I think what most people on here would like to see is for the community to embrace the
shoes as tools approach when we support minimalist running. At the BRS, our About page (
About) sums this up for us, and we constantly reinforce this through our forum conversations with each other and new members, so that we never stray. We have found that dividing the site's forums into definite discussion areas keeps the arguing down. At "that other place," okay, Runner's World Barefoot Running Forum, there was constant arguing from the posters because they didn't separate the shoe talk (minshoes in this case) from the barefoot running talk. We have over overcome this problem here at the BRS though; for example, the Gear & Footwear forum is for exactly that, while the Barefoot & Minimalist Running forum allows posters to discuss and support one another more with technique, regardless what is on one's feet, although I admit, it's here where we do a lot of our recruiting of the minshoe runners to barefoot running.
I understand it's difficult for a magazine to reinforce it's stance, since it's a static presentation, whereas, a forum is dynamic with ever-growing conversation. But, one way to overcome this with a magazine like Barefoot Running Magazine (if shoes as tools is the stance of the magazine too) is to perhaps have an editorial note or inset in each edition stating such. I'm sure this would be reassuring to barefoot runners everywhere.
From our About page (just an excerpt):
Our Stance on Footwear
The human foot is not broken nor defective and is quite adaptable to most conditions.
We are a barefoot AND minimalist running club. We support both the barefoot AND minimalist runner. We prefer people to FIRST LEARN (or relearn) TO RUN BAREFOOT before donning any footwear and only doing so after they have learned to run with proper form first. This is why we chose the name Barefoot Runners Society...
We believe that the best way to decrease your chance of injury is by starting over, literally from scratch, and allowing your plantar skin to take you only as far as you are physically capable of and safely able to go. (Increasing from there can be learned by listening to your body and all the great advice you will receive from the many resources within this running club.)
There were six of us that started the BRS. Two of us were purists, two of us were minimalists, and two of us were somewhere in between. When we started the BRS, it was important to include all flavors of the barefoot/minimalist movement, not just focus on purism, and this is why...
We understand that not everyone can run barefoot at all times under all conditions. Some people may not be able to run completely barefoot from the get-go. We got that. They may have health conditions (severe osteoporosis, diabetes, neuropathy, circulatory conditions, etc.) that would prohibit them from doing so; others may live in areas where the terrain is always extreme, and most of us live where we experience extreme weather/temps at some point during the year. We also realize that in the end, most people are not going to choose to run truly barefoot 100% of the time or at all. Therefore, we believe it is very important to provide our members with information that will help them to make informed, healthy decisions about what to put on their feet.