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Gigachadtoday at 2:58 AM5 repliesview on HN

Your feet do not need support, they were evolved over millions of years to support themselves. Someone who habitually wears shoes indoors might lose the muscle strength in their feet in the same way someone who drives everywhere loses leg strength, but this isn't natural or optimal.


Replies

eqvinoxtoday at 3:02 AM

Sorry, I phrased that poorly. The muscular support is its own thing (and I agree with you) but your soles don't deal well with hot summer asphalt surfaces, glass shards or even small pebbles surfaces.

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jimmyddddtoday at 3:22 AM

Agreed. But you have to go shoeless throughout your youth so that the bones and muscles of the foot grow strong. This is true, for example, with kids in some African countries. There was a trend of barefoot running in the US in the 2010's (see Barefoot Sensei), but most people who tried this ended up quitting it as it's hard to shift to this style in, say, your 40's, after a lifetime of wearing shoes.

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jevogeltoday at 3:09 AM

We didn't evolve to walk on concrete and asphalt, though.

samustoday at 7:46 AM

Our feet were not evolved to walk over stone and concrete all day.

qseratoday at 3:09 AM

> they were evolved over millions of years to support themselves.

But not on hard floor.

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