Barefoot Running

[KnottedYet]

Knot, I just read through the last few pages of this thread, happy to see all the knowledge and wisdom you added to the pages. I'm no runner, but the high incidence of Plantar's Fascitis and the building up of heels and soles of shoes in the last couple decades does not seem to be coincidental. So I'm turning into a shoe maven (who knew) in my search for shoes that protect my feet but allow them to spread and flex naturally..

I've been all interested in Irish feet lately. (the 2nd metatarsal is longer than the 1st, generally long toes, often the 2nd toe is longer than the 1st toe)

I've kept an informal survey of my foot patients, and far more than half of them have Irish feet (aka Greek feet or Morton's feet or Morton's toe). Irish feet are only 10-20% of the population, so why so many more foot problems? Over the last couple decades shoes have been more and more engineered for the "average" foot, and so have become less and less appropriate for the Irish foot. Over and over again I see very specific injuries with Irish feet, to the point that I've been guessing (based on injury description) what kind of foot the patient has before they even take off their shoes. It's quite the ego trip when I'm right.

I brought the Irish foot/"average" shoe conundrum up to a biomechanical engineer who was doing a seminar on runners and running injuries a couple weeks ago. I told him about my idea to become a millionaire by designing and selling running shoes made for Irish feet. He thought it was a great idea, and said he didn't know of any shoes already out there. (He also agreed that the mis-match between Irish feet and running shoes is pretty bad.)

Anyone got a few zillion dollars laying around the house that they'd like to invest in a new shoe company?

[NbyNW]

Irish foot? Is it more prevalent in Irish people?

Knott, if you manage to design such a shoe I would love to try it!

Maybe if you look around you can find a venture capitalist with an Irish foot who would love to finance your idea.

[KnottedYet]

The history and distribution of that foot type is sooooo cool! I think some of it came up on this thread: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ght=morton%27s

Greeks and Celts had it the most. It was also called the Royal Foot because the ruling Ptolemy gang had it, and passed it along. It's a dominant gene, so the Royal Foot was used as a test to see if someone was really related to the royal families of Europe (descended via the Ptolemies and all those other upper crust folks who interbred so darn much). Claiming to be the long-lost b@st*rd son of the King? Take of your shoe and prove it!

The long 2nd ray foot structure is used in archeology to determine if a Roman-era British burial is of a Roman or of a Celt. Artifacts aren't very reliable because there was so much material exchange, but the foot is!

The statue of Liberty has a Greek/Irish/Celtic/Morton's foot.

Classical Greek statues had long 2nd met feet, Egyptian and Roman statues had long 1st met feet. You can tell if someone was ripping off the statue or style of another artist if the feet were wrong. (like a Roman statue with Greek feet!)

Isn't this stuff just COOL!?!?!

[Trek420]

I have Polish/Russian feet.

[NbyNW]

Fascinating! My feet are Taiwanese.

[KnottedYet]

I've got Norwegian feet.

But they are archetypal Egyptian feet.

Go figure...

(and Trek dear, you have Egyptian feet, too. Or at least, not-Greek and not-Celtic) (the long 2nd ray occurs all over the earth, but seems especially prevalent in Greeks and Celts)

[Bike Chick]

Knott, I want some of your shoes! This is neat stuff. My brother and I were comparing our feet tonight and they are identical pairs in different sizes. Our spouses were teasing us about the shape and size of our second toes. My family always said that when your second toe is longer than your first, you were the boss of the family. Now I know where that originated from.

Regarding the VFFs, I want to order a pair for kayaking to start with but where do you get them? I've looked on the internet and they are out of stock on almost every site. There are also warnings about ordering counterfeit shoes. I'm a little apprehensive.