Okay, I'm minutes away from having to unplug my computer and run to the Apple store. But having read the posts subsequent to mine, I wanted to get in a couple o' comments before I leave:
a) Thanks, Jason, for saying much of what I was planning on saying. You saved me a TON of typing ;-) (and thanks for the compliments). To echo a point of Jason's: I was on the track yesterday, and there were 4 conditions that made barefoot impractical, if not impossible:
- The track temperature was 120 degrees
- The track itself was surfaced in a way that made broken glass feel like silk
- I'm a sprinter... can't do that barefoot. Gotta wear spikes
- The path to the track was covered in "goatheads," which are, well, if you don't know what they are, let me just say: you do NOT want to step on one
b) Try not to confuse the one phrase -- "better-than-barefoot" -- that's on one page, with our complete "marketing strategy". I think the line we have in the header (which appears on every page, is a better candidate for our "marketing strategy": "Barefoot... PLUS!" And our slogan -- also on every page, and also the name of our company -- "Feel The World" is a good 2nd place finisher.
c) Please don't put words in my mouth: I don't say anything about broken glass on that page, and I'm not sure I say it on ANY page. In fact, as Jason alluded, when I wrote in the 4th paragraph, "...the stuff on the ground that can hurt and cut your feet..." I *was* thinking about trails and other challenging surfaces.
Want to know the great irony about why I don't talk about the "dangers of broken glass" (and, in fact, mock it in my Sh*t Barefoot videos)? Because I made a living for 5 years as a street performer... and the finale of my act was... wait for it... WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS IN MY BARE FEET! ;-)
By the way, having now spoken to thousands of people about being barefoot, I have to tell you: The FIRST objection you hear from the MAJORITY of people is: "What if I step on something and get hurt?" You and I and others on this forum know that fear is overblown, and compared to "shoe-caused" injuries, irrelevant. But obviously, I have to address their thoughts and fears -- which as Jason and I said, are not entirely unfounded -- and I think that I do so in the 4th paragraph in a pretty non-hype-y way.
d) Similarly, try not to "over-parse" a single page. Think of "better-than-barefoot" as headline for a newspaper article. You can't tell the whole story in the headline. You use the headline to get attention so that people will read the story. And the "story" on that page, told in the first 5 paragraphs is: Barefoot is great, but there are times where it's not appropriate; that's why we sell our product. If you take any one of those elements out of context, you're arguing against a point that I'm not making.
Another bit of over-parsing: there's a lot of attention being paid to "stuff on the ground..." which is merely one phrase in a paragraph, which is one paragraph out of >20 paragraphs (and a video) on that page, which is one page out of hundreds on my site, and one comment out of thousands that I've made online.
e) Check out my more popular posts (in the search engines and among viewers of the site) at, say:
www.invisibleshoe.com/1310/how-to-run-barefoot, where I never even say "buy my shoes"... or, even better, at
http://www.invisibleshoe.com/598/barefoot-running-isnt-just-running-barefoot/ where I make the point that even our shoes aren't the same as running barefoot.
I know there are other places where I make the distinction between the two, and I do so because I know and live the distinction. I spend a lot of time barefoot. And when I don't want to be barefoot, for whatever reason, I'm in my shoes. And that's the message I try to communicate repeatedly on my site, and in all my public posts, since that's what I think. (I try to be consistent, but I'm sure that, like other humans, I'm not 100%.)
f) Speaking of my shoes, try not to lump me into the same heap as companies that sell products that are as close to barefoot as a pair of stilts and then argue that we're all doing the same thing. It's one thing to sell a shoe with a 12mm heel drop and 1" of foam between you and the ground and call it "barefoot." It's another to sell a 4 or 6mm piece of rubber that, by the way, was recently tested in an independent university study (they called and asked for shoes... I sent them, knowing nothing about why) and shown to be biomechanically the same as barefoot, plus a layer of protection.
And, really, THAT has been our "marketing strategy" all along: to communicate that we are the closest thing there is to barefoot... plus a layer of protection (and some style).
g) If possible, don't ignore what I *don't* say. While I believe in the myriad benefits of being barefoot, many of which are NOT the commonly discussed ones (strengthening, etc.), I don't talk about many of them. Why? Because I know that anecdotes do not equal data, and because the FTC requires me to back up any claims I make. My point here is that I try to be attentive to what I say. I may not do it perfectly... hence this conversation.
I can't promise I won't say something that someone disagrees with or takes issue with. That seems an unlikely possibility no matter how careful I am. But I will say that:
- If I say it, I probably have a compelling argument to support my claim
- If I'm wrong or way off base or was just having a bad-brain day, I'll change it. Rumor has it, I've been wrong in the past, and I'll probably make some other mistake in the future (just ask my wife)
- Like I said before, I may not make everyone happy 100% of the time (despite my wish for all humanity to love me, no matter what)
Okay, that was WAY more than I planned and now I'm late for the my appointment at Apple ;-)
Again, the invitation is open... give a call when you want to. The conversation about barefoot/performance/footwear/health/life/critical thinking is my favorite conversation in the world.