Barefoot Shoes and Socks

Barefoot Shoes and Socks

Byrichard

Today I am going to write about something a little different. A few days ago I saw a child with a huge hole in at least one sock and I commented “for once you’re the one with holes in your socks, rather than me. Usually I do have holes in my socks, and when the child noticed he pointed this out in public once.

After this incident I started to throw socks away as soon as they got holes, to avoid such a comment. For some reason it bothered me to have holes in my socks in a context where I had to take off my shoes. That’s not actually what this blog post is about.

Barefoot Shoes are Kinder to Feet

I noticed that all the signs of wear and tear that I had on my feet, as a result of wearing normal shoes are gone from my feet. My feet have recovered from having the toes, heels and other parts of the foot rubbing against parts of the shoes. The result is more elegant feet, thanks to soft barefoot shoes.

Intact Socks

I have been using the same socks for weeks, or even months at this point and they are barely worn. At one point, with normal shoes, I was wearing through socks within weeks. It got so bad that I was starting to worry about how expensive it would be to buy new socks every few weeks. With barefoot shoes that problem seems to be gone.

Five million steps

Over the last twelve months I have still taken over 4.9 million steps, so it’s not that I am walking less. I am cycling more, but I’m still in the five million steps per twelve month period range. My walking habit is consistent.

Softer Steps

When you walk with normal shoes the shoes do the work of amortising every step, so every step comes down with force, especially around the heel, where holes would begin to appear with some socks. With barefoot shoes you’re not crushing that part of the sock so the sock has a longer life expectancy

More Space for Toes

Plenty of people who write about barefoot shoes speak about the bigger “toe box”. With normal shoes you instantly feel that the foot has less space. This difference in room for the toes could contribute to the tips of socks wearing against the shoes, forming toe holes on socks.

Barefoot Barefoot Shoes

Since some people wear barefoot shoes, barefoot, without socks, it would make sense for the shoes to be designed to be barefoot friendly, to avoid friction points and more. It would make sense for shoes to be made to be comfortable.

And Finally

This observation is based on wearing a single pair of barefoot shoes for over 500 kilometres. If I wear another pair of barefoot shoes I might notice that the wear and tear of socks is different. usually new socks cost about 20 CHF for a week’s worth of socks. If I need to replace them twice, in the lifespan of a pair of shoes then I could buy a pair of shoes that is 20-40CHF more expensive, and the price of new socks would be offset, by not needing to buy socks as regularly.

I wrote that last part as a joke, rather than a serious consideration. I am happy to have stopped wearing through socks so quickly, at last.

Five Years With The Suunto Spartan

Five Years With The Suunto Spartan

Byrichard

I have had the Suunto Spartan for around five years, the Apple watch Series Four for Four and the Instinct since November 2021 and I find myself gravitating back towards the Suunto Spartan watch again. I pivoted away from the watch and Suunto because it moved towards WearOS and smartwatches, rather than sticking to fitness tracking.


I was afraid that MovesCount, known as Suunto App now, and the Sportstracker app would both be killed off or allowed to die but this hasn’t happened. I see that Sportstracker and the Apple watch play quite nicely together so if I want the power of sportstracker and the Suunto app I can stick to an Apple watch.


Curious about Apple


I bought the Series 3, which I broke indoor climbing out of curiousity, and regretted it, and for some reason I was so annoyed with the screen break that I still bought a series four and that has lasted four years, so it outlasted the other watch by four or more years.


Frequent Pair


The Garmin Instinct has a fatal flaw, in my eyes. It often decides that it no longer wants to connect. You need to “pair phone” on a regular basis. This is easy to fix, and takes seconds, but it is a flaw that I have noted with several Garmin devices. If I pair a device I want it to remain paired until I change phone, or change watch. I don’t want to regularly pair my devices. They should be “pair and forget”.


Fitness Focused


One of the beauties of the Suunto App, which is based on movescount, which is based on SportsTracker is that the app is focused on your progression, your efforts, your workouts, your recovery time and your life. Garmin and Apple want you to focus on games, badges, rewards and more. Suunto just gives you a way to track the day’s effort, see how long it will take to recover and then get on with your day. That’s how it should be.


Signs of age


After five years of use the strap is still in good condition except that one of the rubber strap holders has broken off. The battery life is not as good as it used to be. It has one easy to see scratch on the surface. A little paint has been stripped off the top bezel. It isn’t easy to see.


Too Big


The one flaw of this watch is that it’s big on the wrist. When you wear shirts you can’t easily slide it under a sleeve. It’s hard to access under layers in winter. A slimmer watch would be better.


Durability


I use my fitness tracking watches for one to two hours per day. They last for years. My Suunto Ambit 3 is still alive and could still be used. These watches might feel expensive but when you consider that you get five or more years of use the cost goes down to 100 CHF per year. According to Suunto I have 3100 tracked activities and 23,000 kilometres of distance covered.


I am tempted to return to Suunto now that I see the app has survived the transition to WearOS. That’s why I looked around in the first place.