Running without shoes had been all the rage not long ago however interest in it and the number doing it have dropped of considerably. It was a craze that continued for several years and was mostly influenced by social media commentary. It was a short lived trend towards barefoot running that took off around 2009 with a lot more interest in running free of running shoes. It was touted in numerous books, blogs and magazine articles and Youtube Videos thhtbarefoot running was more natural, that it was a more economical method to run and that you got significantly less injuries running that way. Many runners tried barefoot running as an alternative to using running shoes and interest in it peaked about 2013. The sales of minimal or barefoot running shoes furthermore peaked at around that time, getting to nearly 10% of the running shoe market.

After that original attention and peak interest in barefoot running and minimalist running shoes have been steadily decreasing. Runners lost interest in running barefoot. The sales of the minimalist running shoes have been dropping steadily since around mid- to late 2013. The believed advantages for it failed to eventuate to many runners who tried barefoot running but, needless to say, those who touted barefoot running simply claim that those runners were doing it incorrectly. When the scientific data accumulated, the advantages weren’t just there. All of the injury rate reports were showing that the risk of injury was the same had you been running in footwear versus running without shoes and the majority of of the running economy investigations were also showing that generally there weren’t any systematic advantages.

While some runners, who’re rather vocal, still do their running without footwear the big market shift has now been towards the maximalist running shoes with the Hoka One One running shoe being the innovator in that group of running shoes. It has now reached the stage where the Hoka’s now outsells the entire group of minimalist running shoes giving an obvious sign of the popularity of cushioned running shoes compared to barefoot running.