I’ve had a pair of Barefooters all winter, but with all the cold and snow, I haven’t had much chance to wear them (beyond kicking around my house.)  They were warm enough for cool weather with a pair of thin socks, but I figured they wouldn’t be the best in the in the deep snow we’ve been having!  I finally got to put them to better use during a trip to the Southern US where the climate was much more conducive to “barefooting.”

Barefooters

If you’re not familiar with Barefooters, they are meant to be easy to slip-on footwear with an insole footbed designed to soothe, massage, and refresh your feet.  I found them to be comfortable to hang out in, and they did feel nice after a 50km race through the desert that I did during my warm weather reprieve a few weeks ago.

Barefooters come in a ton of colors, and you can customize them a bit by switching strap colors.  The cork and silicone based material (called CorksiLite) that they are constructed from definitely seems super durable – they were heavier than they looked and felt solid on my feet. They’ve got a removable insole designed to provide reflexology style benefits with a firm structured pattern.  Barefooters named the insoles Oooaaahs because that is the expected result of wearing them!  The material is anti-microbial, something very useful on a shoe you wear without socks!  The Barefooters website has a handy fit page, with a chart you can print out to make sure you get just the right size.  I’ve been told that the best bet is to size them to what you would wear in a dress shoe (something I rarely do, so I depended on the fitting guide!)

Oooaaahs

Oooaaah insole reflexological structure (don’t mind the desert sand!)

I love having a shoe that I can just slip on when I am running out the door, and I can’t wait until the snow melts so I can get these back into my rotation.  Their tagline is “feel great” and that seems quite appropriate!

Barefooters in their element… relaxing in the sun