Posts Tagged ‘work’
My Take on Minimalist Footwear
From left to right: Hand-made Huaraches, Vibram FiveFingers Sprint, Vivo Barefoot Runners.
In recent years, there has been quite a bit of development of the so-called “minimalist footwear”. While the definition of minimalist footwear tends to vary from user to user and from manufacturer to manufacturer, basically, any type of footwear that is designed to simulate, as close as possible, the experience of going barefooted by still providing an acceptable amount of insulation and protection from the environment (at least part, usually the soles) can fall into the category of “minimalist”.
Another Great Interview Experience
Yesterday, I had the pleasure to meet, interview, and go for a fun barefoot outing with Radio Documentary Producer Frank Faulk.
Frank contacted me last week to do a showcase half-hour radio documentary about my barefoot lifestyle. As part of the exercise, he wanted to go on a barefoot outing with me to a commercial place and experience firsthand any potential hassles; so I suggested that we go for coffee at Fairview Mall – located at the corner of Sheppard Av. & Don Mills Rd. here in Toronto, not far from where I live – especially, because I’ve had a couple of “encounters” with security there in the past.
Sun Media Video and Paper Article
After meeting with Thane Burnett from Sun Media on August 13, he’s published a couple of pieces. Here are the links:
-> Video on Canoe.ca: “Barefoot in the City”
-> Article in the Sun Family of Papers: “Naked from the Ankle Down”; also featuring fellow barefooters: Al Gaultier from Vancouver, BC, Wolf Starchild from St. Catherines, ON, and Bryan McDonald, from Windsor, ON.
Barerfoot Moe
Toronto, Canada
Barefoot in Toronto
Barefoot Planet
There’s a Lot of Assuming Going On!
After nearly 20 years of leading a predominantly barefoot lifestyle, I keep being amazed by the amount of common assumptions “shoddies” (people who don’t like going barefoot and prefer to be in shoes most of the time) make about us barefooters. What I find most interesting is that all shoddies seem to make the same assumptions over and over; even the ones that claim “Oh, I used to spend entire summers barefoot as a kid”.
This, sadly, goes to show how misinformed we are as a society and how generalized these misconceptions are – even among health professionals and other “experts” such as sports trainers and traditional footwear designers; as well as individuals in positions of authority like police officers, security guards, establishment managers and corporation executives, just to mention a few. Additionally and unfortunately, here in North America, the association of bare feet with lack of education, destitution, and the hippie sub-culture is still very predominant. Therefore, we barefooters face a series of social challenges on a daily basis which make our desire to lead a “normal” barefoot lifestyle rather frustrating at times.
At the New Office / Bad Influence!
Since my business partner and I moved into our new office in March,
I’ve been predominantly and visibly barefoot. Until now, I’ve been a bit cautious/self-conscious about it, since we’re sharing the office with two other colleagues who don’t know me previously and the fact that they seem a bit more “corporate-like” that my biz partner and I. Until today, no one had made any comments or given me any “looks”, so I’ve been under the assumption it is OK.
I guess I my assumption was confirmed the other day, when one of the women working with us said to me this morning: “Moe, you’re a bad influence. I think I need to start going barefoot too!” — I told her to go right ahead. She didn’t hesitate to kick off her slip-on heels and stayed barefoot for the rest of the morning.
She had a visitor right after lunch so, in the afternoon, she was back in her heels walking around the office. She pointed out to her visitor my bare feet as well – in a nice way though. The visitor (I think it was a potential client of hers, a nicely dressed lady) didn’t seem to be bothered by my bare feet at all either and she commented: “you didn’t have to put shoes back on for me, I’m not THAT formal myself”…
In retrospect, this is very similar to most of my experiences with barefooting at previous jobs/offices. I guess, for me, the fact that I don’t make a big deal of my barefooting in the first place seems to do the trick for me.
Keep ‘em bare!
Barefoot Moe
barefootcanada.ca
