Barefoot running had been a large fad around ten years ago that lasted a few years and drew a great deal of attention, particularly in social media. Towards the end of 2008 to early 2009 there had been escalating promises that running footwear were really harmful to the runners and has been responsible for some of the injuries that athletes were getting. It was inspite of the remarkable quantity of science and technology that went into improving running shoes to avoid these injuries. These claims ended in a trend for runners to experiment with running without making use of athletic shoes and going barefoot or using what become generally known as minimalist running footwear. These types of athletic shoes had minimum engineering or features within them and were merely a protective covering of the feet.

The barefoot running craze had been motivated by a substantial existence in social media. There had been an abundance of internet sites, publications, classes, magazines and forums dedicated to and pushing without footwear running. A great deal of phenomenal statements were made for barefoot running as to what it would do for the athletes. It was presumed that up to a quarter of runners could have played around with in some manner with without running shoes running. Nonetheless, by late 2013 and early on in 2014 curiosity about barefoot running had dwindled away and runners weren't any longer keen on it. This was even with the many remarkable comments which got made regarding the great things about barefoot running as well as the claims coming from many that it was preparing to put the athletic shoes businesses bankrupt. This never ever happened.

The trend dropped since the believed positive aspects never added up for the majority of runners which tried it. There had been a lot of statements made how the science backed up without running shoes running, when in actuality there was no research that showed that it was better and succeeding research has shown that the injury rate in barefoot or minimalist running just isn't lower than those who work out in the padded athletic shoes. There was clearly lots of research done on barefoot and minimalist running, however that research failed to show that it was any better, it really demonstrated that that it was different. The truth that there was a huge amount of research which was misunderstood by those who endorsed barefoot running as demonstrating it had been superior, when that is not what it revealed.

In the end with the barefoot trend, the Hoka One One running footwear company launched some maximally shock absorbing running footwear which were ridiculed and loathed by those touting barefoot running. Even though, athletes preferred these shoes and the Hoka’s have become a strong player in the athletic shoes market and since 2014 the movement has been for the more maximally cushioned running shoes from all of the running shoe companies.

There is still a small number of serious barefoot athletes that was always there. At present the minimalist running shoes make up about 0.3-0.5% of the running shoe marketplace for the previous few years. The maximalist running footwear still control the marketplace for the past 6-7 years and there is absolutely no clue of any loss of their share of the market or even a come back of an interest in barefoot or minimalist running shoes.