These three things happened:
- The only shoes I have — steel toed winter boots — are about dead with busted seams;
- My sister sent me a Sears gift card for my birthday; (thanks sis!)
- I found these “Body Glove 3T Barefoot” shoes on Sears’ site for exactly the right amount.
Clicky clicky, waity waity and then I have shoes from the internet! YAY! No more mostly dead winter boots!
What I like:
- Biking in rain
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These are designed for water — kayaking, surfboarding, swimming near rocky shores, etc. The soles have mesh-covered drain holes. The metal mesh protects from pokey things stabbing into your foot but allows water to escape. More importantly, less material compared to other shoes plus vent holes equals faster drying time.
I’ve already soaked my other shoes twice this month from riding in the rain, so I’m especially appreciative.
(In case you’re wondering, you can put soaked boots over an air vent when you get home from work and they will be dry by next morning, IF your fan runs 24/7)
- 3 Toes
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The “3 toes” is a double entendre as there are 3 toe compartments: big toe, next toe over, and smallest 3 toes in one.
I haven’t tried the 5 toe variety of minimalist shoe, but one supposed advantage is that these are easier to put on. I believe it. I have accidentally put 4 toes in the 3 toe area a couple of times. You learn how to slide these on so that big-toe and next-toe-over slide into the right slots. I imagine that’s more tricky with the 5 toe ones (though I’m sure 5T fans have it down pat also).
- Closer to barefoot
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They don’t call these “minimalist shoes” for nothing. We humans evolved to walk on feet, not in shoes. People adapt to shoes well, but protecting your feet with conventional shoes costs some agility (balance, terrain grip). Usually not a problem, so you don’t miss what you don’t really need. The idea behind minimalist shoes is to recover some of that monkey-style agility while still protecting your feet.
While 3 toes isn’t quite 5 toes, it is (supposedly, yet I believe) easier to put these on and your three smallest toes don’t operate as independently as your biggest two do, so it’s a fair compromise.
- Sock option!
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I wasn’t planning to write a review or anything at all until I discovered this just today: you can wear socks with these!
To me this is a huge win.
STORY ASIDE!
I experienced an example of the agility win yesterday while mowing the lawn. My yard has a hill which is pretty steep in places. It’s a pain to operate a lawn mower across it for various reasons, one of which is keeping your grip and balance while wrangling a lawn mower across the slope.
(On the down-side, the holes on the bottom get clogged with cut grass, but once the shoes and grass bits are dry the crud disappears pretty easily)
WHY SOCKS ARE A HUGE WIN
A big downfall of wearing any shoe directly against your foot is that the sole of the shoe itself (a) wears out much more quickly; and (b) gets smelly faster. If only there were a layer between foot and shoe that you could remove and wash separately and much more often.
Before I discovered these shoes work with socks I was planning to get slippers for my office. You can imagine what wearing shoes like this for 8 hours might end up like, especially your ride to work damp.
With 5 toe shoes this isn’t an option unless (a) you have toe socks (I don’t); and (b) they fit in your shoes. I imagine that a 5 toe shoe which fits you nicely without socks won’t fit well even if you do own toe socks.
Recall where I noted above that I managed to put 4 toes in the 3 toe area accidentally a couple of times. With socks, you just karate chop a divot between your big toe and the others, and take advantage of that happy accident.
This opens the door to wearing this kind of shoe for long periods of time without worrying about stinkification. WIN!
I love it when I can solve a “this thing is great, if only this one little detail” type problem.