32.881678,-111.854982,Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona,
USA

As some Oz Report readers are aware I like to go barefoot. I like
to walk around barefoot. I like to bicycle barefoot. I like to fly barefoot,
especially in Florida, Georgia and Maryland. I have also flown barefoot in Texas
and Arizona. Both in the past and recently.

While I like to fly barefoot I have another reason to do so. I fly in a Wills
Wing Covert harness with a moderately raked boot that keeps my toes pointed.
There isn't much room for shoes or boots or feet in this boot. If I'm barefoot I
have the room I need. If I wear shoes, I find that I don't have enough room for
my feet to be comfortable. I press on one big toe or the other and after a week
of competition I'll find that I have a discolored big toe and during flight I
have to deal with sore toes.

So even though the ground in Texas and Arizona is not nearly as friendly as what
you find on the east coast, I felt that it was better to fly barefoot there so
that I could concentrate on flying without dealing with painful toes in flight
(maybe just later on the ground). Of course, it would be better to have shoes
that would work with the harness and provide some protection on landing.

While I often ride my road or mountain bike with bike shoes I do have one
bicycle that has comfort pedals and I enjoy riding it barefoot. This August
while in McCall, Idaho I decided to take my barefoot bike (http://www.bikes.com/en/bikes/soul-29/2014
- with slick tires) around Payette Lakes, a twenty mile ride. The bike was
perfect for the ride with few climbs and a five mile stretch of sand and gravel.

I really enjoyed the rides,
http://www.strava.com/activities/184882471, and did one of these every three
days, doing road and mountain bike rides on the other two days. After a couple
of weeks I noticed that my fourth toe on my left foot would hurt, just a little.
It had never hurt before, and I've ridden barefoot a lot, but never long rides
like these.

My two outer toes on both feet on curled in. This is due to the fact that like
most of you I had to wear shoes when I was young (despite the fact that my
mother preferred to go barefoot). The toe box of these shoes was too small (just
like your shoes when you were young). The fourth toe is curled under the third
toe and the fifth toe under the fourth toe.
https://nwfootankle.com/foot-health/drill/4-dictionary/37-adductovarus-toe.

Didn't someone realized that the front of your foot is wider than the back and
center of your foot? Of course, now some shoe manufacturers realize that they
should make bigger toe boxes (Keen, for example).

I kept biking barefoot, but I kept feeling this little pain in my toe and I
wanted to fix the problem. That meant separating the toes. I needed to keep the
fourth toe away from the third toe and not under it.

I had previously worn Vibram Fivefingers shoes. In fact, I wore my
current pair a couple of days at the 2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race in
September. I had given away my first pair to Mitch Shipley as they seemed to be
too small. The current pair is too long so it causes problems in the boot of the
harness.

Vibram Fivefingers shoes have separate toes, so they separate your toes. When I
ride the barefoot bike with them, my toe doesn't hurt. But I needed a pair that
would fit in my harness.

But, I've got a problem. My feet are EE wide. That's why my current pair of
Vibram Fivefingers are too long. I had to get a bigger sized pair in order to be
able to put them on my feet and get my toes into the shoe's toes. In the smaller
shoes, 42 cm sized shoes that are recommended by Vibram Fivefingers for my feet
at 10.75" long, they were too tight at the wide area just behind my toes. I
couldn't even get my toes started into the shoe's toes as my foot couldn't go
any further forward.

So yesterday I went to REI to try on some Vibram Fivefingers and what I was
really interested to see if they had a pair that I thought might work for me. A
pair of women's shoes used for yoga (or so they are marketed):
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Alitza-Womans.htm?activity=casual.
I was interested because there was no material in the way of the toes.

I tried on the largest pair, size 42. They fit, but the bands were tight. My
toes were at the end of the toes of the shoes. They were a little loose at the
heals. As soon as I got home I cut off the straps:

The shoes fit great and they certainly won't take up any more room in my harness
boot than my feet. Also I've already ridden over twenty miles with them, no toe
pain. They look funny. They feel great. The less shoes the better.

I am going to check out another different Vibram Fivefingers shoe that is
supposed to be good for people with wide feet:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CQRTOW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
Other wide foot barefoot shoes are linked to here:
http://www.myminimalistrunningshoes.com/minimalist-shoes-for-wide-feet/