What truly makes a barefoot shoe from BÄR unique!
Experience the interview live on YouTube or read the full transcript here. The interview covers the anatomy of the foot, as well as important stabilizers required when walking:
INTERVIEW BETWEEN DR. CLAUDIA SCHULZ AND CHRISTOF BÄR:
Dr. Claudia Schulz: There are now many brands focusing on barefoot shoes, and as a consumer, I sometimes naturally find it difficult to determine what is best for my foot. I see a foot skeleton lying on the table here. Perhaps you could explain to me, Mr. Bär, what BÄR does differently, what makes the special comfort, and what makes barefoot shoes from BÄR so unique.
Christof Bär: Through our experience and the 40 years we have already spent working with feet, with Toe freedom, and with the positive effects on the body, we keep coming back to this topic: The body has actually made sufficient provisions for us to move forward and lead a healthy life. Yet we now squeeze our feet into shoes that no longer reflect this. That is the major difference compared with the wide range of shoes available. Even with barefoot shoes, it is often not taken into account that we have a masterpiece of engineering that carries the body's greatest weight on the smallest area. The strain is therefore extreme, and this is often neglected. Here we see a foot skeleton with ligaments and tendons, and back here we see the thickest bone: the heel, which has an important function. When I step down, I need a strong bone that, enclosed by the fat layer and the thick layer of skin, provides cushioning. In other words, when I make a shoe, I should take into account that the main impact occurs back here. I can see that clearly from the bone. This means that the shoe also needs a certain amount of cushioning or stability at the back to ensure this.
Dr. Claudia Schulz: I think both are needed. Cushioning alone would also be problematic, and a shoe that is too soft does not provide enough support.
Christof Bär: Exactly right. Sometimes you see people walking ahead of you, wobbling very unstably. At some point, that is no longer sustainable from a health perspective. And things can easily happen. You can twist your ankle because the foot is not being guided. Very few people know this, and this is what we repeatedly try to communicate and provide through our shoes. Returning to the skeleton: In between, we see the long bones, which are partially concealed by these muscles, but these are bones that should not buckle. Here, I transfer the body's weight forward via a lever at this angle, and I need guidance. Guidance in the sense of the Archraiser mentioned briefly earlier, which provides stability here. Not by creating something like a wooden box and saying, “You have to stay inside this,” but by saying that I can somewhat bundle and stabilize the natural line here with the firm bone, or make it wider, while in any case not ignoring the fact that the softest part of the sole is located here. That would be wrong; this is where I need stability. Then, at the front—and for me, this is the most fascinating part—we see how small these bones are. Underneath them, we have even smaller bones through which the nerve bands pass. But when they are missing or inflamed, the pressure goes directly onto the nerves. This means that, when walking, I can do an incredible amount of damage with the body's weight on these small bones. A lot can be damaged, and when I know that, the question is naturally always how I can counteract it. I counteract it by activating the foot muscles. These small bones have to balance. They have to move forward. The foot lands on the heel. It rolls down over the ball of the foot, and during that time the weight rests on the toes. Now I am already initiating the next step and have to use these bones at the front to move my body in the right direction. I only need these small bones, which very gently balance the gait and the body in the right direction, and these are the ones in the toes. If you constrict them, I reduce their function. If I force the big toe in that direction, I no longer have a lever at the front. In practice, I buckle here beforehand, and that is precisely what we take into account with our Toe freedom. Looking at the foot now, you can clearly see that I have guidance at the back through the heel. When it is guided forward, I have stability in this area, and that is the difference compared with many other shoes that are far too soft in this area and do not guide the foot or support the arch. Here at the front, with our Toe freedom, I can allow each individual toe to perform and vary its function. If this area is too flat, without a certain degree of flexibility, I prevent the foot from carrying out its function. This is where medical conditions originate. This is exactly where we have the expertise to say: There is a lot on the market, and people talk a lot about comfort and about how soft shoes are. But the foot does not need a bed of down; it needs something that enables it to establish secure contact with the ground in order to truly carry this body weight on the body's smallest area, so to speak. Once you understand this and apply a little physics to shoemaking, our shoes rank relatively high by comparison with those made by many manufacturers who give it no thought. Of course, people often say that this is the best shoe because it is the most beautiful, but in terms of function, we often do ourselves no favors, and that is where we specialize.
Dr. Claudia Schulz: Cushioning, dynamics, and guidance—that sums it up. So you really need all three aspects.
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