We need at least three pair of shoes!

Josh16

Barefooters
Jul 2, 2014
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Val-d'Or, Quebec, Canada
Now, let me tell you the story of yesterday's shopping.
I went to a local sports gear shop since my girlfriend told me they had biking shorts at 50% discount. Much to my dismay, it turns there wasn't any discount on the biking shorts. However there was nice discount on a VFF model. So I tried them on but the size was too big and that was the smallest size they had left.

Now the juicy part :
The employee proceeds to educate me on how we should have 3 pairs of running shoes : 1 minimalist pair for 0-5 km, a pair of good running for 5-20 km, and an extra cushioned pair of running shoes for longer distances. He tells me how no one can run more than 5 km in minimalist footwear and that in a marathon, only 5% of the runners keep good form throughout the whole race. He also tells me how dangerous it would be for older people to run in minimalist shoes.

And then it struck me. How could I have been oblivious to this truth? And here I stood, in my minimalist office shoes (which I'm sure he did not even notice), wondering how, for the life of me, I could have thought running without shoes would be good for me.

And moreover, how could all these barefoot marathon runners not realize they are causing damage to their body by not having three pair of shoes? I must enlighten my fellow barefooters to this new found knowledge!
 
You took too long to explain your subject line. So I'm going to address it as if it were your own statement.

Minimally, I need two pairs of shoes and one pair of sandals:

A pair of minimalist dress shoes.
A pair of ventilating, minimalist, office-casual shoes.
A pair of non-squish, minimalist huaraches.

The office-casual would get the most wear - Useful for a multitude of scenarios, including Winter-running. Go BF for most other running, except mid-day Summer on pavement, which is when the huaraches go on. I don't go trail-running much but, I guess the huaraches could be useful for that as well.

So that covers everything. I currently use Altra Adams for Winter use. They work great but, due to the prominent logos and built-in reflectors, aren't office-casual. More ventilation in the upper would be nice too. The sole on them works great. I gave it a lot of use in the snow this past Winter.
 
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The employee proceeds to educate me on how we should have 3 pairs of running shoes : 1 minimalist pair for 0-5 km, a pair of good running for 5-20 km, and an extra cushioned pair of running shoes for longer distances.

Now that sounds like some good salesmanship there!
 
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So this makes me wonder, if I were running a marathon, would I have to change my footwear three times during the race, at 0 to 5K, 5 to 20K, and 20K to sometime after?
 
Well his words weren't "old people". I believe he said "55 years old people". I'm quite sure the BRS has 55 years old or older people running around in their bare feet.
 
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