I made my first pair last week.  Did 1/2 mile Friday, jumped to 3mi. Sat and another 3mi. Mon.  I'm never going back to regular running shoes!  My 3 mi. time came down by 1-1/2 minutes, just because I wasn't dragging those heavy shoes along.  My feet have never felt better after a run.  A little soreness in the calves, but no other problems.  What an amazing difference.  Running the way you were designed to run. 

Came across a material that has potential.  I made a pair of huaraches from a piece of flexible liner for a pick-up truck bed.  This stuff is tough as nails, can be cut with a good pair of shears, and is reasonably easy to work with.  It is probably 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick and has good flexibility.  I have to grind off a couple of traction lugs on the top, but the bottom has little bumps to hold it in place in the truck bed.  They give pretty good traction.  Ran in them under wet conditions today.  I'll post again after I've had a chance to smooth them up and maybe apply a footbed material over the plain rubber.  Not quite the barefoot feel of vibram, I think, but should be good for trails.  Consistency of tire tread but much more pliable.

I made some from tire tread.  It's 1/2" thick.  The one I used was steel belted, so took a bit of work to cut to shape, using an electric jigsaw with a metal cutting blade.  The steel wires inside presented a problem in the lacing holes.  The steel would snag the laces as they went through.  I solved that by inserting some 1/4" hollow "micro sprinkler pipe" (pvc material) into the holes to act as a grommet.  That makes the laces go through smoothly and leaves them easy to change.  If you get non-steel belted tire tread to work with, you probably wouldn't need the grommet material.  I tried both the 5/16 cord and leather 72" bootlaces.  The bootlaces work ok, but are a bit stiff yet, and tend to cause some chaffing around the ankle and top of the foot.   The treads themselves are fine, and although they feel heavier to hold in your hand, they don't have noticeable weight once you put them on.  These will wear out in another 40k miles or so, and I'll have to make a new pair :-) 

I have worn huaraches of some sort almost every day since I first made a pair back in July or June or so. I have a nice selection now:

1. Invisible Shoes Connects (the 6mm ones because I'm a wimp) for my daily running. Sometimes I wear them around town, too. I hiked for about 3 miles in them and they worked pretty well as long as they didn't get wet and I kept an eagle eye out for safe places to step.

2. Homemade 8mm thick huaraches for easy hiking trails and sometimes for running and most days for work because the leather laces look more "formal". I've hiked up to 14 miles in these.

3. I just made a pair of maximalist hiking huaraches that I plan to use for hardcore trails and backpacking. These have thick soles and 1/4 inch of padding. Not minimalist but far less obtrusively maximalist than Chaco sandals. When I go hiking, I go up steep mountains in harsh conditions and while feeling close to nature is nice and all, when I want to hike 25 mile days through the wilderness I want something substantial and somewhat cushioned beneath my feet. That's just the way I am.

Lately when I go runinng I take off my Invisible shoes for part of the run. I like that the huaraches let me develop good barefoot running form (after a while I figured it out anyway). When I took off my sandals and ran the first time I was amazed how everything just worked perfectly and I got no blisters or anything. So now I wear them for the part of my run that has really sharp rocks and carry them during the part that has nice soft dirt.

I made them myself. Used Luna Leadville laces. From the bottom up they are Vibram Newporter soles, Vibram cloud 1/4", vegetable tanned leather, suede. The little knots on the front are where I laced some black suede strips through slits in the vegetable tanned leather. The leadville laces have a slit that the suede goes through. The knot holds it together. There is no knot on the ground. Also, there are side tabs for the laces so nowhere is any of the lacing exposed to the ground. With such thick laces, it just didn't work for me to lace them through the sole anyway. The laces are too long so I wind them around and around until I get this pattern. I'm hesitant to cut them short even though that would probably be a lot better.

Pardon my gross-looking injury. I forgot to bring my Invisible Shoes to work a few days ago so I ran in what I was wearing that day and got nasty chafing. The chafing forced me to go barefoot. That's when I learned all my running in the Invisible Shoes has helped me develop good barefoot form!

Post edited 1:45 pm – September 27, 2011 by pjgh

I'm sure you'll enjoy then – I've got the 6mm Contact and some 4mm Vibram Cherry hand-cut.

The great thing about huaraches is you can lace them how you like. I don't get on much with the supplied nylon laces with the 4mm soles which are much more flxible, but with the 6mm they work really well. Tie them up nice and tight and enjoy your runs and walks. Lace them how you like, tie them around your ankles, whatever … whatever works for you.

There's too much damn mud where I walk usually for huaraches, even VFFs, so I wear some Inov-8 boots for those walks/runs. I love my huaraches for a couple of miles around my house late evening on paths I know I can walk without losing them in a bog or spiking them with glass, plasterboard or other fly-tipped rubbish.

6mm was a good choice … you'll love 'em, I'm sure.

I would say i have totally switched since i got mine in the mail couple weeks back. Work, school, yard, around town, home, etc. I wear my 4mm EVERYWHERE. Went on couple walks where i threw in couple blocks of jogging. It was pretty awesome. I already have the nice strappy tan starting to show on my feet.

Now i just need to get a pair of 6mm. Just cuz.

If you walk or run with some confidence, people do not notice. Alas, the barefoot running style is very upright and looks different to "joggers" and people notice. Here in the UK, people look at me as if I dropped out of the sky! In my orange VFFs, I get funnier looks than my huaraches.