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remember the hype? the propaganda? the rhetoric? the claims for all the evidence (that never really existed)? the claims of what barefoot running was going to do and achieve? etc etc? I even recall one claim that barefoot running was going to put podiatry out of business, when in reality it was a stimulus at the peak of the global economic crisis!; the nasty hate mail?

Attached is the latest Google trends for the interest in 'barefoot running': - its just about back down to where it was in 2009 ....

Runners have simply lost interest in; it did not deliver for them what was promised.
Sales figures for minimalist running shoes have declined steadily since 2013 --> runners have voted with their feet.
I recall calling it in mid 2013 by saying, 'I sense a disturbance in the force' ... that looks about right.
The super max cushioned Hoka's now massively outsell the entire minimalist category ... you know those shoes that the barefoot/minimalist fanboys called clown shoes, a joke and would amount to nothing! .... how wrong did they get that prediction?

 

Craig and Colleagues:

Five years I made a prediction here on Podiatry Arena about the barefoot running fad:

http://www.podiatry-arena.com/podiatry-forum/showthread.php?t=43282&page=5

Has my prediction now come true?:cool:

 

...and remember the heat you took for that prediction?

I read on the Natural Running Center the other day that there will be another boom in barefoot/minimalism in 5-7 yrs. I would love to WTF they are basing that on? They were also the ones that predicted the Hoka's would fail .. that one did not work out for them, yet they think that there will be a minimalism boom in 5-7 yrs! .... like so much on that site, they just make stuff up to suit their narrative and just wish it was true ..... ie the wishful thinking fallacy.

Look at their essays on how they rationalize the decline in minimalism .... they just can't bring themselves to admit they were wrong with what was going to happen.

 

I'd have thought 5-7 years would be too soon- there will still be enough people who will remember it from this time around.

I did get a lot out of the hype though (including a couple of patients ;) ). The discussions it prompted made me think and that's always welcome.

 

I for one really enjoyed the whole barefoot thing ( not for patients ) but there was much really interesting discussions ( among some terrible) But I still think Leg stiffness is important.

What I would like to know is the next step is being able to closer predict those that will do better in the maximal shoes and those the will do better running with nothing,


So while cure all still makes most laugh it was not all bad ;)

 

There is no doubt that we have learnt a lot during all this. I have a whole section of the Boot Camps where I go through what we learnt from from it all.

 

Craig:

I suppose I never felt "the heat". I did, however, feel the frustration for all the runners who got injured because they actually believed all the hype coming from the barefoot/minimalist shoe/anti-rearfoot striking running zealots including Chris McDougall, Dan Lieberman, Blaise Dubois and Irene Davis. The good news is that all these people who once supported the barefoot/minimalist/anti-rearfoot striking fad (those just listed plus numerous others) are now being looked at with much more skepticism than they were five years ago. It's very welcome to have a little more normalcy and intelligent discussion occur since the nonsense and rubbish which the zealots preached for years is now vanishing rapidly into oblivion.:cool:

 

I love the google graph. May I please pretty please pinch that to use?

 

To graph is a few years old. Have a more recent one here:
http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/barefoot-running-vs-minimalist-running-shoes-vs-hoka-one-one/