Is the new "Minimalist" craze...new?

The excitement created by Vibram Five Fingers and other new "minimalist" styles raises obvious questions:

• Just how "new" are these concepts?
• Are all other shoes suddenly obsolete?
• Should we be wearing minimalist styles for everything?

Minimalism is not new. Decades ago athletes trained and ran in minimalist shoes. This last surge is a direct response to the Nike heel motion-control design that has taken running shoes in the direction of thick bottomed soles and heel pads. The design isolates the foot from ground contact and allows the heel to strike at a much greater force, passing that energy into the rest of the foot, ankle, leg and body.
That Nike heel was designed to lengthen the stride, and it did, but at the cost of generating much higher incidence of injury. For running, specifically, the change from Nike heel to minimalist has a huge affect on the runner's stride, gait, and foot impact. The change allows the foot to function more naturally.
At Abbadabba’s, we have been providing footwear that allows the foot to function more naturally for three decades. We have been committed to shoes that make sense starting with our early commitment to Birkenstock and other "Euro-comfort" brands and styles. We have helped countless customers make a change from fashion shoes that constrict your feet to comfortable shoes that empower feet to function properly.
For walking, standing, and all kinds of everyday use, coolshoes from Abbadabba’s have always delivered exactly what the new Minimalist concepts advocate: shoes that make sense!
This entry was posted in Minimalist Shoes and tagged barefoot ted, terra plana, vibram five fingers, merrell barefoot, barefoot running, minimalist on March 2, 2011 by admin.

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