Do you use zero drop / barefoot shoes?

Yes.

Do you use them to run?

Yes, for 15 years.

Do you know a proper “guide” on the matter?

No, but my advice is just do it and don’t overdo it. Listen to your body.

I hope this thread gets overrun by foot people.

Zero drop and “barefoot” shoes are two different things. I first tried minimalist/barefoot style shoes after not liking many of the traditional running shoes I tried. I stuck with these for a few months, but the constant soreness and worry about stepping on something that would hurt my foot got me to switch to some zero drop Altras.

Initially I tried to stay with some of their most minimal shoes, like the escalante. I finally landed at the Torin and really liked it for a while. It worked pretty well for me in the twenty to thirty mile per week range, but as others have mentioned I also suffered a constant stress in my Achilles. Not pain to the point of injury, but just feeling like I was on the edge of an over use injury.

I had the chance to try some max cushion Altras with a 4mm drop and absolutely loved them. My Achilles soreness has gone away completely, and several other minor aches have also improved. I’ve even pushed my mileage up in recent weeks to a new high of fifty miles. Despite this, I feel better than when I was running 20ish mile weeks with the torins.

I think one major point that many people miss is that even if you’re barefoot or wearing zero drop shoes for everything else (walking, work, etc), running is much harder on your feet, legs, and body.

Try a few things and see what you like. Just be aware that some of the barefoot running communities can be kind of dogmatic. Any mention of issues with barefoot shoes is met with the suggestion that you did something wrong (too much too soon, landing on the wrong part of your foot, not paying enough attention for tiny debris on the road).

Good luck finding what works for you! Don’t be afraid to change it up. What works today might not be quite right in a few months or years.

I use them, not exclusively, and I definitely see some of the touted benefits. However, I think one “danger” in my case has been that they encouraged a running style where I land fully on my forefoot, which eventually led to some issues around my calf and Achilles tendon. I don’t think they automatically force you into that, though. You have to be conscious of how your running style adapts.

I’ve been using a combination of barefoot and more traditional running shoes for 4ish years now. I usually run some of my easy runs on barefoot shoes (once or twice a week), but longer and speedier sessions on Altras ( zero drop and good toe space still! ).

While bringing the barefoot shoes into my running mix I had occasionally some feelings on my ancles, but allways when such happened I reverted back to more cushioned shoes for some days. A definite pro with barefoot shoes is that it really helped with my running dynamics (naturally higher candence) and I feel it has made my calfs stronger, as they were commonly a bit sore after a run, when i started. As others already have suggested: start gradually

Like the other poster said, zero drop and barefoot are different things with obviously some overlap. Personally, I don’t like to call anything “barefoot” unless you have nothing on your feet (more to be precise than gatekeepy).

Running actually barefoot takes some building up to. Any time you run, forward momentum is generated by shear forces at the ground, and with a shoe on, it can be distributed throughout your shoe. Barefoot, all the shear can only go through the relatively small contact patch of your foot skin. As you can imagine, that’s a recipe for blisters until you’ve built up strength in the skin. As the skin gets stronger, it also gets more puncture resistant. A big part of the adaptation to barefoot running is learning, too. When you run in thicker shoes, your foot can drop onto whatever surface you want, and it doesn’t matter. Barefoot, you need to be lighter on your feet and more adaptable, so if you see something you don’t want to step on, you can take a shorter/longer/wider step, and if you step on something sharp, you can quickly shift such that you aren’t putting all of your weight onto that spot. It’s hard to learn, and it requires the buildup of some of the intrinsic muscles of the foot, which are laughably underdeveloped for people who habitually wear shoes.

Minimalist shoes, on the other hand, still require some of that learning, but much less, and they don’t require skin to build toughness the same way. Personally, I’ve found minimalist shoes to be much more durable than maximalist, largely due to the lack of high foam stacks. The breakdown of foam is what makes you have to retire a pair of shoes, usually. People who run a lot and rotate through different shoes generally get a sense of when a pair of shoes needs to be retired, though there are plenty of people who wear a pair for way too long cause they aren’t visibly damaged. With minimalist shoes, you largely can just wear them until they are physically damaged too much.

Personally, I find toe shoes gimmicky, and i don’t think they actually provide more flexibility or traction or anything.

Zero drop just means that the heel and ball of the foot are at the same height, so you can have a heavily cushioned shoe with zero drop. Some shoe companies cheat a little by measuring to the toe, and having the toe lifted by a bit, so you actually have a drop to the ball of the foot, but then it gets canceled out by rocker geometry.

Most shoes (running and otherwise) are designed with a drop. This means that your calf muscles get shorter. If you wear shoes without a drop, your calves will get stretched more, and in some people this manifests as calf soreness or pain or Achilles pain. This soreness/pain will be correlated with both the change in drop vs what you are used to as well as the speed you are running. For this reason, I would start zero drop running on trails, not pavement, because you will be going slower, and the varied terrain will force you into a bit of a faster cadence. I know plenty of people who wear zero drop only on trails, but not pavement. Ideally, if you go that route, aim for something with a small drop (4-5 mm) for the road shoes.

I used to run barefoot or in minimalist shoes, but as I upped the distance I was running each week, I switched back to shoes with some foam. I think the biggest thing is that I found my fit. I wore huaraches which let my feet expand to their preferred width, and now I pretty much exclusively wear Altras. The started advertising their shoes as “foot shaped” and zero drop, and their “original fit” is actually their widest, while their “signature fit” got narrower. “Lone Peak” are their highest recommended trail shoe. They do have some “short drop” shoes as well.

I think for me, one of the most important things I did was basically just eliminating all toe-squeezing shoes from my life. My running shoes don’t squeeze my feet at all now, but neither do my casual footwear or boots. If you don’t do that, you are giving competing stimulus to your feet.

I was an obese runner (I know, how can you be running 20 miles a week and still be obese!?), so my experience with barefoot running was that it was hard to ease into because my feet were barely able to keep up with the pounding from how much I was running even with the thicker soled Altras. Zero drop is a nice compromise.

Some runs I would take my shoes off entirely and finish the last mile completely barefoot.

My running ceased when a log fell on my foot and then running exacerbated that injury into a stress fracture. I probably won’t go back to barefoot running, but I will continue to use zero-drop shoes with sufficient cushion. If I manage to lose enough weight I might go down on the padding (heavy shoes have their downsides, and I prefer how lightweight shoes like Altra’s Escalante Racer are), but I am realizing that my feet hurt even without running from how heavy I am - I need to lose weight for my feet to be healthy and in the meantime I need to be realistic about my feet’s need for cushion and support.

If you’re new to it, start out with just a quarter mile. Maybe do a quarter mile every other day for a couple weeks, increase distance gradually even if you’re accustomed to running marathons, do not run far the first time in zero drop shoes. Trust me. The next week, go up to maybe half a mile every other day for a couple weeks. You’ve gotta build up gradually because I have learned my lesson the hard way over and over again if I go out and run 8 miles with my barefoot shoes after not doing that for a while, my calves are unbearably cripplingly sore and I’m limping around like a gimp for five solid days.

I have been running in barefoot/minimalist shoes for about 15 years. I have run on all surfaces, but I am primarily a road runner so hard concrete, etc. I usually run 5 or 10 km, but have done a half-marathon in them as well. Yes, they are safe. I would argue they are safer than conventional running shoes (though that’s another topic).

The overwhelming reason people injure themselves in these shoes is because they don’t know how to run in them, nor is their body prepared to run in them. Running like this will reduce the load on your knees and quads, and increase it in your calves. You also need to land on your mid or forefoot, rather than your heel, although this comes naturally after a short time.

All you need is a transition period where you gradually build up strength in your calves and adjust to the different technique.