Remember, footwear is just one bit of the solution to sustainable and injury-free running. Personally, running form is primary and shoes are secondary. Hopefully my two plus many years of wear testing of over 150 minimal shoes will help you filter out some shoes to try out with no hassles and injury-free.
Here’s their email list from the top 7 minimalist running shoes as tested by Minimalist Athletic shoes wear testers:
We have also recently released our free Fall-Winter ’12 Minimalist Shoe Buying Guide (iBook format) for that Ipad and in a less interactive (no interactive galleries and interactive images) universal PDF version.
For detailed reviews of minimalist shoes, check out Minimalist Running Shoes for all running, casual, and fitness shoes that we have Wear Tested.
After wear testing over 150 minimalist shoes (or barefoot-style shoes or barefoot shoes or minimal shoes or anything you want to call them), it’s still very confusing for someone to select a set of minimal shoes successfully. Minimal shoes are highly individualized and subjective. However the following are important elements to look for inside a barefoot-style shoe:
For all those with narrow feet, wide toe box shoes may cause problems. I’ve sized up a complete size for some models and they were too big in order to simulate the outcome. For those running on gnarly trails, you might want a built-in or removable rock plate. But according to my preferences and also the range of situations I have encountered myself and my tight group of wear testers, from problems for transitioning to advanced minimalist running, I have enough confidence that after seconds of wearing a set of minimalist shoe (any category), I will tell immediately on either extreme: great minimal shoe or no-go (too near to traditional shoes). Those that belong among will need lengthy testing but those usually end up being so-so.