Why don't more women run barefoot?

Women are emerging as the leaders in fitness trends. Seventy percent of the participants at this year's Fitness on the Rocks-a huge fitness event in Colorado-were women. Program organizer David Summit says he's not sure why there aren't more men at the event, he just knows there are more women.


The ever-more-popular sport of running appears to have more women also, and we see stickers like "Runner Girl" on cars all over the place. But there's one trend that women aren't dominating as of now, and that's the popular trend of barefoot running.

I see a much larger number of guys in the Boulder Barefoot Running Club where I'm an organizer. The club was started by my friend Jessica Lee-Sandler shortly after she met Michael Sandler. Now she's president of Runbare Comany as well.

Some of my female friends would joke that men are just trying to stay in touch with their Neanderthal roots ad that's why they are more willing to run barefoot and get their soles dirty. As fro me, even though I go barefoot whenever I can, I still like shoes, and that's where I may hazard a guess on why more guys run barefoot.

We have far fewer choices for cool shoes. Guys never outgrow the desire be obnoxious form time to time. You have to be more selective about your obnoxiousness when you;re all grown up and acting responsible, that's where cool shoes come in. Bright, obnoxious ones that say "here I am (and here I go, flying past you in this race!)" and so on.


 I saw countless different kinds of running shoes for women at a Nike outlet in Loveland, CO last weekend. It was actually an outlet, by the way-honest-to-goodness real discounts. I found an extra wall of shoes for women in crazy colors-they could make guy colors for similar shoes, but they don't even make most of the shoes for guys, like the Bionic that you see above and the Hyperfeel that you see below. Both are designed for free foot movement. Fortunately, guys can get conventional Nike Frees, a decent minimalist running shoe.
So, I conclude that women are less inclined to run barefoot because there are so many cool running shoes for them to own. The only way a guy can make a statement with running shoes is to run with his shoes off! C'est La Vie!