I love this discussion, and
I love this discussion, and have a few thoughts from a few different points throughout the 5 pages.
On the "curve" discussion, the sole shouldn't be anything but FLAT when it's just sitting there without a foot in it. For example those martini flip flops someone used as an example have all kinds of shape to them, vertically. Those Martini things have toes curved upward and the middle of the shoe seems to be kind-of in a valley, with raised parts all around the outside, especially under the arch.
"roll into a ball." into a ball or a tube? My Soft Stars and huaraches can't be scrunched up like a piece of paper the way my
isotoner slippers can be, but they are certainly minimal. Ball just makes me think of what you do to a receipt before you toss it in the garbage.
The "steps" or "stages": If we go in that direction, we should make sure the word doesn't sound like it's a process to step down from Sketchers Shape-Ups to Barefoot. The whole point is to just throw your shoes off, not pussyfoot around for a year slowly transitioning from one expensive pair of shoes to another. Stages will bring to mind baby foods for some people, like Stage 1 is super runny, watered down stuff, and stage 3 is all chunky.
I can see someone standing in a shoe store faced with a wall of "approved" "minimal" shoes, each with this big well designed circle on it, with a number inside. The person is standing there in fluffy motion control shoes, wondering if they should REALLY step ALL THE WAY down to level 1, or if they might better start with level 3 (4,5,6) and work from there. Seems like that whole step idea could cause more confusion than it would be worth.
I do like the TRS-RRS-MRS idea.
Maybe another good thing to come up with would be the best 5 or 10 tidbits of advice to give a newbie barefooter, and have them printed on a card. Approved shoes would have this info card in the box with them, as well as the stamp of approval on the outside of the box. of course, the shoe company would pay for production of the info cards. I just see too many people diving headfirst into this barefoot thing without doing any research and SURPRISE, TMTS injuries pop up.