Why Most Shoes Are Wrecking Your Feet (and How to Fix It) — with BPRIMAL

Jamie, Faye and Mick on foot-shaped shoes, waking up your feet and taking it slowly

TL;DR

• Your everyday shoes matter more than your gym or running shoes, because you wear them the most.
• Look for a wide toe box, a flat sole, flexibility and light weight.
• Transitioning to barefoot shoes is like taking your feet to the gym for the first time. Go gradually and listen to your body.
• Mick's three daily foot exercises: roll out the bottom of your foot, do toe yoga and massage the top of your foot.

Introduction

In this episode, I sat down with Jamie Wilson and his wife Faye, the husband-and-wife team behind BPRIMAL, a barefoot and functional footwear company. Joining us was Mick Breen, who runs Melbourne Soft Tissue Therapy in Thornbury and Natural Born Running, where he teaches people to run the way the body is designed to.

Jamie discovered functional footwear around 2014, after years in construction wearing heavy work boots every day and playing sport. Back then, there was very little on the market with a natural foot shape. BPRIMAL ran online for about 10 years before opening a store in Neutral Bay, Sydney, and they're now working on a compliant work boot for tradies.

Mick told me that when he meets someone new, he looks straight at their shoes, because they tell him a lot about what's going on in that person's body.

This is general information, not medical advice. If you have foot pain, an injury or a condition that affects your feet, talk to a health professional before changing your footwear.

Lesson 1: Your feet are designed to move

Insight: Mick calls the foot probably the most amazing piece of machinery we have, with 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles. But put it in a rigid shoe and he says it starts behaving like one joint. Many shoes have toe boxes that narrow to a point and push the big toe in. That makes it harder to build a strong arch and to engage the glutes and hamstrings.

He also pointed out that we treat feet differently from the rest of the body. You can mobilise, strengthen and stretch your feet like any other body part. One of his clients told him that after some foot work, her feet felt springy.

Action: Take your shoes off and try to spread and wiggle your toes one at a time. Notice how much control you have.

Outcome: You get a quick sense of how well your feet are actually working.

Lesson 2: Your everyday shoe matters most

Insight: People put a lot of thought into their running or gym shoes. Faye and Mick both made the point that what you wear for the rest of the day matters more. An eight-hour day at work has a bigger effect on your feet than a one-hour run.

The team look for a few things in a healthy shoe:

• a wide toe box so your toes can spread
• a flat sole instead of a raised heel
• flexibility so the muscles and tendons can move
• light weight and enough ground feel to sense where you're stepping.

Faye said that ground feel matters more as we get older, because so many people have balance issues and falls.

Action: Look at the shoes you wear most during the week. Check whether they have room for your toes and a flat sole.

Outcome: You focus your changes where they'll make the biggest difference.

Lesson 3: Transition gradually

Insight: Faye says the transition can take a year, 18 months or longer, depending on how sedentary you are and the condition of your feet. Some people will never go into thin barefoot shoes, but they can still wear something flat with a wide toe box and work on their arch strength.

Mick compares it to your first gym session. You pull up sore and don't want to go back, but you keep going. Your feet are the same. You're waking up dormant tissues and muscles, so they'll respond. Start slowly, build up and listen to your body.

Jamie suggests starting with a wide toe box and something lightweight. For people who need more cushioning, including some older people, there are brands with more cushioning that still have the other healthy features. Wear them for a couple of hours, then check how your feet feel.

Action: Start with a short period in flat, foot-shaped shoes or barefoot at home, and build up slowly over weeks and months.

Outcome: You give your feet time to adapt without overdoing it.

Lesson 4: Arch support works like a cast

Insight: One of the biggest misconceptions the team hears is "I need arch support." Faye explains it this way: if you wear arch support, your arch isn't doing the work. It's like wearing a cast on your arm. The arm can't do its job while it's in the cast.

Mick said orthotics and stability shoes can be useful in some cases, on a short-term basis. His concern is that many people are never given a way out of them. I'd encourage you to have that conversation with your own practitioner rather than throwing your orthotics out tomorrow.

Action: If you wear orthotics, ask your practitioner whether there's a plan to strengthen your feet over time.

Outcome: Support becomes a step along the way, not a permanent crutch.

Lesson 5: Three foot exercises for the evening

Insight: Mick gives every client the same three exercises, and you can do them in front of the TV:

1. Roll out the bottom of your foot.
2. Toe yoga: interlace your fingers between your toes and move them around.
3. Massage the top of your foot: use your fingers to work between the bones of your toes. He says it's often forgotten, and it can be pretty uncomfortable at first.

Once your toes start moving again, he says it helps get the muscles up your shin working, all the way up to your glutes. Jamie also uses a cork roller and toe spacers. If spacers rub inside your shoes, he puts toe socks on first and slides the spacers over the top.

When I asked Mick for the one thing he'd get every Australian to do, he said roll out the bottom of your foot every day.

Action: Tonight, spend five minutes on Mick's three exercises.

Outcome: Your feet start to feel more mobile and connected.

Lesson 6: Let kids' feet develop naturally

Insight: BPRIMAL started with adults, but Jamie and Faye have come full circle to children, because that's where it all starts. They believe kids' feet should be able to develop naturally, along with their sensory development, rather than being crammed into rigid shoes.

As parents, they also know about the morning arguments over school shoes and socks. Kids get around barefoot whenever they can. Once their kids got into toe socks, they found the kids loved them.

Action: Let your kids spend more time barefoot at home and in safe spaces outdoors.

Outcome: Their feet get the chance to develop the way they're designed to.

Lesson 7: You run the way you live

Insight: Mick says you can run well in any shoe. But he believes heavily cushioned running shoes allow, and even encourage, poor technique, because the cushioned heel is in the way and has to hit the ground first. Recreational runners might get away with it for a week, a year or five years. The body is incredibly resilient, up to a point. Then little whispers of pain start, and as Aussies we say "she'll be right, mate" until something gives.

His view is that we run the way we live. It comes back to how you move, how strong you are in the right places and your awareness of your body. Faye's answer to my one-thing question was simple: just move.

Action: Pay attention to how your feet land on your next walk or run. Notice whether you're heel striking.

Outcome: You start building awareness, which is the first step to moving better.

Quick wins

• Check your everyday shoes for a wide toe box and flat sole.
• Spend some time barefoot at home each day.
• Do Mick's three foot exercises in front of the TV.
• Try toe socks or toe spacers for a couple of hours.
• Start each day with a deep squat to get your body moving.

Closing insight

Less is often more when it comes to feet. We've been convinced that big, squishy shoes are what we need. Jamie, Faye and Mick's message is to let your feet do what they were designed to do: move freely, rebound and perform. Just take it slowly and listen to your body along the way.

Connect with BPRIMAL and Mick

Visit BPRIMAL or follow them on Facebook. Find Mick on Instagram or at Natural Born Running.

Listen to the full episode

The full conversation is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, or press play at the top of this page.

Related episodes: Barefoot Shoes and Foot Strength with Helen Halkias and Strong Feet, Strong Life with Thien Trinh