Barefoot in Poland

I'm still looking for good stuff to report about barefooting in Poland.

Certainly, barefoot running is well established there. This past May, a barefoot 10K was held in the famed Polish capital of Warsaw, on May 5-Interantional Barefoot Running Day, to be exact.

There were positive comments about the event, but not too much was said.

Barefoot models are plentiful and photographed in good taste, as we can see from the photo below by Alksander Kurganov although "Kurga"as the photographer calls himself, is based in Russia, so we ca't verify if this shot came from Russia or Poland. We encountered an ad by the popular shoe maker Mizuno that is aimed at a Polish audience which hits the popular points of ht barefoot running debate, such as fear of broken glass and splinters and the need to change one's stride once the running shoes come off and the runner starts to run naturally.

Mizuno makes quite a few different shoes, most of which are of the typical design, with a thick, padded heel and a sole shaped like a banana. Famous barefoot runner Michael Sandler, author of Barefoot Running and Barefoot Walking (co-authored by Jessica Lee-Sandler) says 75% of shoe buyers are unsatisfied with this typical design, regardless of the maker.

Michael Sandler with Jessica Lee-Sandler

Sandler said that shoe company marketing representatives blatantly admitted to him that they are fully aware that 75% of their customers are unsatisfied with the current design of most running shoes. Sander is rather critical of the current attempts by most shoe companies to make barefoot running shoes, but then again, Sandler is the ultimate barefooter-when he's not running his usual 100 miles a week sans shoes, he's going barefoot wherever else he is going and so is his barefoot running wife, Jessica.