I Hate Shoes

I know, I know; not exactly something you expect to hear from a Western woman is it?

Nevertheless.

The reason I hate shoes is because they make my knees hurt. Yep, you read that right. When I wear "regular" shoes my knees will start hurting. A lot.

And hiking boots. Torture devices. Used to be I could barely able to walk after hiking for a couple hours in "normal" hiking boots.

So a few years ago I went looking for a solution.

Fist I found Vibram Five Fingers, and this was before they were cool. I ran into a slight problem with these unfortunately. You see, because the toes are separate I kept stubbing my toe on Soccer's leg. The poor dog is extremely insecure and INSISTS on walking too close to me. I was worried I was going to break a toe on his leg sometime. I still have a pair of Five Fingers, they're great water shoes. But I needed something with a closed toe area to protect my toes from my dog. Not many can say that.

So, back to the internet and I found Soft Star Shoes. These are awesome, they have a closed toe area to protect me from Soccer's insecurities, and they have models that look enough like "normal" shoes at first glance that no one will question them. But basically they're just a thin rubber sole with a bit of leather on top. Real leather too although they do have vegan options if that's your preference. I have a few pairs from them and I have even worn my Runamoc Dash's to job interviews.

At about the same time I found Russel Moccasins. These guys have been around for a long time hand making custom fit boots and shoes. They mostly market to hunters but I figure that if you can hunt in them you can certainly hike in them. At the time when I ordered my boots the minimalist sole options  were quite limited, although I see now they have a whole section of the website for it. I have even had my boots re-soled because I walked off the first soles. Hiking is no longer painful with my hand made custom fit hiking boots.

The moral of the story is: if you hurt find a solution.