A growing subset of runners are shedding their shoes and putting bare feet to the ground. The following article is written by STEPHEN and published September 3, 2008 on The Gear Junkie .

Arms pumping, eyes scanning the ground ahead, Dean Laiti runs east on a sidewalk in St. Louis Park, Minn., his feet swishing like sandpaper on cement below. “Right over these tracks,” he shouts, making a quick turn to leap a railroad grade.

It’s a Tuesday evening in early June, and Laiti, a 48-year-old finance worker, has volunteered to teach me to run the way nature intended. That would mean barefoot — without shoes and striding, skin and toes to nothing but asphalt as we bound east toward the skyline of downtown Minneapolis beyond.

Above: Laiti’s calloused feet are the result of thousands of miles run without shoes.

“Watch out for that gravel,” Laiti says, pointing to a bed of rocks beside the path. He runs feet gracing the ground, calloused pads contacting pavement in an almost soundless stride.

I tag behind, feet slapping, wincing as my toes tread on a medium I’ve heretofore reserved for rubber soles.

“You doing ok?” Laiti shouts, looking back.

Barefoot Heritage
Running barefoot was for many millennia the only way to get around, and the human foot — a biomechanical masterpiece of muscles, tendons and 26 bones — evolved to absorb weight and spring bodies in stride.

Historically, when shoes did come into play they were most often minimal, the likes of hide sandals and moccasins, made to insulate in the cold or protect skin from sharp objects beneath.

Then Nike came along.

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