In early 2023, after more than two years of working from home during the pandemic, I returned to the office. Over that time, I had gotten rid of most of my clothes, including t-shirts, pants, and shoes. Before my first day back, I bought a new pair of sneakers in my size. I hadn’t exercised much during the pandemic and rarely walked, so I was out of shape. After just a week in the office with my new shoes, I started feeling pain in the big toe on both feet. I figured this was normal since I wasn’t used to wearing those shoes yet, so I didn’t worry about it and just put up with the discomfort.

Two months later, when I was searching for a book about improving our health, I found the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Initially, I thought this book was just about how to run “correctly”. Turns out, it’s more than that. It’s not your typical non-fiction book, where you can find each chapter explaining a concept and using more formal language. Instead, it’s written like a novel, with the story based on the author’s experience in finding a cure for his foot pain.

These are some points that I took from that book that I just learned, and opened other perspectives:

  1. This article “Endurance running and the evolution of Homo” by Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman (November 2004) in short said that one of the critical point in human evolution that we survive is endurance hunting, which we can run as long as it takes until the animal no longer can walked, even it took more than a days. 
  2. Most of the modern shoes are not natural for our body, especially modern shoes that have a small toe box that squeezes our feet. I learned there is one medical term, bunion, which is caused by wearing tight shoe boxes. Another proof that suggests our feet are not naturally meant to be squeezed is how baby feet are spread.


Image by https://unsplash.com/@sippakor

  1. Our feet are built to support our bodies and handle the pressure of walking and running. They naturally adjust to how we live. But when we wear shoes with thick cushioning, our feet start to depend on that extra support and can lose their natural strength.
  2. Some shoes are made to support the way we naturally walk, often called barefoot shoes. They usually have a flexible sole and a wide toe box, which sets them apart from regular shoes. When I looked into them, I found they were quite expensive and looked different from the shoes I was used to. Most big brands don’t make this type of shoe.

After I finished the book, my big toe was still hurting, so I started looking for barefoot shoes. There were plenty of options online, but not many were available in Indonesia. Luckily, I found two local brands, Pyopp Fledge and Injak, that make these shoes. Both had similar styles and prices, but only Pyopp Fledge had my size at the time. When I first put them on, it reminded me of being a kid playing football barefoot in the rice fields. I could feel the ground under my feet, which felt more stable and gave me better control. My big toe finally had space. After about six months of wearing these shoes, the pain in my toe was gone.

Six months after I started wearing those shoes, I learned more about the barefoot movement. It’s not a quick fix for foot pain, though. There are a few things to think about before trying it:

  1. The above article explains how we humans walk and run in nature. However, in this modern world, we mostly walk on flat concrete, which our feet are not naturally designed to withstand.
  2. If you want to try barefoot shoes, start slowly. If you’re used to cushioned shoes, don’t switch to running in barefoot shoes right away. I mostly used them for walking and daily activities since I spend a lot of time in the office. When I sit, these shoes let my toes spread out instead of squeezing them.
  3. Most barefoot shoes I found are made for casual wear or sports. It can be tricky to wear them for formal events where you need to follow a dress code, since barefoot shoes might not fit in.
  4. Don’t use this article as medical advice. If you have foot pain, the first thing you can do is visit a doctor (even if the story from the book Born to Run, where the author didn’t find a solution from a specialist). If you have already tried the medical advice and still have no progress, you can consider finding an alternative.

This experience showed me that there might be better options out there than what I’m used to. It made me question whether the shoes I wear are really designed for our feet or just follow trends. Learning new things like this can help improve our daily lives.