3 minimalist shoes compared

I've been on the hunt for new minimalist running shoes and minimalist work shoes (full story). Thankfully my work shoes can be athletic shoes and I'm not restricted to dressier shoes.

For running shoes, I asked for the advice of an extreme runner friend of mine (who runs barefoot/minimally) and he suggested Soft Star DASH RunAmoc - a handmade extremely minimalist shoe. A year or so ago he let me try them on and I was impressed with how comfortable they were even compared to my Vibram FiveFingers, so it was a no-brainer to me to exclusively try these first (although I opted for the lite version with perforations since my feet generally stay pretty warm) . I ordered a size 12 as suggested by their sizing chart, but it turns out they were way too long. I called them up and they suggest I try a size 11. I'm still waiting on this exchange, but one thing is for certain they felt extremely comfortable.

Soft Star DASH RunAmoc Lite

Too big.

So I think my actual running shoe is decided (at least I hope).

Further from being decided are my work shoes. I have historically had a difficult time buying shoes, mostly because my foot is wide and stores usually don't carry wides in my size. Couple that with my new constraint that it must also be minimalist and this makes it even more difficult. I tried one store, but came up empty handed, so I went online.

I started doing some research to see what was out there. At first I checked out the bigger name brands like New Balance since I had been wearing their shoes and they have fit me well, but I found many smaller companies that were dedicated to minimalist shoes. My list ended up looking like this:

• Merrell Run Trail Glove
• New Balance Minimus Zero
• Vivobarefoot Aqua Lite (or other style)
• Feelmax Osma 2
• Inov-8 Bare-X 180
• Lems Primal 2
• Soft Star DASH RunAmoc with Leather Sole

At a minimum (no pun intended), I wanted zero drop (front and back of the shoe are the same height), thin flexible soles (the less cushion the better), no support, and of course wide enough for my wide feet. Of all of the shoes in the list, only the Merrell, New Balance, and Soft Star had wide options, but generally minimalist shoes are wide to begin to give room for the toes to spread naturally, so I didn't immediately rule any of the others out because of that. This was my process of elimination: 

1. The Trail Glove's are designed for trail running not sitting in an office, so I eliminated them
2. The Vivobarefoot's seemed to have mixed reviews regarding their durability. Due to their high cost and in my opinion pretty ugly styles, I opted to pass.
3. I think I would have liked trying the Feelmax shoe, but they are based out of Finland so getting them would have been difficult and potentially expensive if I had to return them.

I liked the looks of the Lems Primal 2s so I decided to give the a try first. In addition, since the Inov-8s were available on Zappo.com, I opted to also give them a try. At around the same time I placed the order for my running shoes as well, and after waiting impatiently all three arrived at around the same time:

From left to right: Inov-8 Bare-X 180, Soft Star DASH RunAmoc Lite,
Lems Primal 2

The short story is that unfortunately I will be shipping all of them back, but here are thoughts and comparisons of each of them:

Inov-8 Bare-X 180

I knew when I ordered these that they would likely not be wide enough. Not only did some reviews mention this, but they just don't look very wide in photos either, but since they were available on Zappos I didn't have much to lose in trying them so I went ahead. They weren't wide enough. It's difficult to get a good feel for other aspects of a shoe that isn't wide enough. They felt the most comfortable to me with the insoles removed - perhaps because they give a little extra room in the shoe, but also because it makes them thinner and lighter. They felt ok otherwise. In comparison to the Lems and Soft Stars they were the least comfortable to me. The quality of the shoe seemed good.

Lems Primal 2

I really tried to make these shoes work as I really like the style. Although they claim to have the "widest toe box on the market" they weren't quite wide enough for me. They were close, but my foot filled the entire width of the shoe with no room to spare. I could especially notice it when walking as my toes couldn't spread any further, but even when not walking my little toe especially just wasn't comfortable as it was ever so slightly being pushed inward by the edge of the shoe. I was disappointed. Again, the shoes were most comfortable to me with the insoles removed giving a more close to the ground feel. I will note that the shoe seemed to have a slight drop - it probably doesn't in reality, but there's just something about the sole design in the heel that made it seem like it did. The heel seemed more firm and thicker than the rest of the sole. Perhaps I'm just used to the FiveFingers. I found these shoes to be more comfortable than the Bare-X 180s, but less so than the Soft Stars. The quality seemed good. I sincerely hope that Lems produces a wider shoe in the future as I would definitely give them another try.

Soft Star DASH RunAmoc Lite

As mentioned above, these are for running not work, but I'll still compare them. Hands down these were the most comfortable shoe of the three. This is likely because they are also the widest and fit my width well, but they were also very light and had the best ventilation of the three as well. They also seemed to be well made.

I liked the Soft Stars so much that I decided to give the leather soled version a try next. Although I don't like the look of them quite as much for a work shoe, "form follows function" - I'd rather wear a comfortable shoe. I'll post my thoughts on them once I get them - I have high hopes!