onto the following video), and thanks to Tuck at http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/ (from whom Pete found it), I’m happy to share this video of Dan sharing his top 5 tips for better running.

All I would add (and I’m about to release something that describes this) is that “Don’t overdo it” isn’t a useful message, because the only way you know if you’ve over-done it, is when you’ve done too much and it’s over!

In other words, better to come up with a plan for what you ARE going to do, rather than make an admonition about what you shouldn’t do, since us humans are as bad at following “don’t do this” rules as we may be as good at chasing down an antelope.

One day, they love you, the next day they hate you. As long as there’s controversy, they’re interested… ish.

The last time barefoot running made all the news it was when the University of Colorado study (done right up the hill from me) apparently showed that barefoot running was less efficient than running in shoes (see my analysis of that study here). In fact, when that study got published, the media went crazy, practically insisting that this was the death knell for those of us who run unshod.

So, I’m not sure what it means that they’ve basically ignored a new study from Northumbria University that shows the exact opposite!

Why are there no crazed headlines about how running without shoes really IS the greatest thing since bread, the slicer, and the sliced bread that comes from intelligently combining the two?

Who knows. Who cares.

More importantly, check out the info about the study here at ScienceDaily.com

In short, if you want the synopsis: Runners used 6% more energy when they wore shoes. Here’s the line I like:

The results suggest that, by ditching their trainers, athletes new to barefoot running adopt a running style similar to experienced barefoot runners and enjoy an immediate and likely beneficial increase in running economy.

Works for me (in fact it DID work for me!)

His conclusion: They get less feedback from the ground and lose the ability to balance.

So far so good.

His solution: An insole that provides random vibration to stimulate the nerves in the feet.

Can anyone here think of another way of doing the same thing, but without all the electronic bells and whistles? Anyone? Beuler? Beuler?

If you said, “Take off your shoes!” you win any prize on the second row!

If you said “Take off your shoes! And if you don’t want to step on unpleasant things, wear Invisible Shoes!” you get a prize from the TOP row!

I discussed this idea with Dr. Michael Merzinich last year. He, too, thinks that the continued lack of sensation that comes from wearing shoes — especially the big orthopedic shoes they put on elderly people who can’t balance! — results in the brain map of your feet “de-differentiating.” In other words, your brain thinks you have a big paddle at the end of your foot, rather than a highly flexible and strong appendage.

And it’s hard to balance a paddle.

If you think about this, it sheds light on another bit of research on balance and the elderly: Studies have shown that Tai Chi can help elderly people regain their balance. But it’s probably not the Tai Chi that’s causing the effect (BTW, I have nothing against Tai Chi… I did it and taught it for years). It’s the time spent barefoot, FEELING the ground.

I hope that someone does a study with Invisible Shoes and balance sometime. I’d place a bet on the outcome.

Well, until that’s out at your local gajillion-plex, check out this trailer of the new barefoot running movie by Michael Sandler and Jessie Lee, authors of Barefoot Running.

I’m forever grateful to Michael and Jessie… when I decided to try running barefoot as a way to deal with my persistent running injuries, I was fortunate enough that they were teaching a workshop that very weekend, right in my backyard (metaphorically speaking… it was 3 miles away).

Even more, after my first barefoot run, when I said to Michael, “Well, that was interesting, but I’m a sprinter, not a long, slow distance guy,” he encouraged me to try it a few more times and, for some reason, I did.

Then, Jessie, being a former sprinter herself, added a whole other level of fun when we would take off across some field, leaving the LSD runners in the dust

Oh, and it was Michael saying, “If you had a website for these sandals you’re making, I’d put you in our new book,” that was the beginning of Invisible Shoes!

If you watch this trailer and don’t want to book a ticket for the workshop where Michael and Jessie take you to all of these amazing locations, then there’s something wrong with you (or you already live in Hawaii).

I’ve seen clips from the entire movie and it’s really something special. Enjoy.

Well, it’s true for shoe companies, too. When all you have is padding and motion-control, everything looks like it pronates and lands too hard!

Check out this video about the “secret” Adidas development center. Especially watch at the 2:10 mark where the “best people in the world” analyze Ben’s sprinting gait and conclude:

a) That he pronates and heel-strikes (NOTE: He over pronates BECAUSE he heel-strikes since, when you land on your heel, the ankle muscles can’t can hold the foot/ankle/lower leg in place).

b) The solution: Making a shoe with padding and motion control!

Uh…

First of all, if you heel strike when you sprint, you are not sprinting! Sprinters do not heel strike. And when you land on your forefoot or midfoot, the entire musculature of the lower leg, ankle, and foot, can be “pre-loaded” and engage when you land.

The cure for Ben is to STOP HEEL STRIKING, not get a shoe that lets him continue to run incorrectly. Duh.

My next comment falls into the “maybe it’s just me” category: Notice how large, spacious and expensive this place is. Ben mentions that Adidas does over a BILLION euros in sales.

Look, I’m the last guy to deny any company the right to make money, and I’d love to have a billion dollar company.

But am I the only one who sees a direct connection between a massive, pricey research lab and shoes that cost $150-200, and “hi-tech” shirts that cost $100+. This is like a thought I had at the Outdoor Retailer trade show, where some of the bigger companies have booths that easily cost over $1,000,000, “Oh, now I know why they charge so much for their products! They need to support the booth.”

Honestly, I find it unlikely that the “amazing” research they’re doing actually pays for itself. I think it makes them feel good about themselves, and makes naive reporters think, “Oh, wow, they’re doing something really special here.”

I don’t doubt for a second that they could drop the price of their shoes to something more reasonable, not waste money on “research” that’s iffy at best, and still make the same profit.

Again, maybe that’s just me.

Check out what esteemed research scientist and physician, Dr. Musculoskeletal has to say about a condition that affects over 99% of all runners, and over 99.1% of all humans. It’s a silent epidemic that clearly must be addressed. And with your help and support, we can find a cure for this crippling disease. I’m hoping that Dr. Musculoskeletal quickly establishes a foundation, a clinic, and a non-profit research facility so that we can, once and for all, eliminate the condition he calls “Congenital Short Hard Heel Syndrome.”

It wasn’t until I saw this video that I realized I suffer from the condition. And with no known cure at the moment, my only option is to adopt an unusual forefoot-strike gait when I run. Sure, doing so has eliminated my various running injuries, and helped me develop arches in my life-long flat feet, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that millions, perhaps billions of children are born with this condition… and nobody is doing anything to prevent it.

Let’s start now.

But Eddie is also an impressive ultra-runner.

Eddie previously ran at least 27 miles a day, 6 days a week, for 7 weeks to raise money for Sport Relief.

Now, Eddie is planning to run 27 marathons in 27 days in Africa to honor Nelson Mandela’s 27 years in jail. And he plans to run them barefoot or in minimalist shoes!

They’ll be making a documentary about this and, not surprisingly, I think he should be wearing Invisible Shoes… but not just because I’d like the PR, or because I’d love to hang out with Eddie (both of which are true).

I think they’re the perfect shoe for him, of course, since they are:

• The lightest footwear he’ll find
• Can handle water better than any other
• Don’t smell
• Have our 5,000 mile warranty
• Can be repaired, if necessary (but unlikely), with easy to find local tools and products
• Have the best barefoot feel

But, more importantly, Invisible Shoes are based on an OLD idea… one that you see in Africa. And, ironically, Africa is one place in the world that’s suffering from diseases that people pick up from walking barefoot.

So, my fantasy is that Eddie can supply Invisible Shoes to the villages he runs through. And more than just give away shoes, show them how they can use them and… hey, get creative and come up with other uses, beyond footwear!

I can imagine a number of ways that a high-tech rubber sole could have other purposes… and some comedic ones as well (can you say bra and jockstrap?).

If you think Eddie should be using Invisible Shoes in Africa, let him know — Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eddieizzard  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/eddieizzard

I’m a “short sprinter”. The 100m and the 60m (indoor) are my races of choice. I run a 200m under protest. And, yes, I’m also a “short sprinter” in that I’m 5’5″

Randy, on the other hand, is a tall, ultra-runner.

Here’s a picture of him finishing up his first 50k in his 4mm Connect barefoot sandals.

Personally, I don’t even like to DRIVE 50k.

Randy is also one of those guys who likes to experiment. He started with the basic huarache tying pattern, but tweaked it to something he uses for his long-distance runs. It’s not a slip-on/slip off style, but you can lace it up pretty quickly. It has a bit of a toga-style look about it. And one thing it does nicely is pull the ankle holes up around your foot.

If I were going to use this style (just the tying style…trust me, I won’t ever consider running ultra-distances), there are two things I’d consider changing.

1. Add another knot under the outside ankle hole once you’re confident that you have the various lace lengths correct. If you do this, you’ll have to adjust the lengths, since adding a knot will shorten the toe strap or heel strap, depending on how you tie it. What this will do is further “lock in” the lacing.
2. Coat those ankle knots with a layer of epoxy or Shoe Goo. While this style pulls the ankle holes off the ground nicely, the knots add a bit of extra material that’s closer to the ground. Add this to the fact that when people are just starting out with long-distance barefoot-style running, they tend to lose their form when they get tired. If you really lose it, you could end up heel-striking or scraping your feet a bit. If you do either of those, you could put some friction on those knots under the ankle holes. The Shoe Goo or epoxy will add some extra protection to the laces in those spots.

One of my favorite things about the barefoot running / minimalist footwear movement is that people are experimenting and coming up with more ideas and improvements to 15,000 year old ideas (like barefoot sandals) in the last 2 years than there have been in the last 14,998 years.

Keep it up everyone.

And good luck, Randy, on those amazing runs!