What you've heard
Barefoot or minimalist shoes fix your feet
Verdict
Stronger feet, yes, slowly; fewer injuries or better balance, unproven
Do barefoot or minimalist shoes fix your feet?
Stronger feet, yes, slowly; fewer injuries or better balance, unproven.
Partly. In small trials, walking in thin, flexible shoes built foot muscle about as well as foot exercises, though a review rated the evidence low to very low certainty. For injuries, a Cochrane review found no clear reduction in running injuries from any type of running shoe, and when a small group of runners switched to toe-shoes over ten weeks, more than half showed new fluid in a foot bone on scans. The famous study of barefoot runners that launched the fashion measured impact forces, not injuries, and was part-funded by a shoe maker. For older feet, falls matter most: going barefoot or in socks at home is linked to more falls, while exercise combining balance and strength cut the rate of falls by about a third in pooled trials.23
Where the book tests it
Sources
- 23.Ridge, S.T., Olsen, M.T., Bruening, D.A., Jurgensmeier, K., et al. (2019). "Walking in minimalist shoes is effective for strengthening foot muscles." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 51(1), 104-113. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001751 ; Peters-Dickie, J.L., Detrembleur, C., Guallar-Bouloc, M., Rastelli, M., et al. (2025). "The effects of foot core exercises and minimalist footwear on foot muscle sizes, foot strength, and biomechanics: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Clinical Biomechanics, 122, 106417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2024.106417 ; Relph, N., Greaves, H., Armstrong, R., Prior, T.D., et al. (2022). "Running shoes for preventing lower limb running injuries in adults." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 8, CD013368. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013368.pub2 ; Ridge, S.T., Johnson, A.W., Mitchell, U.H., Hunter, I., et al. (2013). "Foot bone marrow edema after a 10-wk transition to minimalist running shoes." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 45(7), 1363-1368. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182874769 (10 of 19 runners) ; Lieberman, D.E., Venkadesan, M., Werbel, W.A., Daoud, A.I., et al. (2010). "Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners." Nature, 463(7280), 531-535. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08723 ; Koepsell, T.D., Wolf, M.E., Buchner, D.M., Kukull, W.A., et al. (2004). "Footwear style and risk of falls in older adults." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 52(9), 1495-1501. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52412.x ; Sherrington, C., Fairhall, N.J., Wallbank, G.K., Tiedemann, A., et al. (2019). "Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1, CD012424. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012424.pub2 . Vibram USA helped fund the 2010 Nature study; Koepsell studied people aged 65 and over.
Note numbers are those of Chapter 3, The Body That Walks.
This verdict is one of the "What you've heard" boxes in Chapter 3, The Body That Walks, where the book tests the claims people repeat against the studies behind them.
Educational content, not medical advice. Disclaimer.