Corporate Interests Concerned About Barefoot Trend

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Suits and Shoes

It’s undeniable, the popularity of running barefoot and wearing minimalist footwear is on the rise. Lately, I’ve started to see some indications that the corporate shoe world is beginning to sit up and take notice. Why shouldn’t they? At the least, a surge in popularity of minimalist shoes will mean potentially lost revenue for late adopters to the market. At the worst, a massive shift to a barefoot lifestyle would mean a dramatically reduced need for shoes by consumers.

What are the indicators that I’m seeing? Well, we’re getting corporate CEO’s and spokespersons releasing open letters and press releases concerning the trend. Take the CEO of Brooks, Jim Weber, for example. In his recent open letter he expressed how he is also an avid runner and thought it was important for him to join the public dialogue. He makes several points, but their stance on the topic was illustrated quite succinctly:

“The vast majority of runners (including this middle-of-the-packer !) fall in between. And for us, we strongly believe most of our mileage should be logged in a performance running shoe, not barefoot . For us, supportive, cushioned footwear is not only beneficial, it also plays an essential role in delivering a comfortable, injury-free running experience.”

Obviously, to say otherwise would probably run him the risk of being ousted by their board of directors.

(Click for full size)

To the left is a copy of an advertisement recently being run by Road Runners Sports.

It’s funny how he says “supposed benefits”, because there isn’t any scientific research that has shown that cushioned running shoes have any “supposed benefits” either.

As you can see, corporate shoe and sports companies are very concerned for our health and well being! Unfortunately, I find this type of outreach to be less than sincere. Of course the barefoot trend is bad for their business, how could they not object to it?