1In an article devoted to analysing how the world is perceived “through the feet”, Tim Ingold explores how the use of shoes has influenced the anatomical structure of the human foot and limited its mobility and sensitivity, which has had deep implications for how individuals in Western societies perceive and interact with their environment (Ingold, 2004). Wearing shoes transforms the sensory experience of walking—and more broadly, our relationship with the world—by relegating the foot to the role of a mere locomotion tool, while perception of the environment then relies mainly on sight and hearing (Ingold, 2004). However, the anthropologist tells us that people in different parts of the world also use their feet for other purposes, such as climbing, running, jumping, grasping objects, picking them up, and even moving around on all fours (Devine, 1985). Ingold emphasises, echoing Marcel Mauss, that there is no “natural” way of walking that can be prescribed independently of the diverse circumstances in which human beings grow up and live (Mauss, 2001). In this respect, Hartmut Rosa considers the foot to be the primary medium of our bodily relationship with the world, emphasising how wearing shoes distances us from the haptic perceptions that the ground can offer (Rosa, 2018). Shoes would therefore contribute to the shift from a participatory relationship with an objectifying and reifying relationship with the world.
2What would happen if someone simply wanted to free themselves from this material mediation and adopt a way of walking and using their feet that was different from what shoes allow? Body techniques are so deeply rooted that we might wonder whether this is even possible. Yet this is what some athletes do, practising activities such as running, hebertism or street workout regularly and for leisure, deliberately deciding to give up shoes, as part of their recreational physical activity—and sometimes beyond—or at least “traditional” shoes: those that support, guide and hold tightly the foot, sometimes also providing, with the help of various technologies, cushioning that is supposed to protect the ankles, knees and back and optimise performance.
- 1 Enthusiasts of barefoot running or minimalist shoes (see box below) often refer to it as barefoot r (...)
3Moving and running barefoot or wearing minimalist shoes (for example, using sandals with thin soles instead of running shoes) could indeed be beneficial. At least, that is the promise made by some, such as Christopher McDougall, author of the best-seller Born to Run, an essential reference for barefoot1 running enthusiasts. The book’s success reflects the interest of a very small group of athletes in these issues, particularly those who enjoy running and physical activity in the great outdoors. McDougall, searching for answers to his frequent injuries, recounts his discovery of the Tarahumara tribe, for whom running in sandals over very long distances is central to their social life. The book argues that the sports footwear industry has promoted technical solutions (cushioning, foot support, etc.) without proof that they reduce injuries. They may even encourage runners to adopt an unnatural stride (different from the natural stride for which humans are designed), which is largely responsible for injuries among runners. McDougall’s account thus calls for the withdrawal of these technology-filled shoes in favour of minimalist shoes or barefoot running.
4If the attraction to “less”—understood as the withdrawal of certain entities, experienced as a disintermediation allowing for a closer connection, or even reconnection, with one’s human and natural environment (Goulet & Vinck, 2016)—is not new, it is the scale of the phenomenon that would characterise the contemporary period (Dopierała, 2017). Research on the subject has focused in particular on alternative and responsible consumption (Elgin, 2010; Alexander, 2011, 2013; Cochoy et al., 2018), the art of “making objects last” in order to “de-consume” (Madon, 2024), housing with the tiny house movement (Anson, 2014; Mangold & Zschau, 2019), dietary practices—raw food (Thircuir, 2021), gluten-free (Wolff, 2019; Akermann & Cœurquetin, 2022), fasting (Dalgalarrondo & Fournier, 2019a)—and even car-free mobility (Rigal, 2020). As for Aurianne Stroude, she focused on the processes of “normative distancing” among those who try to invest in and explore alternative lifestyles in order to “live more simply” (Stroude, 2021).
- 2 See the references listed in the supplementary corpus in the appendix.
- 3 Using the keywords “barefoot” and “running” in the Pubmed database, we found 268 articles published (...)
5However, the appeal of minimalist footwear should not obscure the cultural, aesthetic and distinctive dimensions of shoes, including sports shoes. In this regard, lightness has largely been the privilege of the most affluent social classes. Appearance is not the only marker of class in this respect: the physical changes brought about by footwear, including learning a different way of moving, are also part of a distinctive logic (Kurkdjian, 2022). Furthermore, while the expected physical benefits and a process of “normative distancing” (Stroude, 2021) may motivate the use of minimalist footwear (reflecting a distancing from the commercial logic underlying the sports equipment trade), it has also opened up new commercial opportunities for sports brands. Indeed, they have used the symbolism of a return to nature to convince athletes to run in shoes that replicate the feeling of bare feet. Haman & Dowling (2015) point out that a study of Kenya’s famous Kalenjin long-distance runners coincided with a sudden 303% increase in sales of minimalist footwear between November 2010 and November 2012 in the United States, with this market representing $59 million in 2012. The authors show how advertising campaigns have helped sell a product to enthusiasts of a practice that, by its very nature, advocates rejecting the product in question. These campaigns have transformed barefoot running into a mass consumer phenomenon by targeting users attracted to minimalism, with the shoe becoming a symbol of belonging. The phenomenon has undoubtedly been intensified by the publication of books promoting barefoot running or running in minimalist footwear2, the arguments of which have resonated in the sporting world while also being debated in scientific circles3.
6Here, we are interested in this form of minimalism: athletes giving up traditional sports shoes in favour of minimalist shoes or barefoot running. More specifically, this article focuses on the development of knowledge and skills related to the withdrawal of shoes. Indeed, this withdrawal inevitably involves a transformation of the deeply ingrained “body techniques” that enable movement (Ingold, 2004), which are generally acquired in early childhood and rarely subject to reflective attention, even among athletes (Barthélémy & Rey, 2012). This transition therefore requires the learning of new skills, in the sense of technical abilities, and knowledge about these bodily techniques, defined as representations of the world, held and/or likely to be transmitted, “subject to social recognition and control in terms of validity” (Barbier & Galatanu, 2000, p. 19).
7This study builds on the proposals of Frédéric Goulet and Dominique Vinck on the analysis of innovations “by withdrawal” (Goulet & Vinck, 2012, 2022). This conceptual framework, which extends the actor-network theory (Callon, 1986), examines both the trajectories of dissociation from unwanted entities and the construction of new alternative associations, often aimed at limiting the negative impacts of technological progress. Dissociation involves problematising the element to be withdrawn (the traditional shoe in our case), demonstrating its harmful nature in order to make it a “crossing point to be avoided”. Conversely, the construction of new associations is based on highlighting entities or associations that make it possible to “do without” and which had previously been ignored (e.g. knowledge and skills that need to be (re)learned).
8Following this logic, the article has two objectives. The first is to provide information on the reasons given by amateur athletes for choosing to get rid of their shoes (in a more or less radical way), a choice that is far from trivial, given that the mediation of the shoe between the foot and the ground is integrated as a social norm and conditions the way the foot is used, the way the world is perceived, and the way people move around. The second objective of the article explores the forms of learning involved in this process. The aim is to understand how individuals acquire, mobilise and articulate different types of knowledge and skills in order to adjust their physical technique to the withdrawal, but also to adjust the withdrawal according to their lived experience.
- 4 While conducting remote interviews may raise some concerns, it is important to understand what “rem (...)
9We rely primarily on a series of semi-structured interviews conducted via videoconference4, as part of a broader research project on minimalism and the quest for simplicity in sporting practices. We first identified activities in which amateur practitioners, as part of their recreational physical activity, adopt a conscious, voluntary and deliberate approach to withdrawal, which can take several forms: giving up digital devices, practising barefoot, using physical training methods without equipment, or even lightening the load when practising outdoors. The spectrum of practices in question is quite broad (running, weight training, freediving, yoga, etc.).
10Thus, forty athletes who identify with or claim a “minimalist” approach to amateur practice were interviewed for an average of one hour and thirty minutes. It should be noted that, for some of these people, their leisure activities are also integrated into their professional lives, particularly for those who work as sports instructors or “coaches”. That being said, the withdrawal of shoes has always been primarily, and still is at the time of the survey, part of leisure sports activities.
11The individuals to be interviewed were initially identified by looking at physical activities in which practitioners clearly expressed minimalist demands. We then sought to contact people who engaged in this type of activity, either through word of mouth (we had already conducted research on running and the fitness community, where such minimalist approaches can be highlighted [Favier-Ambrosini, Delalandre & Quidu, 2023]), or through social media (for some of the activities identified, practitioners form communities that are fairly easy to identify).
- 5 This imbalance between men and women remained throughout the survey despite our efforts to find fem (...)
- 6 These are various forms of running: trail running, road running, jogging, etc.
- 7 Among these is MovNat, developed by Erwan Le Corre (author of The Practice of Natural Movement, pub (...)
- 8 See the methodological appendix at the end of the article.
- 9 The word “sport” and the expressions “sporting activity” and “sporting practice” are used in this a (...)
12Among these athletes, twenty-four have decided to stop wearing traditional sports shoes. This analysis is based on this sample of twenty-four people (twenty-two men and two women5). It mainly includes runners6 (n= 11), practitioners of various forms of physical exercise7 (n= 15), hikers (n= 12), yoga practitioners (n= 4) and climbers (n= 2). The various disciplines are not exclusive: respondents often combine several8. There is no claim here to exhaustiveness or representativeness, but rather a search for satisfactory diversification in terms of the activities practised and the forms and intensities of investment claimed in minimalism. In other words, we interviewed people who choose to practise their favourite sporting activity9 without shoes or in minimalist footwear, either occasionally or systematically.
13The analysis was initially conducted thematically. The categories applied to this corpus were constructed in an ascending manner, following a preliminary reading of the entire corpus by all the authors. The following broad categories of analysis were identified: sports activities practised, forms of withdrawal identified (more or less pronounced abandonment of shoes, but also neglect of sophisticated equipment, digital tools, etc.), motivations, meanings, perceived effects, acquisition of knowledge and skills, temporal structure of careers towards and within minimalism, degree of extension to other areas of life (the appetite for minimalism often affects other areas of life such as food or daily mobility), influences and references. These were filled in and cross-checked between the authors. Only subsequently, on the basis of this reading grid, was a vertical analysis by interview carried out.
- 10 See the methodological appendix at the end of the article. These were identified in the Pubmed and (...)
14In addition to the interviews, other written sources were consulted for further information. These include scientific articles (n= 9) on barefoot running10 or running in minimalist shoes, and references considered by the participants to be central to their withdrawal process (n= 4) (e.g. the aforementioned book by Christopher McDougall, Barefoot Running by Ken Bob Saxton and Roy M. Wallack, and La clinique du coureur by Blaise Dubois and Frédéric Berg). Consulting this complementary corpus was essential to understanding the interviewees’ discourse (particularly when they talked about these references without explaining their content clearly enough for a layperson). It provided insight into the arguments put forward in favour of minimalist footwear, both from a scientific perspective and by its promoters.
- 11 See the supplementary corpus in the appendix.
“Maximalist” versus “minimalist” shoes
By “minimalist shoes”, we mean shoes that are designed to prevent feet from scraping the ground while allowing one to walk and feel as close as possible to walking barefoot. These may be shoes “specially designed” by sports equipment brands, such as Vibram® Five Fingers: shoes with “separate toes” and very thin soles. Sometimes they are shoes not originally designed for sports, such as huarache-style sandals, traditional Mexican sandals made with leather or rubber soles.
A minimalist index has been proposed by La clinique du coureur, a Quebec-based group of experts specialising in training, prevention and treatment of running injuries. Its founder, physiotherapist Blaise Dubois, has co-authored several articles in biomedical and sports science journals. The minimalist index, expressed as a percentage, takes five criteria into account: the shoe’s flexibility, its weight, the thickness of the sole, the presence or absence of foot stabilisation technologies and, finally, the drop (the difference in sole height between the heel and the forefoot). The higher the index, the more minimalist the shoe is considered to be; the lower the index, the more maximalist the shoe is considered to be. This index has been the subject of scientific publications11 and is used as a reference, particularly by runners and sports shoe brands to inform their customers about the characteristics of their products.
For greater clarity, we will refer to maximalist sports shoes as standard running shoes, hiking shoes or any other shoes commonly used for sports activities, and minimalist shoes as those with a high minimalist index (closed shoes or sandals that are flexible, lightweight, with thin soles, no support technology and low or no drop).
15While at first glance, the simple decision to practise a recreational sport barefoot or with minimalist footwear may seem trivial, a closer look at the reasons behind this choice reveals the underlying changes in our “relationship with the world” (Rosa, 2018). This means highlighting the “centrifugal associations” (Goulet & Vinck, 2012) constructed by the players: it is therefore a question of understanding how maximalist footwear has become negatively charged and what undesirable entities it is now associated with. There are two types of entities: the first brings together a set of pathologies most often linked to running; the second is the intermediation with the ground, which inhibits the perception of the environment and the action of the foot.
16The first category of reasons that justify the withdrawal of maximalist shoes relates to health issues perceived to be linked to their systematic use. This association was made by nine of the respondents, all of whom were runners. This type of activity, especially over long distances, can trigger or worsen various pathologies: musculotendinous disorders (Achilles tendinopathy, iliotibial band syndrome, etc.), joint problems (particularly in the knees), low back pain, and headaches, all of which are well documented in the biomedical literature. For those affected, running barefoot or with minimalist footwear has emerged as a way to solve their problems. These arguments are accompanied by a form of questioning of medical expertise, or at least highlighting its inability to treat the ailments in question, as exemplified by the diagnostic uncertainty observed by Akermann & Cœurquetin (2022) in the avoidance of gluten in the diet.
17The association between pathologies and wearing maximalist shoes can be divided into two-time frames. The first characterises the trajectories of Charly, Arnaud, Serge and Guy, who experienced a period of pain for which no satisfactory solution could be found, despite repeated and unsuccessful visits to the doctor. Guy, for example, aged 41, who describes himself as a therapist, suffered from systematic knee pain when running. As for Arnaud, aged 53, now a personal trainer (in hebertism) after working in the automotive industry until the age of 45, he suffered from hallux rigidus and headaches during and after his runs.
I had severe heel pain without realising it, which gave me headaches. And when I tried to push myself, I got pain in my knees on one side and my ankle on the other. So I thought to myself, “Running isn’t for me.” The impact gives me headaches. Until one day when [...] I discovered minimalist shoes [...].
18Withdrawing shoes then appeared to be a potential solution during meetings (for Arnaud) or readings (for Guy, Charly and Serge)—particularly when consulting websites—which led them to publications advocating minimalism in footwear (the book Born to Run, for example, for Charly and Guy). This solution was then tested and validated, allowing them to take up running again.
19The second is characterised by “after-the-fact” awareness. James, Paula, Ali, Laurent and Jean became aware of barefoot running either through more or less close interpersonal contacts (Paula discussed the subject with her cousin, a physiotherapist who is a fan of “barefoot” running; Jean saw other people wearing minimalist shoes during competitions), or through reading (as is the case for James, Laurent and Ali). This awareness phase (Goulet & Vinck, 2022) was followed by a trial period during which the respondents realised that withdrawing their maximalist shoes reduced the pain associated with running.
20In both types of temporalities, an alternative expertise to that of the medical profession is constructed, based on arguments that are largely shared. The link between pathology and maximalist footwear is established in two stages: firstly through reading (the book Born to Run, mentioned by six of the people interviewed, or La clinique du coureur, mentioned twice, but also internet research referring to the benefits of minimalist running) and/or personal contacts (a cousin, for example, in Paula’s case, who had himself listened to lectures by La clinique du coureur), then through experimentation, whether or not it was initially motivated by the search for a solution to pathologies. Footwear is not identified as the direct cause of these pathologies. As the runners in our sample indicate, the type of footwear worn has a significant influence on movement: wearing maximalist sports shoes means landing on the ground with the heel first, and it is this stride that increases the risk of pain and pathologies. The link between footwear and running technique (long strides and heel strike versus short strides and forefoot strike) is made by all the runners surveyed, who thus echo some of the rhetoric developed by promoters of minimalist running. Like the latter, they highlight the detrimental effects of modern shoes (with cushioning and foot support technology) on stride, due to an overprotective effect that hinders the natural biomechanics of running.
21The use of certain medical techniques (taking anti-inflammatory drugs or wearing orthopaedic insoles) could also, like the over-technologisation of footwear, act as a kind of “crutch” that would not improve the aches, but would rather intensify them by preventing the body from functioning normally and adapting. Discourses, such as those found in accounts of non-medicalised childbirth, do not deny the value of medical expertise, but emphasise confidence in the body’s physiological ability to function without medical or technological aids (Pruvost, 2018).
- 12 The two types of association are not mutually exclusive. Paula, Ali and Arnaud associate maximalist (...)
22The second centrifugal association, which is particularly widespread since it was expressed by eighteen of the twenty-four people in the sample, essentially refers to a specific part of the shoe: the thick sole, which provides comfort but prevents connection with the ground. If “people’s detachment from the ground [...] runs through [...] the recent history of Western societies like a leitmotif” (Ingold, 2004, p. 329), it is the opposite movement that the respondents want to achieve, eager to bring about a “return to nature”12 in this area.
23Withdrawing the shoes means (re)discovering lost sensory-motor functions. Where thick soles smooth out rough surfaces and neutralise sensations, bare feet reactivate a subtle perception that is sometimes forgotten and a source of pleasure. This increased focus of attention is widely emphasised by our respondents. The comments of Tommy (aged 33), a fan of hebertism, are characteristic in this regard.
It is as if we spent our lives wearing mittens [...]. In fact, we lose sensation when we put on shoes, so when we go back to being barefoot, at first there is pain, but very quickly it becomes a pleasure and then there is no longer even a question of “Should I do it or not?” In fact, we want to do it because we know we are going to experience lots of new things; it is as if a whole new world was opening up.
24During the interview, Tommy strongly emphasises the importance of listening to one’s body, an attitude he attributes to a serious accident he had at the age of 18, which affected his spine. The failure of allopathic treatments prompted him to try to understand the “meaning of the signals sent by his body”. As for Théo, he deliberately exaggerates to convey these new sensations. The 29-year-old weightlifter and hiker, who teaches Chinese martial arts, claims to be able to “count the number of pebbles on which [his foot] is set”.
25While this haptic acuity is sometimes the subject of highly formalised and “explanatory” discourse, for some interviewees, contact with the ground also evokes more subjective considerations, as in the case of Paula, a 33-year-old physical education teacher, climber (on boulders and cliffs), runner and hiker, for whom the pleasure of moving barefoot results from a better “connection to the earth”. She explains: “In addition, I have always loved the feeling of being barefoot all the time, so now I feel like I am actually running barefoot, really close to the ground, to the earth.” Giving up shoes—at least maximalist shoes—would allow one to rediscover a lost sense of well-being, even if it means performing at a lower level (in climbing or trail running, for example). This withdrawal “is experienced by the players as a disintermediation, an opportunity to get closer, to reconnect with elements and processes that were previously unknown, with the ‘natural’ environment of the action” (Goulet & Vinck, 2016, p. 40), which Luc also emphasises when he talks about “taking part in nature”.
- 13 He refers to the Tarahumara people.
26From this point of view, running barefoot—and the contact with the ground that it allows—is an achievement, a kind of personal quest that is not always reached, and is not necessarily considered achievable, given the discomfort, even pain in the arch of the foot that withdrawing shoes entails. This is the case for Ali, aged 38, a researcher and runner, who explains that he will not follow in the footsteps of “those who make those little sandals”13. The use of minimalist shoes can therefore be a palliative, a compromise between the search for sensation on the one hand and comfort and safety on the other. The type of footwear is then classified according to a gradient, or a minimalist scale: classic sports shoes with a low or zero “drop”, minimalist shoes such as Vibram® Five Fingers, and sandals are alternatives that make running feasible at the cost of a greater or lesser intermediation between the foot and the ground.
27Three of the people interviewed (Théo, Arnaud and Victor) highlight the positive effects of being lighter as a result of giving up conventional shoes. Théo talks about the end of suffering when he switched to minimalist shoes:
These shoes weren’t painful to wear, compared to other shoes, or even shoes that are supposed to be comfortable. But taking them off in the evening, you know, it’s really like, “Ahhh!”. You are so happy to take your shoes off, and then I realised that, with these shoes I felt light, mobile, it wasn’t a weight hanging on my feet.
28As for Arnaud, he says he has rediscovered pleasure thanks to the feeling of lightness he has regained: “I really liked that feeling of being light, of flying a little bit.” The three people who emphasise this quest for lightness highlight the introspective dimension of their practice, whether it be Théo, who has been practising Chinese martial arts since childhood, Arnaud, who emphasises the “spiritual orientation” of his practices in the great outdoors, or Victor, who, in addition to running and hiking, also practises freediving. Here, footwear is directly associated with its weight, experienced as a hindrance, a burden to be shed in order to reconnect with pleasure and well-being, whereas “heaviness [...] jeopardises freedom” (Soulé & Vignal, 2021, p. 46). Lightness, assimilated to freedom, thus goes beyond mere physical sensation.
- 14 These include, for example, “paleo” diets, survival or personal development courses in natural envi (...)
29Each centrifugal association is linked, in discourse, to its desirable “opposite”: the natural stride synonymous with health and well-being, as opposed to the artificial stride shaped by maximalist sports shoes and a source of pathologies; the connection to the ground that allows one to “feel”, as opposed to the disconnection from the environment and the hindrance caused by wearing conventional footwear. These two associations are not always present in all discourse, but neither are they mutually exclusive. Maximalist footwear appears to be a source of discomfort, and withdrawal allows people to reconnect with well-being, which is frequently found in the discourse of people who have implemented other forms of withdrawal in their lives, for example in terms of diet (Dalgalarrondo & Fournier, 2019a; Thircuir, 2021; Akermann & Cœurquetin, 2022), as well as among proponents of the practices of wildness14 studied by Dalgalarrondo & Fournier (2020). In footwear, minimalism ultimately improves both the body (better health) and one’s relationship with the environment (greater awareness, heightened perceptions, better adaptation, etc.). But to do so, it is not enough to simply give up one’s usual sports shoes: it is essential to acquire new body techniques, consisting of a set of knowledge and skills that are intertwined and inseparable from the material conditions in which they are acquired.
30The withdrawal of maximalist footwear—and possibly its replacement with minimalist footwear—requires bringing previously non-existent entities and associations to the fore and creating a new assembly (Goulet & Vinck, 2012) involving the body, the environment, objects and techniques. This process involves a learning dynamic that brings together different types of knowledge and skills. This new arrangement fits into narratives built around a valorisation of a return to the past.
31Discourses on the benefits of “returning to” are found throughout the narratives told by the interviewees: the ability to walk barefoot has gradually been forgotten due to the wearing of shoes, and it would therefore be beneficial to relearn this skill. This return to the past can take two forms, linked respectively to phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
32The first refers to the mythology of hunter-gatherers, as highlighted by Dalgalarrondo & Fournier (2020) and Weedon & Patchin (2022). We need to rediscover a more ancestral, more natural running technique: “we are returning to this animal state, what we were at the beginning, hunter-gatherers. We were not only hunters, but we were also hunted. We were prey, too. That’s why there was no room for weakness back then, when we still lived in contact with nature” (Jean, aged 28, natural method coach). We can see in these discussions a valorisation of a return to the “primitive” man and the “rediscovery” of his “animal side”, as highlighted by Valentin, aged 25, a young sports instructor who practises MovNat, parkour and hiking. This rhetoric can be linked to a discourse on resilience, which sometimes refers to collapsological considerations (Servigne & Stevens, 2015; Chamel, 2024), as in the case of Guy:
I am a freelancer, I don’t earn much money, I’m not counting on my pension. […] I built my house in the hills. […] If at some point I have health problems, it’s going to be difficult, um... and if there’s a disaster of any kind, for me, it was important to be in good health and physically prepared to deal with whatever might happen. […] I think about many things in a possible future and I try to put things in place so that, whatever happens, whatever comes my way, I will be able to face.
33The appeal of minimalism goes far beyond footwear here. Guy lives in a wooden house that he built himself on a road that “remains passable for the moment”. For him, it is therefore a question of being able to face major challenges, but also everyday threats. Objects that artificially “help” the body (such as expensive shoes equipped with support and cushioning technologies, etc.) are then considered artefacts, prostheses, which prevent it from adapting to the real dangerous situations it may encounter, create dependencies, and even weaken it.
34If footwear as we usually conceive it is part of a process of civilisation in Western societies, then detaching ourselves from it could contribute to the logic of re-wilding described by Dalgalarrondo & Fournier (2020). These attempts to re-establish a more direct, intuitive, even animalistic relationship with the natural environment may indeed involve forms of disintermediation through the voluntary abandonment of objects or processes that are characteristic of our modern societies, which come between individuals and nature. It is therefore a question of “doing without” or “doing with fewer substances or entities that are blamed for their negative effects on the body” (Goulet & Vinck, 2022, p. 9). Re-wilding is thus linked to a “medical promise” that is not limited to treating pathology (Dalgalarrondo & Fournier, 2019b): “less” is also part of the logic of self-optimisation, which should enable individuals to achieve “more” health, in the sense of increased adaptability in the face of an uncertain environment.
35The second form of “return to” refers to childhood, play, spontaneity and pleasure, which can be found among some of the followers of hebertism and MovNat in our corpus (Arnaud, Tommy, Valentin, Jean), but also among Théo. Although their backgrounds are quite different, they have all become coaches or sports instructors, and they all express similar views on returning “to the essentials and also to that slightly childish spirit of fun and pleasure”, as Valentin explains. The original human being is the child we once were, and to whom we would like to return, as explained by Théo, whose discourse articulates the two forms of “return to” by referring to a prehistoric comic book hero.
- 15 Rahan is a French comic book series written by Roger Lécureux and illustrated by André Chéret betwe (...)
I also realised that I was really mobile, that I had... it reminded me of when I was a kid. Because I grew up on the Mediterranean coast and there are big sea walls with huge rocks, and when I used to jump from rock to rock barefoot and feel like Rahan15, I had a lot of fun. And I thought to myself... I have rediscovered that feeling. So there is also a bit of a sense of fun.
36There would therefore be a way of moving that predates the use of shoes (and which would have been unlearned), on the temporal scale of the individual (ontogenesis) and/or the human species (phylogenesis). It is characterised by a stride with greater “frequency”, lighter and quieter footfalls, more “animal-like” motor skills (less noisy running, quadrupedal movement), supported by a stronger foot that is more receptive to various sensory inputs, thus allowing the body to adapt and respond to changes in the environment. This discourse, which depicts a deviant past, is thus linked both to the pursuit of health (the body must be exposed to natural elements—as was the case for hunter-gatherers or children playing in nature—in order to make it resilient) and to the desire to reconnect with the earth (returning to a natural state allows people to reconnect with the elements and develop perception through the feet).
37Going barefoot or wearing minimalist footwear is therefore part of a return to the past that involves a complex learning process, sometimes extending over a long period of time. This combines the acquisition of shared knowledge about the action, specific knowledge and skills, and self-knowledge that allows the withdrawal to be adjusted to the experience.
38In addition to explicitly formalised knowledge, which provides justification for the transition to minimalist footwear, knowledge relating to locomotion is also acquired during the process of withdrawal. This knowledge is acquired either through self-education (research on websites, purchasing a book on the subject, etc.), as in the case of Charly and Guy, or through contact with third parties (an acquaintance who has educated themselves on the subject in the case of Paula or observation of other athletes in the case of Jean), or through sharing within “communities of practice” (Lave & Wenger, 1991). In the latter case, learning can take place during training courses, but also online, as the Internet provides these communities with a space for sharing knowledge about body techniques (Boutroy, 2022). In the case of Arnaud, this learning took place through the promoters of hebertism.
I see them talking about forefoot running techniques where the heel doesn’t touch the ground, where you don’t slam your feet down. And that’s when it clicked. I thought to myself, “Yes, but that’s it, I’m slamming my feet down like a horse.” So, as I was into this trend of natural physical activity, I said to myself, “I’m going to try minimalist shoes, try running a little, see how it goes.” And then I, who had never liked running, found pleasure in running.
39Proposals that draw on this knowledge take a simple and practical form (Collinet, 2006), comparing the technique used (e.g. running with a forefoot or heel strike) with its effects on the body. They thus give meaning to the experience and allow it to be explained (through the sensations felt, particularly nociceptive ones), and therefore to act by modifying one’s behaviour if necessary: Charly, aged 32, a runner, cyclist and fitness enthusiast, tells us about his running experience after listening to a lecture on minimalist running and reading the book Born to Run: “The idea of running barefoot is that it’s not your knees that act as shock absorbers, but your calves.” Charly changed his running technique to strike with his forefoot. This change caused him painful muscle soreness, but he did not interpret this negatively, as he understood that his knee was “safe” and his fear of injury had disappeared. Like him, the people interviewed emphasise striking with the front of the foot, but also the need to change their stride (it should be shorter, and the running cadence higher). This is widely shared knowledge that forms the basis of a community of perspectives (Terral & Collinet, 2007), which is very visible in the convergence of the discourses collected.
- 16 A single, or single track, refers to a narrow path in trail running.
40Learning to do without maximalist shoes means learning to adapt one’s motor skills to the environment in which one is practising. It is in situ that running technique changes, that stride adjusts to a new type of footwear, or that the prehensile function of the foot can be regained (in climbing, for example). These skills are developed through experience, even experimentation, and are inseparable from the environments in which they are practised. For example, the different surfaces on which players move—tarmac, trails, grassy ground—have an impact on their sensations and motor skills. The environment can therefore be considered a source of stimulation for adaptive abilities, which are even sought after. Certain types of environment will thus be favoured for their specific properties: “In Five Fingers, when you’re sharp, you stick to the ground, it’s very playful. With Five Fingers, you’re not going to run on big forest trails. On the other hand, small single tracks16 with moss and rocks are fun” (Victor). It is therefore a question of developing perceptual skills (Schirrer & Paintendre, 2017) to improve one’s potential for action by adapting to the characteristics of the surfaces on which one sets foot.
41These can vary in hardness, abrasiveness and unevenness. Each of these soil characteristics requires specific adaptive abilities: hard ground requires the development of significant shock absorption when placing the foot, abrasive ground requires learning to withstand friction between the foot and the ground, and uneven ground (due to the presence of stones, holes, bumps) requires the development of great responsiveness in choosing where to place the foot and in which direction, in order to maintain balance.
42Withdrawing shoes means rediscovering lost and forgotten sensorimotor functions and making the body more resistant, less fragile and more adaptable. To achieve this, Jean exposes himself to a variety of natural textures while seeking instability: “sand, rocks, trees: everything can be used”. Jérémy, who mainly practises MovNat, explains this approach:
It requires much greater concentration because you tell yourself that you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Your foot really has to go exactly where you want it to go [...]. Instead of bouncing with big shoes, even minimalist shoes that protect your feet, you take lots of small steps and make lots of adjustments. That’s why it’s definitely good to be barefoot for this.
43Walking or running barefoot goes hand in hand with the pleasure of increased adaptability, which requires careful attention to the body and the environment. This appears to be both a necessity and a goal. This perceptual-motor learning does not only apply to running. In certain weight training exercises, for example, practising barefoot allows one to be more stable and grounded. Such an increase in efficiency requires the use of often overlooked motor functions of the foot (gripping the ground with the toes when lifting a load, for example). Aurélien, a thirty-something street workout enthusiast, says that “barefoot, you’re actually more stable, you have more strength, it’s more natural,” while Ludovic, a weight training enthusiast, says he has “more balance, more control.”
- 17 In our sample, only Guy runs exclusively barefoot.
44Respondents also learn to adapt their choice of footwear. In this regard, minimalism is rarely binary17. Respondents develop a form of contextual alternation in their practice depending on the environment and/or type of activity. This is justified by the fact that, in the absence of maximalist sports shoes, motor efficiency is reduced to a level considered unacceptable (Romain, for example, performs certain weight training movements with weightlifting shoes, which allow him to use heavier weights), or because the practice becomes too uncomfortable and painful. The respondents thus develop knowledge about the characteristics of the contexts in which they practise and their compatibility with more or less minimalist footwear. Tommy switches between bare feet and thick-soled shoes depending on his activities: “I don’t impose it on myself as a rule, I don’t put pressure on myself to be barefoot, it’s just that as soon as I want it, as soon as I feel it, as soon as I feel good and ready, I take off my shoes.” As for Paula, she likes to “take off her shoes [editor’s note: she is referring to climbing shoes]” to climb down the routes, but she puts them back on to climb entire routes. Jean, despite his reference to the days of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, when “there was no room for weakness”, admits to wearing shoes when he goes into a forest full of chestnuts—“but minimalist shoes”, he specifies. As the positive feelings associated with withdrawing shoes are offset by the resulting discomfort, minimalist (or less maximalist) shoes can offer an acceptable compromise. Withdrawing shoes then serves the immediate pleasure of the activity, rather than being implemented “at all costs”.
45Adopting minimalist footwear ultimately involves acquiring perceptual knowledge about one’s own body, built up over time, particularly concerning what it is able to withstand. New entities, which were previously absent from the lives of people interviewed, have appeared and become visible: small stones on the ground, needles, calluses under the feet, or even interoceptive and exteroceptive sensations that stimulate or, on the contrary, prevent walking barefoot or in minimalist footwear. These sensations, which are sometimes painful, play a central role in learning what the body can withstand.
46Barefoot practice is not in itself to blame when it causes pain; it is rather the lack of stimulation of the body’s adaptive abilities that is to blame, precisely because of previous habituation to maximalist footwear, and also sometimes because of old injuries resulting from past sporting activities. The people interviewed then highlight the potentially harmful effects of an overly brutal transition, especially when running: “Last year, I pushed myself further and started wanting to run barefoot to strengthen the skin on my feet. I walked a lot barefoot in the street, on tarmac, etc. to thicken the skin. And then I got Achilles tendonitis. And the sports physician told me... well, actually, it was too much” (Arnaud). Strategies to develop the body’s resistance capacities are then implemented; they mainly target the musculo-tendinous system (the Achilles tendon is often mentioned, as well as the calves) and the skin, which needs to be made more resistant or less sensitive. Barefoot practice can then become a goal in itself, a form of personal challenge. This is the case for Guy, who would like to be able to run trails that include long stretches on tarmac roads. To achieve this, he is developing progressive strategies for transformation and hardening aimed at making his feet more resistant to abrasion when travelling long distances: “I was trotting about on the spot for five minutes on gravel,” he explains.
47It is therefore a question of learning to identify the effects on the body of a complex combination of footwear type, environment and forms of practice (duration, intensity, etc.), but also of allowing the body time to transform and adapt. The people interviewed therefore carry out forms of self-assessment over short and long-time scales. The first refers to a measurement of their state of physical fitness (or fatigue), which can change from one day to the next. Victor, a 40-year-old physical education teacher, explains: “When it comes to shoes, if I’m tired, I wear Hokas, which are heavily cushioned and I can’t feel the ground, but they save the rest of my body; if I’m feeling sharper, I wear Asics, which are a little stiffer, and if I’m feeling really sharp and want to work on my footfalls, I wear Five Fingers.” The second refers to the ability (or inability) to move with minimalist footwear, which is likely to evolve over time with experience (for example, one may not be able to run barefoot on a particular surface or distance at the moment, like Guy, who is training to trot about on gravel). The choice of footwear thus initiates a process of body modification, considered a sign of progress, with the foot becoming a place of both transformation and trial that reveals this progress, objectified by the increased resistance of the skin, the habituation of the footfall of the arch of the foot on uneven (and potentially painful) surfaces, and even its enlargement.
48These self-measurements are linked to those relating to practice conditions. It is the combination of these metrologies (fitness level, ability to move with minimalist footwear, terrain specifications, duration and intensity of practice sessions, type of footwear), involving the construction of links between self-knowledge, knowledge of the practice and situated knowledge, which makes it possible to identify the amount or type of exercise that the body can withstand (Allen-Collinson & Owton, 2015), both to limit the risk of injury and to ensure enjoyment of the practice. Withdrawal is therefore not always brutal or linear and, while it is not in itself called into question, it is characterised by forms of reversibility, alternation or even compromise. Arnaud suffered the consequences of a too rapid transition to barefoot running, which led to tendonitis and prompted him to adopt a gradual approach based on alternation:
I run in Altra shoes because they are wide and respect the width of the foot; for me, that was the most important thing. They are padded, OK, but as soon as I’m out in nature, I am more in minimalist and I alternate. I walk on the street sometimes flat, sometimes with a little heel, so I try to gradually come back. My goal is still to be as barefoot as possible, at least in nature, because you can feel things, because there’s that pleasure of connecting with nature.
- 18 See Dalgalarrondo & Fournier (2019a) on the practice of fasting, Couvry & Braizaz (2019) on beauty (...)
49Progressiveness is a necessity that, in this area, seems to be shared. One cannot suddenly go from “always wearing shoes” to “always barefoot”: if wearing maximalist shoes has led to the deconditioning of the foot, reconditioning it requires a learning process that can take time. Alternating between minimalist and maximalist practices allows the body to get used to a physical technique that has become unfamiliar. In such cases, if certain situations require people to “put their shoes back on” (due to recurring pain, for example), they will practise so that they no longer need to do so. Thus, the importance of a discourse emphasising spontaneity and sensations does not prevent the development of precise and personalised metrology that enable “progress” and a move towards “more” minimalism, with a view to self-optimisation (Dalgalarrondo & Fournier, 2019b) and, in some cases, social distinction18.
50Engaging in a process of withdrawal does not necessarily mean giving up old ways of doing things. Commitment in a minimalist practice is not binary, and the paths of withdrawal are not linear, as withdrawal is neither necessarily radical nor definitive (Goulet & Vinck, 2022). This process involves choices and hesitations, and can be marked by forms of reversibility, as has been observed in other bodily practices, such as eating habits (Akermann & Cœurquetin, 2022). However, the writings, references and relationships that may have prompted the desire to go barefoot or wear minimalist footwear are never questioned, even when alternating between different types of footwear prevails. The unattainable nature of radical minimalism in no way diminishes its value as an “ideal”.
51In 2004, Ingold wrote that shoes alter the sensory experience of walking and the relationship with the world. In Western societies, it would certainly be fair to say that they shape these experiences, as their use influences the use of the foot and locomotion in general from an early age. Research on the motor development of young children seems unequivocal on this point. The withdrawal of shoes, advocated and promoted in certain sporting circles, therefore represents a return to a form of motor skills considered more natural, which involves dissociation through the withdrawal of maximalist shoes, but also the creation of a new combination of knowledge, know-how, the body itself and its environment. The aim of this article was to examine the conditions and forms of such a rearrangement.
52The analysis of the empirical material from the survey presented here highlights how classic sports shoes become a “crossing point to be avoided”: representing a source of injury, or an intermediary isolating from the ground—or even a burden to be borne—withdrawing them allows one to reconnect with various forms of well-being. By restoring an active, sensory and motor role to the foot, the athletes surveyed experience a renewed relationship with the world, a source of new sensations and motor skills. While this transformation is part of narratives that highlight ways of valuing the past, through references to our prehistoric ancestors or to the playful children we once were, it is less a “return to” than a learning process that combines different types of knowledge and skills in practices that constitute forms of criticism of modern sport, without individuals detaching themselves completely from it.
53In 2004, Ingold wondered about “the particular properties of walking touch that might distinguish it from manual modality. [...] In other words, is the ground we walk on also, and inevitably, a ground on which things ‘stand out’ as focal points of attention, or can it be a focal point of attention in itself?” (Ingold, 2004, p. 330). It seems to us that the field studied here provides some answers: certainly, the ground can become a focus of attention in itself. By transitioning to minimalist footwear, the foot can become a fully-fledged perceptual organ, capable of detecting and interpreting variations in the ground. This renewed attention comes with a sensory pleasure that reflects a transformation in the relationship with the body and the environment (Brown, 2017).
54Several mechanisms contribute to this transformation. It involves learning the skills that constitute a new motor function, a new way of placing one’s foot on the ground. It also involves developing perceptive abilities, which lead to a new understanding of both interoceptive sensations (internal bodily sensations, such as those related to muscle activity) and exteroceptive sensations (resulting from stimuli outside the body, such as the contours and surfaces of the ground). All of these acquisitions are made possible by acquiring shared interpretation patterns, resulting from the circulation of knowledge about barefoot motor skills. It is the confrontation of new sensations experienced with this formalised knowledge that produces meaning and maintains individuals’ commitment, confirming the legitimacy and relevance of a transition to minimalist footwear. This sensory learning is therefore always socially situated (Allen-Collinson, Blackwell & Henderson, 2025).
55However, physical habits are characterised by a form of inertia and plasticity that is not infinite. As a result, respondents incorporate their practice into metrologies that allow them to stay within the limits of what their bodies can withstand. Indeed, withdrawal requires a gradual learning process that involves the body over time. Withdrawing one’s shoes (or replacing them with minimalist shoes) can indeed become a real quest and take time—or even be unachievable if one aims for radical minimalism (moving barefoot on any surface). Taking time (that can sometimes be long) can help reduce the dissonance between feeling unable to move barefoot in a given context at a given moment and perceiving the transition to minimalism as being something beneficial.
56The withdrawal process is not linear; it involves adjustments, compromises and setbacks. It is constructed as an experiment, based on putting the body to the test (Allen-Collinson & Jackman, 2021), which does not automatically or necessarily on a definitive basis lead to a connection with nature as a source of pleasure (Favier-Ambrosini, Linossier & Quidu, forthcoming). Furthermore, it is not without contradictions: despite the discourse promoting health and reconnection with the natural elements, withdrawal also contributes to a logic of optimisation and performance in which succeeding in doing with less means doing more or better.
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