Who Should Wear WEAK shoes?
​
WEAK shoes are for people with strong, healthy feet.
Don’t do anything in WEAK shoes which you wouldn’t already do barefoot. If you normally wear traditional, supportive, or orthotic footwear you will need to transition slowly to minimalist footwear.
If you can get by barefoot… That’s probably best. But, if you have to wear shoes, wear WEAK shoes.
What makes a shoe WEAK?
Every shoe applies a multitude of forces to your feet. Those forces could be supportive, like an arch support or heel cup. They could be compressive, like tight laces or a narrow toe box. None of these shoe-imposed forces are present when you are barefoot.
WEAK shoes are designed to minimize these forces. Giving your feet/toes room to move, flex, and splay as they would unshod.
WEAK shoes are strong where it counts. Featuring a robust construction from durable materials. The CORDURA upper is rated to 160x the duty cycles of other cotton canvas.
How do WEAK shoes Fit and Break-In?
Traditional shoes force your feet to conform to their design. WEAK shoes are designed to conform to your feet.
WEAK shoes fit better the longer you wear them and the more you beat them up.
It may take 5 miles or more of wear to fully break in your WEAK shoes.
Can I ‘roll up’ WEAK Shoes the way I see many minimalist shoes demoed?
We’ve yet to see a person who can touch the top of their arch with the bottom of their big toe… But, that does sound like a fun party trick.
WEAK shoes include specific flexion zones which mold and adjust to your feet.
Rolling up your WEAK shoes can cause suboptimal break-in or debonding of components not designed to exceed the flexion of normal human anatomy.
Will the Ripton's foxing tape debond or split like other vulcanized shoes?
The Ripton has been lab tested using the SATRA TM92 standard for “Resistance of footwear to flexing.” The shoes withstood our test’s maximum of 80000 flexions with no foxing tape splitting or debonding.
The Ripton’s vulcanized construction offers a number of advantages. The shoe has a completely flat sole which we believe transmits more (and more accurate) ground feel than cup sole shoes. Additionally, the foxing tape and sole break-in to match the wearer’s foot and gait.
That said, all shoes eventually wear out. The high-mileage test shoes we have with split foxing tape are incredibly comfortable.