I’d like to share a few things to consider when you buy your first pair of barefoot shoes that I did not know about.
Since we buy most of our shoes online, one of the main things to pay attention to is the length. Always read the sizing table description, as some companies already add wiggle room (like Lems), and others measure inside length, while yet others do the outside length of the sole.
Measuring length is not the only thing! You really gotta measure the width as well as length. Many brands that sell foot-shaped or minimalist shoes are not made for wide feet. “Wide” in conventional shoes is not the same as “wide” in barefoot shoes. I speak with many of my customers that have “very wide feet” and it turns out, they are actually normal to narrow in the barefoot world. Here is a quick table that may help – it was made for kids, but gives a pretty good idea for adults as well.
What you also want to pay attention to is the shape of the toe box. When you look at your feet, they can be very unique, but often, they fall into one of the categories below summed by by Anya’s Reviews. The toe box of the shoe should be similar to your toe / feet shape. For example, if your toes are pretty much the same length, you don’t want to buy shoes that have a very sloped toe box…you get the idea.
Last, but certainly not least, you want to look at your feet overall volume – basically how much foot there is to fill the volume of the shoe. You want to look at your feet from the side and see how much vertical volume there is to fill the shoe. There are some nuances – high arches make it look like you have high volume, but sometimes you can have low volume and super high arches, but overall, the “taller” your foot looks from the side, the more volume there is. Where this really plays a big role is when you have high volume and you buy shoes that fit low volume – you will feel them very tight or you will not be able to even put your foot in. On the other hand, if you have low volume and you buy high volume shoes, your feet end up sliding around. This can be somewhat fixed with insoles, or pads etc…I think the pictures from Katja from Bose Nogice sums it up pretty nicely.
Voila! You are now ready to buy your barefoot shoes!