It’s no secret that some of us at Gear Diary are big fans of shoes like Vibram Five Fingers. But VFFs are far from the only minimalist shoes available! These days it seems like every major running company has a minimal shoe in their lineup, and there are dozens of small shoemakers all trying to carve out a place in this new niche. Unfortunately, unless you’re lucky enough to live near a major city or a very progressive running store, you need to turn to the internet to figure out what shoe might work for your minimal running adventures. It used to be a haphazard experience, googling away for any reviews you could find…until now.
Toe Salad is a site devoted entirely to minimalist footwear reviews, forums, etc. It’s a spinoff/brainchild of the site Adventure In Progress, where you can read Damien’s ridiculously detailed and educational series on minimalist footwear (an excellent starting point if you’re new to the concept). The best part is that Toe Salad is user-driven, so you can read what other people are using, check out what’s worked and hasn’t, and look for tips on picking out the right footwear for you. And it doesn’t have to be just about running shoes, or just about hiking shoes. From Adventure In Progress, where Toe Salad was first announced:
- I love testing shoes. I will never get to test every pair of minimalist shoes on the market. As much as I would like to, it is just not possible, or practical. I want to be a good resource and I would like to make it easier for people to find the information and reviews they need.
- I don’t want to get caught-up in the hype of always having to be the first one to review a new product. While there is a certain value in being able to do that, it is very fleeting. I would like whatever my contributions are to the minimalist footwear realm to be of lasting value to people.
- While I do consider myself a shoe geek, I am certainly not the only one. There are many people (believe it or not, some even smarter than me!) who have good things to say on the topic of minimalist footwear. I would like to make their voices heard.
- I get questions all the time about what shoes I think would be best for a specific activity. I don’t always have the answer, but I would like to make it easier for people to find it.
- Runners are fanatical about their shoes and could talk about them for hours. As a result, there are a lot of running-related blogs out there dedicated to minimalist shoes. There needs to be a resource available to people that encompasses more than just running. ADVENTUREinPROGRESS is primarily about the outdoors, so that isn’t the right place either.
After rattling these thoughts around in my head for far too long, I finally decided to do something about it. The end result is Toe Salad.
The best part: Toe Salad has a number of shoes to give away, and all you need to do to enter is sign up for the site and start participating! So head over, check it out, and help kickstart a great new resource online!