Here is a scary photo of how a regular running shoe messes up your foot functionality.
Notice in the elevated, heavily cushioned running shoe how the major bones on the top of the foot (talus, navicular, cuneiform) are scrunched together such that they have become literally deformed by constant compression. Notice how the toes are jammed up and pre-loaded into a slight dorsiflexed position from the common shoe feature called “toe spring” (upward curvature of the sole for the toes.) Toe spring creates stiffness and atrophy in the toes, especially the critically important big toe.
In the zero-drop shoe, notice the optimal alignment of all bones, and how the heel drops to correct anatomical position. This allows the Achilles tendon to fully lengthen and function for impact absorption and propulsion. Note that the Achilles is the “primary evolutionary adaptation” (primatologist Bill Sellers) that allowed the Homo sapiens to come down from trees, branch out from our ape cousins, and hunt and gather to rise to the top of the food chain. Our powerful Achilles is largely why we run 80% faster than our apes! Go to the zoo and notice when the chimps get amped up how they shuffle and waddle across their habitat instead of springing along gracefully like the humans we see at the Olympics.
Indeed, the elevation of the heel is the most destructive aspect of modern shoes (per Katy Bowman at NutritiousMovement.com), and a zero-drop, wide toe box shoe is vastly superior to regular shoe. However, a truly authentic “barefoot shoe” must have the five articulated toe slots. Even a wide toe box restricts the big toe from operating independently on multiple planes of motion through the human gait pattern. A stiff, weak, restricted big toe ruins pronation and drives injuries and conditions like runner’s hallux (⅔ of all runners!), bunions and osteomas (bone protrusions), plantar fasciitis, and Achilles tendonitis.
The big toe was one of the last areas of the human body to evolve is the single most important joint in the human gait pattern - it supports your entire bodyweight for a moment on every walking or running stride you take! Interestingly, it was one of the last areas of the human body to evolve to become straight and aligned with the other toes. This enables us to walk upright and run - again, vastly superior to apes with opposable toes.
The next time you hear the term “shoe technology”, run screaming for the trees, because there has never been a single shred of evidence that shoes improve impact absorption, nor prevent injuries, and tons of research affirming that shoes are the driving cause of overuse injuries in runners.
Download our free eBook at Peluva.com called The Definitive Guide to a Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Lifestyle.