Barefoot shoes: wide toe box, zero heel to toe drop, thin sole
Benefits: Stronger feet, foot and joint health, natural movement
In 2024 I decided to get back into shoe making, and make my own barefoot shoes. Barefoot shoes are very important to me. The wide toe box, and the zero heel to toe drop, have led me to stronger feet and better foot and joint health. All things that aided my recovery from a traumatic knee injury I sustained in 2021.
I had intitially agreed to a shoe making internship, but after disagreements about pricing and zero flexibility from the employer, It fell apart. It was for the best, but I was already planning on making 3 pairs of shoes so I got to it.
#3
My final shoe of the three. I wanted to push my skills and see if I could make the main upper out of one piece of leather. I got it wet and stretched the leather to fit the last
Watch my process video!
#2
For the second shoe, I wanted to make a high top sneaker and wrap one piece of leather around the outside. It was challenging to sew the toe together with my machine, but it came out great!
#1
For the first shoe, I was mainly just excited to make shoes again and wanted to make the toes fancy. It was a challenge to make the first shoe and ended up dying them black, but I learned a lot. Just look at how far I've come since!
