Why I Walk Barefoot and The Benefits of Being Barefoot

Hey everybody! Rob Greenfield here,

and today I am going to talk to you about

my barefoot life. And of course,

I am barefoot, as I usually am.

I have been for about the last decade.

And today I am going to talk to you about

why I am barefoot,

the benefits of being barefoot, and

what maybe you could get out of it too.

And if I could sum that up in one thing,

the reason why,

it is because I believe these things work.

I believe that hundreds of thousands of

years of evolution has it more figured out

than the last couple hundred years

of humans and shoes.

But there is a lot more to it than that,

so stay tuned and I will share it all.

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So, I have not always been barefoot.

I have to be honest

I think always there has been

a little bit of an interest at least,

even when I was in high school

growing up in northern Wisconsin

with frigid cold winters,

I seem to remember trying to go outside

barefoot and I seem to remember going

to parties in college in my sandals

even in the middle of winter.

So it has always been a part of me.

But it was not until my early twenties,

I was in New Zealand and Australia,

and I had a mentor,

I was doing a study abroad program

and this guy, his name was Gary,

he is from Tasmania, a pretty wild guy,

and we would be climbing over mountains

on our hikes, and this guy

would be doing it barefoot.

Everything we were doing, whether

it was climbing or hopping over rocks

or walking through town,

this guy was barefoot.

And I saw that and it just intrigued me,

and I thought hey, if Gary can do this,

then I have to be able to as well.

So I started to take my shoes off

and walk with Gary, and at first maybe

I would only make it a half mile or a mile

but pretty quickly I was making it

a little bit more and a little bit more,

and that is what I did, I started off

small and built it up and built it up.

A few years later,

I remember I was in Northport New York,

and there was a 10K, the Cow Harbor 10K,

and I had never run a competitive 10K,

that is 6 Kilometers.

I am not really a competitive person,

but I decided hey, I am going to do this

and I am going to try to do it barefoot

and see what happens.

So I started out in the back of the pack,

thinking that I would be pretty slow

with everybody else having shoes

and wanting to take it easy,

and I started out and I just found myself

passing dozens and dozens and then

hundreds and hundreds of people,

and I finished the race in about

44 minutes, I think it was.

It was the fastest that I have ever run,

really some of the fastest I have ever run

in my entire life and it was barefoot.

So what happened was,

I just found myself continuously exceeding

what I thought that I could do

with my body, and I found my body working

naturally, and I found myself

working within the boundaries that I had

with my body, and I just grew into it.

Now a lot of people, they can understand

walking barefoot at the beach,

or maybe in a nice field,

or hiking in, you know, a smooth place,

but I go barefoot pretty much everywhere,

even in the streets of New York or in the

alleys, I am generally always barefoot.

Now, I put on shoes sometimes of course,

especially when I am visiting colder

climates, but generally my goal is to try

to be barefoot as much as I possibly can.

So, being barefoot for me is definitely

about freedom. I get a great sense of

freedom from being barefoot.

But it is about so much more than that.

For me, it is about allowing my feet to do

what they have been designed to do.

There are a couple of things

that I want to talk about

that I would like you to think about.

First off, let us talk about modern shoes

and we will start with arch support.

So, arch support,

this is your arch right here, and the idea

of arch support is it supports that arch.

Now, the problem with that,

if you have ever broken a bone and had to

wear a cast, or know a friend who has,

what you have seen is that by not using

something, it atrophies. And,

the problem that I see with arch support

is when you support the arch

it does not have to do its job anymore,

and it atrophies.

So these modern shoes actually create

weaker feet, and it is not just the arch,

it is the muscles, it is the ligaments,

and it is the tendons. Our feet have a

higher concentration of muscles, ligaments

and tendons than many parts of our body,

and wearing these shoes

that give that support actually allows

for the feet to not have to be strong,

and not have to be able

to do what they naturally do.

It does not just end at the feet, though.

Of course, we know everything about us is

intricately connected, it is very easy to

remove things and say "this is your eye,

and that is your foot, and it has

absolutely nothing to do with each other,"

but of course we know that is not true.

Everything is intricately connected.

So when your feet are not working in that

natural way, and you have that support

that can throw off your legs,

it can throw off your lower back,

it can throw off your back.

So these shoes can actually cause

not just foot problems, but problems

throughout your whole body. So for me,

being barefoot is about allowing my body

to work as it has been designed over

hundreds of thousands of years.

Another thing that is really special about

the feet is that feet have more nerve

endings in the bottom of our feet than

most other parts of our body.

I have to imagine that the lips would have

more nerve endings, for example,

they are so sensitive, but of all the

places of our body, this has one of the

highest concentrations of nerve endings.

Now why would that be?

Why would that be the case if they were

designed to be stuck inside of a foot?

My belief is that the shoes cut off

the body's ability to receive information.

So when I am running barefoot and I am

walking barefoot, my body is able to

receive all of that information and have

me be more connected to my surroundings,

more connected to the earth that is

underneath me. And I believe that

cutting off those nerve endings can have

very meaningful implications as well.

There is something that happens when you

start to let those nerve endings do their

job, and this is a part of being barefoot,

and that is that you develop calluses.

So I like to say that it might appear

that I am not wearing shoes,

but in a way I actually am.

They are a naturally built-in sole, right

into the foot. So my sole is very thick

and If I step on thorns, for example,

most of the time they just go in

a tiny way, not even to the sensitive part

not to the part that hurts

because the callus has been built over it.

So I am able to step on little pieces of

glass, for example, which I do sometimes,

and it generally goes into the callus and

does not go deep in. So, a lot of people

worry about things like that.

People always say, "Doesn't it hurt?

Don't you get injured?" Well, first of all

you build it up over time. If you have

been wearing shoes for decades, it takes

you time for your feet to re-liberate and

become a part of the land, but also again,

just remember, these were designed

to function in the first place.

A lot of shoe industries today

are multi-billion dollar companies.

This is a huge industry.

Do you really think that the way they

design everything is always for the best

interest of our feet and our health?

Or do you think that money may play

a large role in the way they do things?

There are actually studies out there

that show that once shoes get above

one hundred dollars,

you actually see more injuries.

And that is the next big part

that I really want to talk about.

And that is that by being barefoot,

what I have found is that I am actually

able to stay within my boundaries.

Think about this for a second. Our shoes

are designed with shock absorption in them

you see on these commercials how it shows

"the perfect shock absorption!"

Okay, I am not a very good impersonator.

But where do we see the most knee

replacements and hip replacements? It is

from sports like basketball, like tennis,

like track and field on concrete,

where people are wearing shoes

and just pounding their feet down.

So by being barefoot, what happens is I am

required to take that impact naturally.

I use my legs and my feet to step down

and jump down in a way

where I take that impact in,

but what happens with the modern-day shoes

is they allow us to really hit down hard,

and it does take some of that impact,

but not nearly enough.

So what I have found is that

the modern-day shoe actually allows me

to go beyond the natural limitations

of my body, and allows me to injure myself

even more. So like I have said, I have

injured my feet a few times, but the

injures that I have had are minor compared

to the long-term, damaging injuries

that you see in this societal way of just

allowing ourselves to push our bodies

beyond what they are actually capable of

doing. So being barefoot forces me

to stay within my body's capability.

Now, speaking of forcing me to

do what my body is designed to do,

and what I want to do,

being barefoot also keeps me out of places

that I do not want to go. You know the

sign, "No shoes, no shirt, no service."

Well, a lot of places will not allow me

in barefoot. One of those places is bars.

I do not really want to drink very much,

I do not really want to go to those places

so being barefoot actually prevents me

from going to those places even when I

might slip up and go to them, because I am

often out and about with no shoes at all.

So being barefoot just kind of

keeps me outside, and keeps me,

if I am not outside, in more chill places,

the places that I want to be,

rather than in shopping malls, and

consumeristic places, and bars. So being

barefoot really just kind of forces me

to live the life that I actually want.

Another thing that being barefoot does is

it forces me to slow down. I have to

pay attention to where I am going.

With shoes, you can just plow over

everything and not have to think about

the ground beneath your feet,

but whether I am walking or I am running,

I mentioned that not wearing shoes

really connects me to my surroundings

because I have to look where I am going.

So, people worry about stepping

in dog poop, for example. Well,

I actually am watching where I am going,

so I am less likely to step in dog poop

than with shoes because I have to pay

attention to my surroundings.

And I will notice glass. People often

that are walking with me are like

"Stop, Rob, there is glass!"

I know there is glass,

I am the barefoot one,

I have to pay attention to that.

So you start to pay more attention to your

surroundings, but again, it slows me down.

I want to live a relaxed life. I want to

live stress-free and largely anxiety-free,

and being barefoot really slows me down.

It makes me have to pay attention to where

I am going, I can not hurry as much.

And just as much as it keeps me working

within my body's capabilities, it also

keeps me slow and helps me to live a more

relaxed, calm, stress-free life, and again

a big part of that is keeping me out

of the places that are not a part of that.

Back to the dog poop thing, what about

the hygiene of being barefoot? The

interesting thing about it is that being

barefoot I find it is easier to practice

good hygiene than with shoes and socks.

That might be counter-intuitive to a lot

of people who think that the world is this

dirty place and germs are a bad thing.

That is a whole other thing to go into

and that I have gone into in other videos,

but the important thing is,

there are a lot of problems that are

created with shoes, and one of those

is bacterial problems and fungal problems.

Think about this for a second:

Where does fungus grow?

It grows in damp, dark places. If you have

a wall that is in the blazing sunlight,

that is not where bacteria

and fungus grows. It is going to grow

on the shady side of the house where it is

cooler and where it is moist. So with feet

where is fungus going to grow?

In damp socks inside shoes, where it is

dark and moist? Or on feet that are

exposed to fresh air and sunlight?

Athlete's foot and foot fungus is

a product of stuffing our feet inside of

damp shoes, damp socks. Being barefoot

prevents that fungus and prevents

athlete's foot. So actually, being

barefoot is a form of good hygiene.

As far as the dirt and stuff that gets

onto the bottom of the foot, well,

it is a wet day today so you can see that

there is dirt on the bottom of my foot,

but the thing about being barefoot is,

I actually pay close attention to my

hygiene. My feet are very important to me.

If I was wearing shoes, I could easily

leave dog poop on the bottom in those

crevices, but if I am going to get

something on my foot I am going to

wash it off. So being barefoot actually

creates naturally good hygiene.

Another part of that is exfoliation.

You see a lot of people's feet who have

just so much dead skin on it, and these

toenails that are just gunked up. Well,

walking barefoot is a natural exfoliation.

In fact, my favorite way to exfoliate my

whole body is to go to the beach and just

use sand to rub my body. But my feet are

being exfoliated constantly. So it builds

up the callus as needed but it does not

hold on to all the dead skin. So it is

another form of good, natural hygiene.

A couple more things: one is minimalism,

and money, and sustainability, wrapping

all those things together. Minimalist-wise

some people have dozens of pairs of shoes.

The average person, I do not know,

might have a dozen pairs of shoes.

Sustainability-wise, that is extremely

destructive to have, to need so much.

For me this is about saying

"I do not need so much." I am

a human being with a human body, and I can

exist without so much of a need for such

a large amount of modern-produced stuff.

Now, companies like Nike tell you

that you are supposed to replace

your shoes every five hundred miles.

That creates an incredible amount

of garbage and pollution,

but it also burns a lot of money.

My goal is to live with very little money,

and my bare feet are definitely

a representation of that.

I have been wearing, I have had two pairs

of shoes for the last about four years,

so you can imagine just how much less

money I spend, how much less trash that I

create, how much less dependent that I am

on this industry that I see as a

destructive industry. And of course,

as I said, being barefoot keeps me out of

the shops so I can actually spend

a lot less money in that way.

So those are some of the
reasons that I am barefoot.

Those are some of the benefits
that I have seen from it,

and those are just things that
I think are worth thinking about.

And it is not about any form of being

dogmatic and doing something one hundred

percent of the time, my goal is to work

with the earth, to tread lightly

on the earth, to enjoy my treading

on the earth, and be connected to it. And

being barefoot as much as I can does that

If I am in cold climates, again,

I wear shoes, but if it gets up to

50 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 degrees Celsius,

on a warm day I will try to get out.

Especially, even the blacktop can be warm

on days like that. So I do what I can to

be barefoot as much as I can. If it is

cold outside, at least I can be barefoot

at home and giving my feet that fresh air

and that connectedness.

If you are interested in walking barefoot

and connecting to the earth in that way,

then I recommend starting somewhere.

You have to start with where you are, and

who you are, in the place that you are in.

That is what you have to do is embrace

the situation. So start walking barefoot

maybe just around your yard. Then maybe

around the block. Then maybe walk a mile,

Then go for a walk in the woods. And you

can start by walking in the easier places,

the places that are smoother and softer,

rather than starting on really difficult

gravel, for example.

So start where you are, start small

if it is your desire to walk barefoot.

At the very least, remember to question

these basic things, question these

industries whose ethics we know are flawed

and just go deeper with these things.

So I hope that you got a lot out of that.

At the very least just thinking about it,

thinking about the evolution of our feet,

and thinking about the very basic thought

of what has got it better figured out?

Hundreds of thousands of
years of evolution?

or Nike in the last hundred years?

My bet is on evolution.

Thank you all for tuning in.

I love you all very much.

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if you have questions.

Last, make sure you go to
robgreenfield.org/barefoot

where I share more information,

links to details, and my story as well.

Alright, love you all, see you soon!

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