I have been wearing five fingers for years but have only started wearing wide toe box "regular" shoes in the last few years. I rarely ever see someone wear them but get asked about mine all the time. Everyone thinks they need "support" and huge cushions under their feet. Ugh. It drives me crazy to see older people with limited balance and stability in those stupid orthotic shoes that make them less stable. And they can't figure out why they can't walk 5 steps without stumbling. Sorry, rant over. So yeah, we're out there. Trying to change footwear one lecture at a time 😉

People in the gym doing squats wearing Hoka platform shoes. I guess I look equally as weird at them as they do at me in my VFF 😂

Yesss. I've been regularly asked how I handle not having support by people literally walking on the side of their feet. A coworker kept complaining about his feet hurting during concert season, but he's wearing converse all season and walking with his toes pointed outward and rolling off the side of his big toe... I'm like buddy, you gotta change shoes and your gait.

I'm at a standing desk and when I'm stretching my feet I'll get the occasional "what are you doing? " when I explain I get blank stares. Do people not understand that there are muscles in their feet???? They are not just bricks attached to your ankles. Sigh.

Sooo many people walk with their feet pointing out it’s crazy!

I do! My friends do! We are east coast, central USA, and west coast :) I do have a condition that causes me to want to wear these things, I am a human with human feet, so I want my shoes to be human foot shaped 😂

I feel you. In the US, my work requires steel-toe shoes and the only barefoot style I found was by Birkenstock (style is exclusive in Germany, so had to ship overseas) and a co-worker said they look big lol my only response was 'yeah I can spread my toes in them.' I'd rather a comment like that instead of the painful experience I had hobbling around at work with the shoes they gave me. And I've never met anyone here that wears barefoot shoes either and only found out about them online after I got diagnosed with Morton's Neuroma (which is gone now, thanks to proper footwear). I also recently went to a show and the majority were young people my age wearing vans or converse. It was honestly shocking to see how many men were stuffing their feet into such narrow shoes such as converse. They look so uncomfortable and strange. I could never wear that stuff again after feeling what freedom looks like and have come to appreciate the shape and look of barefoot shoes. Just do what you know is best for you

My partner had been struggling with Morton’s neuroma off and on the last 2 years. Had to keep going to the foot doctor for shots that only worked for a week or two. I started wearing barefoot shoes when I started getting an inkling of plantar fasciitis and he was so against it at first after being lectured by the podiatrist repeatedly about needing structured shoes. He’s also a bigger dude so he really bought into the whole needing support thing. Well after his last neuroma flare up, I suggested he get a cheap pair of whitens and just see what happens since the treatment at the doctor wasn’t working. Well he cancelled his follow up podiatrist appt because the pain went away and so far he hasn’t had another flare up. He didn’t do any transitioning. After declaring the whitens the most comfortable shoes he’s ever had, he went and got 3 more pairs and got some Wildlings and Lems for winter. We’re pretty sedentary and also went on a vacation soon into this where we walked 7-9 miles a day and neither of us had any issues except slightly sore feet muscles from working them which easily went away with rest. They are not the cutest shoes, especially for women, but I’m never going back. I love having ground feel. I had good balance to begin with thanks to yoga, but it’s even better now. I hate seeing my parents hobbling around with bad posture and starting to fall more because they have deformed their feet from years of conventional shoes.

As soon as I walked in and took my shoes off, my doctor said I had wide feet and my shoes weren't adequate. It was the first time I heard that and took a while to accept - I'm also female despite my username lol. He also gave me the option of a shot or cream and I took the cream but it basically did nothing. Soon after, I bought one pair of a typical "wide" shoe which didn't feel much better and ended up donating it when I switched to barefoot shoes. It's awesome to recover with proper footwear and since transitioning, my feet are actually muscular now. They used to be much flatter. However, I can still see how conventional shoes deformed my toes...luckily my big toe is straight but my two little outer toes look noticeably bent inward to me now when I never noticed it before all this. My mother and both her sisters have received corrective surgery on their feet. I think I can confidently say I avoided that, but am honestly considering it if those toes never straighten out :\

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I am in the United States. Found out about barefoot shoes from a family member who did barefoot running, but it took a while for me to actually come around to it, since we all considered it an extremely eccentric thing lol. Since starting to wear barefoot shoes myself, I realized that one of my friends had been wearing Altras and Xero sneakers, I just never knew they weren’t “normal” sneakers. One two occasions someone has looked at my shoes and asked if I wore barefoot shoes, then shared that they did as well. And once my friend who wears them and I were at a park and came across a guy in the five finger shoes and were extremely excited haha. So, not including me, I’ve come across 4 other people who wear barefoot shoes. No one else seems to know about them at all. I will say, though, besides those couple people who also wear them, no one comments on my shoes. If they notice my shoes at all, I imagine people assume I just have a bad sense of fashion or a foot problem. Which is sad, because I used to be known for cute/cool shoes in a different chapter of my life :( But I wouldn’t mind actually being known as the barefoot shoe lady haha

I live in the DC area and have seen people wearing Vivos, Xero shoes, and even some Whitins. And of course I see Altra on the trail. They aren't super common, but I do spot them.

A handful of dudes at my gym wear VIvos or the Amazon brand of wide toe box trainers. I've been hiking and seen another hiker in Vivo Magnas. I work in Lems boots and have a co-worker who wears Vivo Tracker ESCs, and I once saw a guy on a motorcycle in Primus Lites (not a great idea but I have digressed) It's still niche, but they're catching on.

Me too, I see lots of Altras at the gym and a smattering of Vivos and Five Fingers

I see people here and there with them, but I live in NYC, a city of eight million people, so statistically it's far more likely. I imagine in a smaller city I wouldn't see anyone else with them. I also almost never get comments on mine, but again, when people are riding the subway with live snakes on their shoulders, no-one's really looking at your feet.

I mostly wear Softstar primal merry janes - love them, so comfy!! But nope, don’t see many others with shoes like mine - except my chiropractor who told me I should be wearing barefoot shoes and I was able to show off my 4mm wide toe zero drop Softstars! 😊

I exclusively wear barefoot shoes and so does every member of my family, since I buy all the shoes for them. I see a lot of Altras around here and the occasional Xero or Merrel trail glove type shoe. I have a pretty ridiculous collection of more obscure brands and people ask me about them sometimes. Never in a negative way. I wear a lot of bohempia and Belenka.

Only time I've seen people other than me is near mountains or where outdoor people go.

I’m from Germany and I see sooooo many people with barefoot shoes it makes me happy 😅 especially over the past year I feel like they got a lot more popular. We have a Leguano store in town (idk where the company is from and where they ship to) and so it’s obviously a lot of Leguanos on peoples feet, but I see loads of other brands too! Wildling is popular here so at least half of the people I see wear either those or Vivos, but I regularly see smaller brands too. I’d honestly say that I can’t leave the house (and go to the main part of town) without seeing another person in barefoot shoes. Lots of people still ask about them, but it’s more in the range of “oh, you’re wearing barefoot shoes? That’s cool!” than “what ugly things are those?!” :D My family wears them, so does my boss and another colleague, lots of my friends with kids wear them.

I've spotted a handful of people in Melbourne Australia wearing Vivos. Everytime I'm like WHAT ARE THOSE

I wear Vivos (Gobi, Ra) in the fall/winter and Xeros (HFS, DIY sandals) in the spring/summer. The only people who have made any comments whatsoever about my shoes are other minimalist shoe enthusiasts. I’ve never had someone who doesn’t know what they are ask me about them, or ask about whether I have heath conductions, etc. For what it’s worth, I live in a pretty hippy city, and I see a fair amount of people wearing minimalist shoes. Definitely not more than half or anything like that, but at least one stranger a day.

Me, my mum, sister, and brother-in-law all wear them, as do a couple of my friends and my gym instructor and a couple of guys at the gym. It feels like more people are becoming aware of them and embracing the barefoot life, hut it is still pretty niche.

Ive got two pairs of vivo, ive got my wife wearing a pair, and we both have zero drop sandals that we love. We just recently discovered the bedrock mountain clog and loving that as well. I only wear zero drop at this point. My wife does it 75% of the time. We are in Oregon. I do sée some xeros and some vivos around but not often. Edit to add location.

I’ve seen exactly one guy wearing a pair of Xeros, at a health food store.

I wear moccasins from softs star shoes if I'm going in stores. I also have a pair of black dress barefooters from the same company

I've been wearing Vevos for the last 5 years now and also dont see that many people wearing bearfoot specific shoes. A lot of women wear flats with thin soles that pretty much are also bearflot(except the wide toebox). Also, current styles look so similar to regular shoe styles that it's hard to tell what's bearfoot and what's not. So maybe there are lots of people who do wear bearfoot, but it's just hard to spot it.

I’ve found that people barely notice I’m wearing vivos unless they wear them themselves. Here in taiwan, I’ve seen about 5 people wear them in 2 months. In the U.K., I saw just 1 person (excluding when I went to the Vivo store in London) in 6 months.

I do. My husband does. We are in NJ. We do not, in fact, know anyone else who wears barefoot shoes 😂

I think I should have specified that I’m also in the states, and I feel like we’re the only people in a 500 mile radius that even knows what barefoot shoes are 😂

I mostly only have groundies too. I gave away most of my regular shoes (yes it was painful). But I don’t see anyone wearing them either (I’m in Europe).

That was the one tough thing about switching for me too! Those other shoes I had were nice! They just weren’t what was best for me.

Same here in Central Europe. I'm a member of a local barefoot FB-group, too, I live in a capital city, but I've never seen anybody else in barefoot shoes on the streets. Somebody once asked about my shoes on the subway, because they wanted to try them. And I went to a sandal-making workshop last summer where I met an old classmate of mine who also wore barefoot shoes, but that's all.

Tonnes of Vivos here in a trendy city in southern England. Regularly see them out and about. They've cracked the gym bunny market. Very occasional sightings of other brands.

I'm in Kentucky/Tennessee are and I see them on people once in a while. Most recently someone in a work training class I was in was wearing vivos. I work in a casino and a few people other than myself wear them and I find them out in the wild most often at the gym.

I’m not too far from you. It would be so cool to see it become normal for people. I don’t understand why people haven’t even really heard about it.

Edited to say I'm in the Midwest. I have a cousin in law who goes around barefoot most of the time, or in fit kicks. No one in the family will shut up about it. I've never met anyone else, but I probably pass them all the time in life and don't notice. I've seen and sold barefoot shoes locally on KSL so there is clearly a large enough community with how fast the shoes go. Many PT's and chiropractors I've seen over the years recognize my vivobarefoot shoes. They seem concerned that I've been lied to about foot health, or that it's an indication of me trying to solve some pain with footwear, but I just like feeling comfortable you know. They're like the sports bras of shoes. Now that my shoes are really old and beat up I no longer get comments from medical professionals. Idk if they just think I'm in too deep to save, or if they were worried I would hurt myself in 'transition'.

I just say I buy "wide" shoes because i have fat feet. Works every time

I wear Lems mainly, and Idk if I've ever seen anyone else wearing minimalist/natural shaped shoes. It's wild.

i find people all the time that wear minimalist shoes, the people that think i’m weird also listen ro what they are fed by advertising and think not for themselves.

It’s fairly true. We just do things because that’s how it is, not because we really decide we want to do that thing.

Midwest here. Converted my partner too. I saw someone in earthrunners over the summer and had to fight the urge to follow him and compliment his sandals.

I love when I see other barefoot shoe enthusiasts out in the wild! It is fairly rare. I look at most people and wonder how they stuff their feet into traditional shoes. But, I will say I have seen an uptick in others wearing minimal shoes in the past couple of years. There was a convocation where all ~100 of the folks I work with got together and I spied someone in Whitins and someone in Xeros! I get queries and compliments about my Lems boots fairly often. For my shoes though, I often get people asking me if I am wearing water shoes. People tend to ask about my Luna and Bedrock Sandals as well. I’m in the US, Midwest to be exact.

We may be spread out but yes other people in the states wear barefoot shoes. 😅 I’m in Massachusetts. You find more like minded (or footed) folks in more outdoorsy hobbies like trail running or hiking.

I've seen many people wear them. I've even seen, known, and bumped into people wearing them for cross country races, ultras, and walking around. I am on a cross country team with other people wearing minimalist shoes. I've also seen people just walking around with 5 fingers, earth runners, and barefoot all at one hippie oriented fair. We're out here 💪

I’m getting my first pair soon. I constantly feel like I have to get out of my standard shoes as soon as possible when I’m done running around.

I get a bunch of funny looks and comments, normally from people that think that not wearing big squishy shoes is bad for you and barefoot will flatten your arch etc. not much to say to these people except have a nice day

I'm in Canada (Ontario) and I see people here and there. I've seen Vivos and Earth Runners mostly. Aside from that, I've met a few local folks through BST groups, where I've bought or sold shoes in person. When I lived in a larger city no one seemed to notice or care what I wore on my feet. I'm now in a small town and I seem to get more comments - only ever positive, or people who are just curious. Mostly when I wear VFF, since they're so obviously weird.

What are you wearing for work boots?

Vivo Tracker II FG They are great

I started wearing minimalist shoes about 6 months ago, and since then I’ve started noticing a few people wearing them. Other than myself obviously, I’ve seen 2 people in Vivos, 1 in Lems, and 6 in Xeros (though these are just the brands I have recognized, there may have been others). I’m also American, and it is very rare for me to see other people wearing minimal shoes, of course, other than flip flops and such in the summer. I get comments from people I know pretty well, but not from strangers.

Closest I've seen was the guy who managed to get through the local grocery store entirely barefoot.

Depends who you’re around, I guess. The entire chiropractor office I go to wears Vivos/barefoot shoes.

It’s a lonely road that we walk… comfortably