These armed socks (I don’t know what else to call them) took my mind back to many years ago. I once even wrote about a pair of metal mesh “footwear” aptly named “Paleo Barefoot,” meaning something so ancient in aesthetics and function as to be Paleolithic. Or maybe at the time there was also the paleo diet fad (does it still exist?) and so as a name to the marketing people it must have seemed ingenious. They actually looked like medieval footwear.
In short: when I saw these FYF – #FreeYourFeet I felt like déjà-vu: it felt like Paleo Barefoot but updated, as if they had leapt from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Not just socks
Of course, FYF are not just any cotton socks: they are partly cotton and partly (especially in the plant, which is reinforced because it is in contact with the ground) made of a polyethylene fiber called Dyneema that promises to be 15 times stronger than steel. The problem of perforation caused by blunt objects is thus overcome, so much so that FYF- are proposed for various disciplines: from climbing to surfing, from trekking to running, in fact.
Regarding running, I dare to raise an eyebrow: their shape (which is then that of a foot) is reminiscent of Vibram’s Five Fingers that still have many fans. Unlike these, however, they are much less cushioned-how little the Five Fingers are-not to say that they are not cushioned at all. Using them for running in short requires a fairly uncommon and highly trained muscular structure of the foot, on pain of almost certain injury.
Their uses are therefore limited to sports that require maintaining maximum sensitivity between the foot and the surface on which the sport is played, whether it is a surfboard or a rock face.
Otherwise, they promise superhero armor-like resistance to puncture, remarkable grip thanks to a thousand microgrooves in the sole, and a remarkable degree of waterproofness.
They do not come cheap, even being a product that, despite its extreme simplicity, has a significant technological component regarding the use of materials: they cost $80 a pair and can be found in the Barefoot Company store.
Surely between your feet and Mother Nature’s earth there could be no less material, as long as you are not walking barefoot, of course.