Barefoot shoes

[os.lunatum]

For almost 2 years I use barefoot shoes for tabletennis. Use the Xero 360 which is very lightweight (like most barefoot shoes), has enough grip and meant for moving in all directions. It's made for indoor sports (crossfit) with explosive movements. Also I don't think these shoes are very lightweight (compared to classic narrow TT-shoes).

 

[Tyce]

Since my last post I've ditched the Vapor Glove for Xero HFS. I also wear Xeros as daily drivers.
Their sole grip is great, they use practically the same sole for most of their shoes and it's a hard wearing, grippy compound.
The upper isn't super supportive but the bands coming from the sole keep everything in check. I love the light weight feel

 

[sebi]

I think the only solution is to find some indoor shoes that has a wide toe box.
You can also look at indoor football(soccer) shoes. I wear nikes.

 

[OvrChkn]

Stumbled upon this thread while looking for a new pair of minimalist shoes. I was helping someone warm up this week and kept my Lems Primal Zen on and realized that my footwork was significantly better in these shoes than my Wave Medal 8s. I was able to feel when I was transferring my power from my feet. The back and hip pain I had from playing was lessened a lot. I have issues with the WM8 where i just fall back on my heels a lot and it puts me out of balance.

The only issue is the shoe is definitely not made for side to side movements, and the top of the ankle joint starts to hurt a little after playing for a prolonged time.

I think I'll experiment with a different pair and get custom inserts if needed. Thinking about the Xero X1 (possibly the 360) since it does have a little bit of cushioning.

Tibhar and Leguano released a collab earlier in the year (roughly $200 USD): https://tibhar.info/en/shop/67124/. I want a custom insert and it doesn't seem like there's enough space, but could be an alternative for those that have the need for a wider toebox.

 

[tay]

I love to use barefoot shoes for Table Tennis! Just don't stomp in them I've tried like 10 different barefoot shoes, and I keep going back to and am basically sticking with these $20 cheap ones. They only last like 4 or 5months though as I practice 3-5 times a week. The grip and lightweight is so so nice.

 

[J-fed]

I've been wearing barefoot shoes for a while and my feet's gotten used to the wide toe box. When I wear my Asics table tennis shoes, my toes get cramped and i get blisters (even though they're half a size too big for me). For running there are a few brands offering wide toe box shoes but I can't find any brand making indoor sport shoes with wide toe boxes as barefoot shoes offer. Are there any indoor sport shoes with wide toe boxes?

Great to hear that you’ve switched to shoes that are shaped like a foot. She designs are my daily reminder of the insanity that is willingly retained by status quo bias.
If anyone were to design another item of clothing to bind a body part into a small space and cause potential deformation, pain and biomechanical inefficiency they’d be laughed at.
Tapered toe boxes are a hangover from medeivel class wars and yet we still value having pointy feet over well functioning pain free limbs 400 years later.
But back to the question, Nittaku/yonex have recently been producing a line of shoes that are close to foot shaped! I was pleasantly surprised. They only go up to size 29cm though of course because people over 6 ft tall obviously don’t need shoes. This is well known in Japan.
I think they are hard to find and expensive in other countries but maybe you can order from Japan if you are under 29cm

 

[J-fed]

I don't think wearing barefoot shoes is the be all end all solution. Did some searching for research papers, and all the papers I found say the same thing: nothing concrete has been discovered yet. But a few papers did mention that to utilize a pair of barefoot shoes, one must change their walking/running form to always land on their ball of the feet, as there is close to no cushioning on barefoot shoes. This becomes almost impossible for sports where one need to do stand wide and shifting weight continuously from one leg to the other, since human feet aren't built that way, i.e. each step needs to be small enough if one want to land on the ball of their feet. Just stand up and test out yourself to see how much wider each step you can take when landing on your heels compared to landing on the balls of your feet.

Anyways, table tennis shoes are one of the most lightweight sports shoes out there, so I'm going to stick with them for now as I don't think I'm able to keep a proper form while trying to always land on the balls of my feet while moving around while playing. Maybe I'll consider a pair of barefoot shoes for walking just to see how it feels.

It is true that you have to relearn how to walk. It’s not easy and can even cause further injury, but I recommend trying because it is just so bizarre that we continue to wear these crazy foot corsets.
There is no possible benefit to squeezing human toes into a space they don’t fit. Children use all toes for balance and stability. I teach them and you can see their proprioceptive abilities as they are barefoot in class up to 6. Then they start wearing plimpsole shoes all day with the toes bunched up. They get flat footed and essentially use the forefoot as toes. It’s a real scandal of public health that it continues. Nike have known for decades that they are falling the public and continue to promote their designs as health giving when they are exactly the opposite.
Unfortunately most people are too far gone by their 30s that they can’t benefit from switching to barefoot shoes. Partly because their skeletal alignment is warped and partly because they are unlikely to have the dedication to relearn their walking style so continue to heel plant (obviously that’s terrible in barefoot shoes).
I don’t use barefoot shoes for table tennis because the ones I’ve tried would be dangerous to the ankle but there is a guy at my club who does. There is no problem with them forcing you onto your toes because most of the time you should be anyway and other times you are mainly knees bent and weight over the toes. Just the side support is necessary in such a twisty and jerky sport as table tennis.
As mentioned above. The Nittaku/Asics collaboration shoe does look really much better than others. Only up to a size 10 though. Another shoe frustration.

 

[J-fed]

That's the blue pill. Once you learn about the natural shape of human feet and see what kind of shapes modern shoes have forced human feet to conform to, that would be the red pill barefoot shoe moment. Fashion, tradition, conformity, Why do you think the feet binding practice of China existed and how it simply evolved into the high heel shoes women wear today works?

Whether you are ethnically Chinese or not IDK but that is some Sinophobic nonsense. High heels and pointy shoes in Europe are a result of our own class wars. Landed gentry wore pointed shoes to slip their feet into the stirrups. They would proudly ride by the serfs and show their ridiculous shoes as a sign they didn’t need to work and couldn’t work even if they wanted to because the shoes were so restrictive.
Thus when lower classes got a bit of money they’d buy pointy shoes as a sign of social upward mobility.
Heels were a part of this as they were also impractical for work but allowed the person not to tread in sh1t on the streets. It was men that wore them and women willingly followed later as a fashion statement.
Today we still continue this insanity and if you talk to the average person they will defend shoe designs until they are blue in the face. Almost no one will ‘admit’ to having bunions either, yet you watch mma where people fight barefoot and so so many do. Thai fighters don’t, because they live and train barefoot.

 

[J-fed]

..................and comparing this newer model to my old model, the WaveDrive , the design and shape of the sole looks pretty much the same.
Sport-shoe manufacturers simply do not seem to consider the actual shape of the foot but seem to want to ""Pack"" the foot into their shoes at all and any cost.
WHY ??????????????? or WTF !! 🤣

It’s wild. I am determined to write a collaborative biomechanical/legal collaborative Paper on it. I really think there’s potential for a tobacco style moment. These companies know it’s wrong and are too scared to lose market share because they (rightly) think the public won’t accept foot shaped shoes