The Story of My Sneakers

Sneakers are the main icon of modern American culture. From the poor to the famous rich in this country, everyone wears sneakers. Families who are having a hard time buying healthy food will eat cheap McDonald’s so they can spend their hard-earned money on overpriced, over-hyped branded shoes called sneakers. People get judged on what brand of sneakers they wear. And the one thing that I will never understand is why people line up to pay upwards of five hundred dollars for a “Limited Edition” sneaker when it is just another color scheme of the original. Sneakers are the dress shoes of the new generation.

The modern branded sneakers that everyone wears, and many wish they could afford, are ugly to my eye. They are heavy, big, and look sluggish. I, on the other hand, fall under another growing niche market of barefoot shoe enthusiasts. This is a type of shoe that is super light, extremely flexible, and has a radically thin sole that lets you feel every small texture of the ground you walk on. After wearing the default American sneakers for your whole life, you will have a metaphorically mind-blowing experience. It’s like wearing heavy gloves your whole life and then taking them off.

When I was in Bangladesh, before immigrating to the United States, I used to wear sandals like everybody else. During sports time, everyone would take off their sandals and play barefoot. People in Bangladesh do not care much about what you wear on a day-to-day basis. Most people there have a somewhat expensive pair of shoes, mostly dress shoes, that they keep in good condition for special occasions. After I immigrated to the capital of the world, New York, my mindset changed. After I bought my first pair of Nike’s, I remember thinking it was the best-feeling shoe I had ever worn in my life. I wore Nike and Under Armour running shoes until my knee surgery about two years ago.

During my ACL surgery recovery, I had a hard time balancing. The ACL is the ligament that helps you balance. During that time, I noticed something: when I was barefoot at home, I was walking great, but the moment I put on my Under Armour running shoes, I couldn’t walk well anymore. I thought this might be due to the weird shape of my sneakers. Every modern sneaker has an unnatural shape to it’s sole. They are high in the heel and low under your toes. After watching some YouTube videos and reading a few article headlines, I discovered that modern sneakers are very bad for your knees and feet. That’s when I found out about barefoot shoes, and I’m never going back to normal shoes again.

In my opinion, modern running and workout sneakers are injury machines. Humans did not evolve to wear a heavy, soft shell around our feet that compresses our toes during extreme physical movement. Our feet are the best running machines that evolution has to offer. Every single part of the tendons, ligaments, and muscles in our feet is designed to lift heavy weight and run fast and long distances. Then we introduced this unnaturally shaped object that we put around our feet while performing physical activities. The typical modern sneakers that are marketed toward athletes are like a cast for the feet. They prevent many foot muscles and tendons from activating correctly, putting more force on your knee and hip joints, ultimately injuring you.

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As I already mentioned, I have been wearing barefoot shoes for about two years now. Throughout this time, I have seen many improvements in my physical health. The first time I started wearing barefoot shoes during workouts and running, I would get extremely sore in my feet and shin muscles. That is a good thing because it means my feet and shin muscles were getting stronger. Over time, I noticed my foot muscles got a little bigger, I can see the veins around the muscles, and the gap between my toes increased. Another thing I think a lot of people don’t know is that human toes are supposed to be like fingers, with gaps between them. They shouldn’t be compressed together—it’s very unhealthy. Take a look at a young child’s feet; they have gaps. That’s how we are born, and it should remain like that until death. Unfortunately, modern sneaker designs mold our feet into an unnatural shape.

I’ve also seen a lot of improvement in my posture while wearing barefoot shoes. These shoes always have a thin, flat sole, unlike modern sneakers with an up-down, rounded, boat-like shape. Our bodies know how to stand correctly with our bare feet, not on sneakers. That’s why many people around us have poor posture. Wearing barefoot shoes has also helped me lift much heavier weight while squatting and dead-lifting. Without the soft, bouncy sole of modern sneakers, I can lift heavier weights without the fear of putting unnatural force on my knee and hip and injuring them.

Well, that was the story of what I think about modern sneakers today. In the end, I’m going to say what I’ve said before: I find branded shoes like Nike and Adidas to be ridiculous. I think they are unhealthy and unnecessarily expensive. People should wear shoes that fit naturally on our feet, not ones that change the shape of them.