This is not a simple question because people use all of our products for everything from taking a walk to going shopping, to hanging out in an urban jungle like New York City, to climbing mountain trails, to running a 256K race across Madagascar over dirt and mud and streams and rocks and everything in between.
So there are a couple of questions that you want to ask yourself. One is:
How much protection do you want versus how much of a barefoot feel do you want?
We have products on both ends of that spectrum. Our 4mm Connect do-it-yourself kit is the closest thing you’ll get to barefoot.
In our ready-to-wear products, the Cloud for Men or Women is super lightweight and just like being barefoot, but with a layer of protection and comfort.
The other question is:
What style are you looking for?
Do you want something that is what’s known as the “huarache” style? It’s a thong-style sandal like this one, our Cloud, above, or Genesis:
Or do you want the sport-sandal style like the Z-Trail or Z-Trek:
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Now, the difference between the two is this:
The huarache style, in a way, feels like you have nothing on your foot. It feels the most like barefoot, the most free, because you’ve just got this little bit of lace that’s holding it on your foot. Now, some people think that’s not secure. I can assure you that it is. We have lots of customers who’ve run ultra marathons in the huarache style.
Here’s Ultra Mel & Jon at the end of a 50 mile race (no, he didn’t carry her the whole time) 😉
This sandal-tying style, the basics of it, is over 5000 years old and works surprisingly well. It’s all you need to hold a sole onto your foot, is that little sort of three-point lacing system just like that.
The sport sandal style, on the other hand, feels like someone has just replaced the sole of your foot with a tire tread. Because of the webbing, it has more surface area, so it feels more secure but you also feel more.
There are good reasons to go for the most minimalist shoe you can get away with. You have more nerve endings on the bottom of your feet than anywhere but your fingers and your lips, and that’s not an accident. Your feet are designed to feel what’s underneath you. That helps for balance and agility, and also just knowing if you just stepped on something good or bad, dangerous or safe.
And so if you want a real serious barefoot feel, again, you’ll find that with our 4mm Connect make your own huarache sandal kits.
Here’s an example of one way you can make our DIY kit:
The kit is just a 4-millimeter FeelTrue® rubber outsole with lacing. You can actually lace them up in one of hundreds of different styles; making something ultra-ultra-minimalist or really night-on-the-town fashion-forward. You get a just-like-barefoot feel with a layer of protection. Some people want more protection than that and one option is still in our do-it-yourself kit: the 6mm Contact sole. The 6mm version gives you more protection but still great ground feel.
If you don’t want to make your own sandals and still want a huarache style, take a look at our 5 millimeter ready-to-wear product we call the Genesis. The Genesis has our FeelTrue sole with our patented huarache-style lacing system. So that’s going to give you slightly more protection but still obviously really, really flexible, great ground feel. If you want something a little more comfortable and not necessarily as trail-friendly, then we look at the Cloud. The Cloud is actually just like the Genesis except we’ve taken 3 millimeters out of the forefoot, just kind of dug a little trench, and replaced that with our BareFoam™ that gives you this tiny bit of cushioning. So it feels exceptionally comfortable and is ridiculously lightweight.
So if you want to use this just as a camp shoe, the end of a day after you pull off your hiking-boot Xero Shoes and you just need something to get around the campsite, this is a great product. By the way, it also floats. So, really, really, comfortable, not quite as trail-friendly as the Genesis.
Maybe the ultimate camp shoe is our Jessie sandal for women.
Super lightweight, super comfy, and it even looks good after you finish your hike and head out on the town with friends.
Then, if we get into the sport sandals, check out our Z-Trek. The Z-Trek and the Genesis have same sole – 5-1/2 to 6 millimeters of our FeelTrue rubber, just this one was with the sport-sandal style.
I like to say that when you’re wearing the Z-Trek, again, it feels like someone’s just replaced the sole of your foot with a tire tread. Really great natural movement; really, really flexible; really, really comfortable. Again, a great camp sandal because it takes up very little room. A men’s size 9, weighs about 6.4 ounces. And for some people, they say, “Well, that’s heavy for a camp shoe.” But when you consider everything you can do in it compared to the really lightweight stuff and how little room it takes up, I mean it packs and rolls flat, then the value is a whole different story.
Our ultimate trail-friendly sandal, the Z-Trail.
The Z-Trail uses our triple-layer FeelLite™ sole. This weighs 20% less than our Z-Trek because we’ve made this with a high-tech foam that we’ve specially developed to provide really great comfort, great durability, great force dispersion, great traction, great protection.
It’s an incredible combination of features. It has our FeelTrue rubber on the abrasion points, on the bottom; it has our TrailFoam in the middle for force dispersion; and our BareFoam, which gives you just the tiniest bit of cushioning. A men’s size 9 in the Z-Trail weighs only 5.4 ounces. In fact, three pairs of the Z-Trail weigh less than one pair of this familiar hiking sandal.
So, for people who want more protection, less barefoot feel, I highly recommend the Z-Trail. In fact, if you look at the reviews on our website, you’ll see the people who have tried all of our products just raving about the Z-Trail because of the level of comfort, the level of protection, but still flexible enough to give you great natural movement as well, let your foot really bend and flex.
I’ll tell you my favorite story when I think about the Trail versus the Trek. After I’ve been wearing the Trail for a while, if I put on a pair of Z-Treks, I go, “Oh, that’s right! That’s what it’s like to feel things! Oh my God, that’s so pleasant to actually feel even more and let your foot bend and flex even more.” But then if I’m doing a really aggressive trail in my Z-Treks, sometimes it’s like, “Ay, I really need a little less feeling!”
We have one customer in fact, he’s a hundred-mile trail ultramarathoner and for him the Z-Trek is just not enough protection. The Z-Trail, that FeelLite sole, gives him all the protection that he needs.
So hopefully that gives you some advice on what Xero Shoes you’d like to wear. And if you have any questions, obviously, just a drop us a line. We’re happy to help. We just want to see you getting out there and Feeling the Freedom, Feeling the Fun, and Feeling the World with Xero Shoes.
