Bosilevac runs past a field on her way to 76.62 total barefoot miles.Several factors motivated her to do the run. It was this year's iteration of her tradition to run an ultra on Mother's Day weekend. More importantly, though, she did it to prove something to her three daughters - and to some extent, herself.

"We're all stronger than we think we are," she said at about the 70-mile mark, while wiping tears from her eyes, "and I want my kids to know that."

Her tears were from the emotions she was feeling, not from her feet - which were, admittedly, hurting quite a bit by that distance.

"We all have hard times, and I think that there's a difference between people who give up and who don't. And I think that you need to know that about yourself - that you don't have to give up. You have more left."

Her run began at 12:26 p.m. on Friday and concluded exactly one day later. While the first four or five hours were "fun," according to her, she did struggle with bouts of nausea and exhaustion. The drive chain for her spotter's bicycle jammed up at one point as well, but was eventually fixed. Despite those setbacks, Bosilevac holds an unofficial record for barefoot running by a woman.

"This has been an interesting experience," she said. "It's an experiment of wanting to conquer the least likely way that man was intended to go barefoot - on a sidewalk. On a crusty, textured sidewalk - with gravel. My feet have held up well. It's just been interesting to sort of tackle that."

Two days later, she shared how her feet were recovering very well, "I have never had this few problems when running distance before. Ever. I think it was the lack of shoes." On her blog post about the experience, she elaborated. "Most of the foot issues I have had in ultras are due to friction from shoes."

When asked what she'd say to those who claim people aren't meant to go barefoot on sidewalks or other hard man-made surfaces, she said, "Yes, if you wear shoes every day and never exercise those muscles, you certainly weren't, but you can be. It's easy to do. I routinely walk my dogs and run the sidewalks barefoot. And that's just fine."

Bosilevac rests inside during a refueling/evaluation stop.She relayed a story about an experience had by one of the ladies on her crew during the event.

"She swears by her heels - swears by them - and she's had a lot of foot pain lately. She came out to run the dogs earlier and decided not to put her shoes back on. And she had no pain running, which was a first for her in a long time."

Bosilevac shared what she believes is the bigger picture of going barefoot.

"It's very child-like. I think that one of the problems in the world today is that we try so hard not to be child-like anymore. That's really sad that we've lost that, because that's one of the great joys in life - is to retain that childhood joy."

She will be sharing about her 24-hour barefoot ultra marathon on Saturday, May 26, at the local event for Your Day Without Shoes 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. More information about that event and other YDWS topics can be found at YourDayWithoutShoes.com.

Because The Primalfoot Alliance "advocates for people to go barefoot and find prudent ways to let feet be feet first" -- our mission -- we tend to take a skeptical, but objective, glance at any activities that intend to put shoes onto the feet of people who regularly go barefoot. Our supporters have found great benefit from going without footwear, so it's important that any efforts to shoe the feet of people who have never worn them be scrutinized.

We have two concerns with TOMS' ODWS, and are sharing them here with potential remedies for each:

First, even if shoe donations are made in a spirit of charity, those shoes may end up doing more harm than good. Feet that have never worn shoes have different biomechanical structures than those that have. The feet are wider, more triangular shaped and have noticeable separation between the toes. Feet that have worn shoes have an altered shape, often taking on the shape of the shoes. The problem with putting shoes on the feet of those who've never worn them is that those shoes quickly begin to alter the shape of the feet and, therefore, their function. A 1905 study discovered that children who've never worn shoes begin to have altered bone alignment in their feet after only a few weeks of shoe use.1 What's more, shoes provide an enclosed environment that act as incubators for the growth of bacteria that cause athlete's foot and toe fungus.2 They also can contribute to corns and blistering with long-term use of the same pair of shoes.3 On a related note, we wonder if access to proper medical care is available in these same impoverished areas in case the gifted shoes cause foot problems like footwear so often does in developed areas of the world.

If TOMS or any other organization wants to provide some kind of protective footwear to the world's poor who have always gone barefoot, we recommend primal footwear that is capable of sustaining the foot's natural shape and function while providing the needed protection. There are various brands of this footwear available, but even huarache sandal kits could make a huge difference. They would provide an adequate barrier from rocks and unsafe soils, but leave the foot open to the air and keep its natural shape intact.

Second, campaigns to put shoes on the feet of those who do not have shoes often inappropriately demonize barefoot living. While there are conditions and locations in which it is advisable wear shoes, we humans can generally lead reasonable lives while barefoot. Those of us who live in developed countries -- and who often wear shoes -- can especially safely live barefoot most of the time. Our society's smooth, paved surfaces, well-groomed grassy areas, carpeted floors and other harmless ground coverings lend themselves well to bare feet. Those of us who go barefoot on a regular basis can tell you that living without shoes helps our feet to become more conditioned for such activity. Our soles are thicker, feet are better at temperature self regulation, the skin on our feet is healthier and the sensations from our feet are more pleasurable because of a barefoot lifestyle. What's more, our feet become more flexible and strong the more we go barefoot. Those who are served by organizations like TOMS have feet that are conditioned for the rougher, undeveloped environments in which they live. Quite frankly, they function well for most of their daily activities while barefoot because that's the only way they've lived. If poor people of the undeveloped world can live most of their lives barefoot under conditions much harsher than we have in developed countries, we can certainly successfully live more barefoot for greater health benefits. Campaigns that cast barefoot activity in a negative light come across as ill-conceived and misguided.

TOMS and other similar organizations could emphasize that having footwear available when needed is important. Though footwear may not always be necessary, the poor should have the option to wear protection from dangerous ground coverings. Adjusting TOMS' charitable footwear messages from stressing shoes as a necessity to an option could work wonders for striking a good balance between the benefits of barefoot activity and the prudence of having footwear available if necessary.

In summary, we're not opposed to charity. Looking at the bigger picture, however, we argue that providing potentially harmful shoes to the poor in the name of charity is short sighted. Furthermore, insinuating that shoes are necessary for a quality life spreads ignorance, something that The Primalfoot Alliance is attempting to eliminate.

1. Hoffman et al. (1905). Conclusions drawn from a comparative study of the feet of barefooted and shoe-wearing peoples. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 105-136. (Link)
2. Howell (2010). The barefoot book. 13-15.
3. Blisters, Callouses and Corns; KidsHealth.org (Link)

Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The day is for people who love to go barefoot to spend an entire day without having to wear anything on their feet. By doing this, we hope to gain public exposure to the barefoot lifestyle as a legitimate way of functioning in a society that is practically addicted to footwear. This furthers our mission that, "We advocate for people to go barefoot and find prudent ways to let feet be feet first."

Much more information about YDWS is available at its Website, YourDayWithoutShoes.com.

In December, we sent letters to each member of the Joint Commission for Agency Rule Review (JCARR) speaking on behalf of all barefooters in Ohio and beyond. We expressed our concern that requiring shoes of visitors takes away an individual's right to make health decisions about their own body and forces a biomechanical restriction on feet. Apparently those concerns fell on deaf ears.

The leadership of The Primalfoot Alliance will now be considering what actions this organization can take to have this rule repealed. Options include petitioning all supporters of barefoot living to send emails and letters to the legislature as a whole or petitioning the ACLU for assistance in defending barefooters' natural rights.

Many legal precedents beyond this single action have already been set against the barefoot movement. Now it is time for a sea change to begin that stops additional damage to the movement and reclaims rights for anyone who chooses to live without shoes. If we cannot do that, bare feet and our natural rights will continue to be blocked in irreperable ways.

More:

Columbus Dispatch: "Bare feet officially going bye-bye at Statehouse" 
Ahcuah: "Statehouse Shootdown" 

Corrected: Struck statement saying that the rule goes before the entire state legislature. Because it was not rejected it will automatically go into effect once filed.

source: news.com.au

An woman and her two young sons recently were kept off a Virgin Australia flight after the younger child had lost his shoes and was going to board in stockinged feet, according to an article by the Website Terminal U. After the carrier apparently cited a non-existent policy of Australia's safety regulator, Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Karen Darley and her four-year and two-year old children were refused boarding on the flight and finally took another one when replacement shoes for the toddler were found.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that the family missed an alternate flight (for which she was not billed additionally by Virgin Australia), and therefore had to pay more than $800 for new tickets. Darley is seeking compensation for the second flight and a portion of the cost of the first flight.

Terminal U shared a quote from a CASA spokesperson: "CASA recommends that all passengers wear shoes on board. There is no regulation for wearing shoes, but airlines can set their own policies." Our emphasis was added. According to a news.com.au article, which Terminal U sourced, the airline does have a policy requiring shoes of "anyone who can walk."

As is often the case with discrimination against primalfoot people, there seems to be confusion as to why Virgin Australia actually kicked Darley and her sons off the plane. Both articles linked above claim that a safety regulation was wrongly cited. The airline does have a policy addressing this issue, but it's not clear if that was brought up by the airline only after the fact.

UPDATE, Nov. 2, 2011: Barefooter Bob Neinast informed us that Virgin Australia's posted Conditions of Carriage actually do not have a requirement that passengers use footwear. That said, the document does state that the airline "may take all steps it believes necessary to ensure the safety and security of its Guests," an excuse often used against barefooters when no specific policy exists.

Whatever the case, there is no regulation requiring that any Australian airline require shoes of their passengers. Furthermore, we believe that it's unnecessary for any airline to prohibit primalfoot passengers for reasons of safety. Under all normal circumstances, commercial airplane cabins are free of anything that can harm the feet. If emergency situations are a concern, hard hats and protective gloves are not required of or issued to passengers.

We hope that as the numerous benefits of primalfoot living come more into the public view, airlines and regulators will eliminate any policies requiring shoes of passengers.

Thanks to our advisory board member Moe Morales for passing this along!

Photo: LogoProducts4Less.com

David Wisotsky has seen discrimination from the campus cafeteria, library and police. His story was shared recently in an article of The Vermont Cynic. Though we could find no specific policies that addresses the issue of footwear in the university's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities (PDF), the article claims David was cited by police for violating "other policies." He will soon defend himself at a "student conduct hearing" and is now working with the Student Government Association's diversity committee to draft legislation allowing students to live barefoot without fear of discrimination. David does acknowledge, however, that there isn't an organized group of barefooters...yet.

"Although we aren't a group right now, I know of a lot of barefoot students on campus," he is quoted in the article as saying.

We wholeheartedly stand behind David's efforts and have reached out to him via email offering any support we can give. There is an ever-growing community of advocates behind him.

It's important for the University of Vermont and all other institutions like it to understand that, although barefooters may not be organized or large in number, it's appropriate to allow for people to live shoeless if they so choose. It is a matter of personal choice and biomechanical health and does not harm anyone else. Though it is not a mainstream or widely-accepted lifestyle, that does not make it invalid or not worth protecting.

We will keep you updated on this story as plausible.

Steve Jobs, Credit: Apple, Inc.After reflecting on the recent passing of Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and former CEO of Pixar, I thought it might be appropriate to share a few words on how Steve's influence has shaped my personal journey to founding and leading The Primalfoot Alliance. I write this not to compare myself to Steve Jobs - far from it - but instead to share how I try to use his example as a foundation for this organization's mission to advocate for people who go barefoot.

I have long been fascinated by Steve's leadership of Apple and Pixar. I've admired his dedication to excellence and his very open desire to "change the world" through his actions. Indeed, it's hard to use any device with a microchip inside and a color screen that has not been influenced in some way by Steve Jobs. I can't help but find it ironic that Apple's former "Think Different" campaign encapsulated Steve himself in its words about other visionaries:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

As you know, we who choose to live barefoot outside of our home, the swimming pool or the green grass at the local park are often considered "crazy" by our shoe-centric society. We are misfits. We are certainly rebels. To many, we are considered troublemakers, though we have no intent of being such. We see things differently because we know that the status quo of wearing shoes all the time and the rules demanding we must do so are what's actually "crazy" - not us.

Sometimes, however, it feels like the barefoot lifestyle is a pretty crazy thing for which to advocate. On a phone call a while back, this organization's vice president Daniel Howell, PhD, and I shared with each other about how we never expected to be in this position. He never expected to write and publish The Barefoot Book. If you had told me just a few years ago that I'd go barefoot all the time AND start an organization to advocate for those who want to live barefoot without hassle, I'd have though you were - well, you know. Label it however you wish, but I love to go barefoot and I love to advocate for the feet of anyone who cares to go without shoes.

Ever since the beginning of this organization, it has been important to me that The Primalfoot Alliance "think different" about how we advocate for bare feet (In many ways, I don't have respect for the status quo). I wanted to have a smart, dedicated group of advisors to help along the way. Over the past 18 months Daniel, the advisory board and I have been working to slowly build interest and support through social media. We've posted information on our modern Website to educate the public about living barefoot, created effective resources that barefooters can use to advocate for themselves "on the go," and successfully held "Your Day Without Shoes" in June for the first time to encourage people to go barefoot because they want to - not because a shoe company wants to sell more product.

We want to be an organization that can't be ignored because we're changing things for bare feet for the better. The advisory board and I have had many discussions about ways for this alliance to raise funding to enable all the programs we've talked about. I would like to see a drastic expansion of "Your Day Without Shoes" next year. Daniel and I have spoken more privately about an all-new primary message for The Primalfoot Alliance in 2012 and new ways of approaching the dreaded confrontation about your bare feet in the local store. There have even been discussions about taking a clear, well-developed case to government boards, councils and legislative bodies throughout the U.S. in order to receive their official support. More information about our initiatives will be released in the future, but let me say that they're REALLY exciting!

Crazy? Maybe so. Genius? We hope so. Challenging the status quo? You bet.

Some veteran barefooters who are reading this might think these things can't be done and that such change is impossible, but I refuse to try old ways of advocating that have failed and I refuse to quit trying new ways. If one technique doesn't work, we'll think different and try another. We'll keep banging the drum of bare feet until we are heard and society wakes up to the cold, hard fact that it's wrong to discriminate against people who simply don't want to put on shoes to go shopping, eat out, visit the library or even work - who just want to let their feet be feet first. We shouldn't have to wear shoes because someone else tells us to.

Mr. Jobs, in his 2005 commencement address to Stanford University graduates said something that, I think, applies perfectly to barefooters and The Primalfoot Alliance's mission:

"Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Finally, he wrapped up his speech with a quote from the back of the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog:

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

We will, Steve. Thank you.

Smiles,

Michael Buttgen
Founder and Chief Primalfoot Officer
The Primalfoot Alliance

p.s. Did you know that Steve Jobs enjoyed going barefoot?

by L. Daniel Howell, PhD, Vice President of The Primalfoot Alliance

By all accounts, Hawaii is one of the most barefoot-friendly places in the United States. Bare feet are generally welcome in the shops, markets and eateries on this beach paradise.* Accordingly, public schools on the islands have also been traditionally accepting of barefooted children.

Until now.

Back in December of 2010 a news article emerged from Maui in which public school principal Fern Markgraf declared, “the olden days (in Hawaii) when kids all had bare feet are no longer acceptable.”  This declaration, however, begs the question: Why? What threats to bare feet exist today that did not exist in the “olden days”? Why are bare feet in Hawaiian schools – once the norm – no longer “acceptable”? Is it possible that Fern Markgraf and the rest of Hawaii is just falling prey to Western ‘civilities’?

On June 1, 2011, I mailed a letter to Mrs. Markgraf encouraging her to reconsider this position. I now make the letter available to the public as an open letter – a plea to all schools throughout America that prohibit (or even discourage) students from going barefoot on their campuses. As a professor of human anatomy, Vice President of the Primalfoot Alliance and author of The Barefoot Book, I am thoroughly convinced that requiring footwear on children damages their feet for life. If you are a school administrator, I – on behalf of the Primalfoot Alliance – urge you to reconsider bare feet in the classroom. Please contact us; we would love to talk with you further about this important health issue affecting our school children.

***

RE: Footwear on schoolchildren

Dear Fern Markgraf,

Thank you for your dedication to improving the lives of children through education. As an educator myself, I know it’s a tiring and often thankless profession (yet also rewarding).

I am writing because you recently cited footwear as a dire need and priority for your schoolchildren. You stated in a Maui News report that the “olden days (in Hawaii) when kids all had bare feet are no longer acceptable.” I certainly believe you are doing what you feel is best for the children in your care, but I think you are making a mistake that in the long run will harm the feet and health of the children in Hawaii.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that prolonged shoe use damages our feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine. The use of footwear by young children is particularly problematic since a child’s foot is still developing; the shoeing of children sets them up for foot problems that last a lifetime. It is widely believed that footwear is needed “for safety reasons,” but after performing a thorough search for barefoot-related injuries I and others have found scant evidence to support this assertion. Indeed, the evidence indicates we should all go barefoot more for healthy feet and bodies.

I sincerely urge you to reconsider your requirement for footwear on your pupils. Schoolchildren have long gone barefoot in Hawaii without serious injuries. Indeed, the history of going shoeless in Hawaii is cause for celebration. As states on the mainland are realizing the harm caused by shoes and the benefits of going shoeless, Hawaii has a unique opportunity to lead the nation in promoting foot health through going barefoot. Schoolchildren in Hawaii have already demonstrated that going barefoot is safe and healthy for children. Perhaps a more sensible approach is simply to let children and parents decide for themselves whether shoes are necessary for them.

I am available if you would like further consultation. I love sharing the discovery that feet are healthiest and happiest when bare!

Sincerely,

Dr. Daniel Howell
Vice President, The Primalfoot Alliance
Author, The Barefoot Book

(Please note: The original letter was co-signed by Michael Buttgen, founder & President of the Primalfoot Alliance and Michael Warburton, research scientist.)

***

Related articles by Howell:
An Issue of Safety. Really?
Shoes: A Public Health Hazard

Related resources from The Primalfoot Alliance:
Our Position on TOMS' 'One Day Without Shoes'
National-TV Stories Provide Positive Looks at Barefoot Living
Frequently Asked Questions

* Jennifer Aniston has even made waves this week walking barefoot around the islands and according to an internet poll the vast majority of people think it’s "cool."

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

To listen to KGNU's mp3 version of the interview, click the link below or right-click to save the file to your computer.
(NOTE: The interview begins at approximately 35 minutes into the file)

Listen to KGNU's "Morning Magazine" from Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On their Meetup page they write, "Even if you have never taken off your shoes we will have simple starter hiking meetups as well as more advanced meetups for scrambling, handling downhills, and foot maintenance. We welcome Vibram Five Fingers and minimalist hikers to join us on our adventures! You don't have to be completely crazy to hike barefoot, just willing to learn and explore the world around you in a way you've never known."

One of the leaders of the group, Kriste Brushaber, has shared with The Primalfoot Alliance why barefoot activity has been so important to her. In June, she helped organize a hike for Your Day Without Shoes, an event that was celebrated worldwide.

For more information on The Front Range Barefoot Hiking Group, you may contact them at their Meetup page linked above.