cohu's blog

Cohu’s fascination with minimalist footwear dates back to … *clickety-clackety-google* … 2006! I finally got a pair of Toe Shoes (as they’re known in the Cohu household) last fall. Over the last year, they have served me for everyday wear, as well as long walks in the Berkeley hills. I usually have the (progressively more chunky) little person strapped to me, so it’s definitely in the realm of ‘moderate exercise’, but no running. Still, I can always tell when I’ve been wearing ‘normal’ shoes for one of my longer walks – I get bad heel pain and back pain the next day. Counterintuitively, it’s worse the more padded my shoes are!
So, since they seem to be even less shoe-y and more minimalist than Toe Shoes, I’m up-, or rather, downgrading to Invisible Shoes. These are reminiscent of huaraches worn by the Tarahumara indians, or the bicycle tire sandals used in many parts of the developing world. After receiving my kit from Invisible Shoes, I followed the website instructions and, after maybe 1/2 hour of fiddling with them, have my very own pair of ‘barefoot’ sandals! Bonus: as opposed to the FiveFingers, you can wear them with dresses or skirts without looking like a certified insane person. (You will still look like a tree hugging dirt worshipper, but that’s OK with me). I spare you a picture of my huarache’ed feet. Let’s just say there’s many jobs I would be good at, but foot model is not one of them, especially after my run-in with the aptly named ‘Hand, Foot and Mouth disease’ a few weeks ago. Here’s a Invisible Shoes review that includes a picture so you can imagine what they look like.
Will report back on how they compare to Vibrams.