So, as topic hints it, I am now on my way transforming into a barefooted runner – because I couldn’t find anymore a new running shoe to my preference.
A little background for this:
About two years back I started to witness odd foot problems, after only a few kilometers of running, my soles (or metatarsus) started to hurt. First I thought this was just caused by excessive training, but as it turned out, problems re arrived immediately even after some time off from running. Second guess for the cause was shoes – so I got myself a new pair but that didn’t help much either, it got better, but the pain still existed and came back after running for a while.
At the time, I was using some heavily shock absorbed (and very supportive) running shoes – as they were supposed to be ”the best”. As this episode caused almost a two months pause in running, I had plenty of time to read through Internet and various forums where I came up some interesting topics about similar issues. It was suggested in couple of threads (sorry, cannot find them anymore, so no reference) that similar pain had been caused by too supportive shoes – and because of that, muscles in soles were supposedly in a bad shape and that is why running would cause excessive stress – and thus the pain.
This seemed like a right conclusion so I got myself a pair of running shoes with very little shock absorption (only in heel), laced them loose (so the muscles in soles would have to actively work while walking) and started to experiment how it would turn out. It was suggested also that stepping with forefoot (or mid-foot) would be better style of running with mildly cushioned shoe, so I started to try that out at the same time.  Needless to say, the transformation was not instant nor fast, as this stresses muscle groups that had almost never been used before. I started with combined walking / jogging (stepping with forefoot) exercises with loosely laced shoes and it seemed that the pain would stay away.
(Note: Ofcourse this was partly caused by the fact that I was at the time also able to run more than before, because I was in a better shape overall due to active training.)

So on this road I still am, and now would have been time to find a new pair of shoes. I went through all the major large sports stores in region, and found only couple of pairs that would actually meet the specs, and found no pair that would fit! So it seems that only thing you can now get in the form of traditional running shoe, is a heavily shock absorbed model. During this hunt for the new shoes, I of course tried out number of different options and only thing I can say of these is that even walking in them makes me seasick due to the wobbly/jelly feel. Also, the shock absorption layers bend so much, that I’d quite surely break my ankle if I’d happen to land my feet in a bit of wrong position (uneven surface, jump, whatever).
Being desperate, and as I had seen some ads about these minimalist shoes, I decided I could try these out – it was anyway closer to what I had than any of the shock absorbed models I had tried. Even got a nice deal (Stockmann happened to have couple of pairs on discount), so I paid around 50euros for a pair of Merrell TraiGlove(s).

First impressions after only a ~10km of running – these are PERFECT! They fit awesomely, are insanely light and are rugged enough so I don’t have to watch my steps too carefully. I have never used running shoes without a sock before, and could still go barefooted in these without getting a blister. Cannot say yet if this was an ultimate running shoe for me or not – I’ll know that in few weeks after I’ve used them  a little bit more.
It seems there has been quite much of a hype or something around this minimalist shoe approach, mostly some nonsense that is it faster to run in such a way or not. Believe what you want to, in general there seems to be way too little of scientific studies of either. But what I want to underline from my own experience is that not pampering your legs unnecessarily can be good. Also I think there’s a long evolution behind how human feet is constructed, so that should also support the barefoot approach. I don’t race, so speed doesn’t matter. I run for my own enjoyment – and keeping myself in a shape.
I don’t run on tarmac (I hate it!), so my favourite track is gravel/sand roads or paths in varying terrain. If you have a similar place to run on – I highly recommend trying these out.