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[Sappho]

I've finally gotten around to making myself a pair of huaraches from spare rubber, after two miserable weeks of wearing non-barefoot sandals which left me with several blisters and very unhappy feet. The soles of my feet feel much better, but I've got a new problem: the lace that goes between my toes hurts like a motherfucker.

I tie the sandals using this method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bqkPAWVTLA

I'm not talking about discomfort or blistering. It's like it's jammed into a nerve and the pain radiates along my whole foot, especially around the toes. I've always had this problem with any kind of "thong" sandals. It's like my foot tends to push forward really hard while I walk, so that strap is just stabbing into a nerve. It's so painful that I can barely walk.

It's not an issue of them being tied too tight. There's plenty of room for my heel to slide back, but no matter how often I try to move my foot back where it's supposed to be and no matter how much I try to walk without letting my foot slide forward, it always happens.

It's definitely not an issue of the sandals being poorly made, either, because this has always happened to me with thong sandals, even store-bought ones.

So, does anyone know how to fix this? Why it's happening at all? I know many people feel pain when they wear thong sandals, but does it get better? If I just "tough it out" will the pain go away? The fact that it affects my whole foot and persists for a while even after I take the sandals off worries me.

If there's no way to fix it, does anyone know another way to tie barefoot sandals / huaraches without going between the toes?

[Vector]

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[Sappho]

I've been wearing exclusively barefoot shoes (and walking barefoot the rest of the time) for over a year now, and most of my childhood I went barefoot as well. So I don't think that's the problem. Actually, I do have one problem that might contribute: sweaty feet. It's awful. I always have hot, sweaty feet, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. Wearing shoes (rather than sandals) in weather over 20 C or so (something like 70 F) leads to such discomfort that it actually hurts. There have been times I've ripped off my shoes on the street because I just had to get some air on my feet. It's disgusting and embarrassing and even putting antiperspirant on my feet doesn't help for more than an hour or so.

Today while wearing my new huaraches, I could feel my feet sliding around on the rubber because of the sweat. I wonder if that's why my feet always jam forward. I had tried to get the lacing tight enough that my feet wouldn't move, but that just meant the piece between my toes was pushed in there even harder. I guess I'll have to try gluing some fabric or something rougher to them and see if that helps.

Still open to other suggestions. I feel like trying to hold on to the thong with my toes is counterproductive to wearing barefoot sandals in the first place, though. I'm supposed to be able to walk naturally without being aware of the shoes. Clenching your toes and such disrupts the natural movement, doesn't it?

It's hours later now and my toes still hurt. : (

[DJ]

If the rubber is slippery from sweat, try covering it with cotton cloth or something.
*edit* I fail at reading comprehension

Oh well, if it's really hitting a nerve, maybe try moving the cord so it's between different toes.

[Vector]

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[Sappho]

Thanks for the replies. The toe-loop still has something between your toes, so that won't fix the problem, unfortunately. And yeah, barefoot sandals are not supposed to require any effort to wear. Try tying yours in the traditional way (see the video I linked in the first post) and you'll probably notice a big difference in comfort. The idea is that your foot is free to do its thing without having to deal with the shoes; it's just a layer of rubber or leather between you and the ground to keep you from getting cut up on glass or whatever.

I guess I'll try sticking some cloth on there and see if that helps. If that fails, I'll try to devise a different way of tying them. I've seen methods that go over the toes entirely, though I'm not sure how well they really work when it comes to holding your foot in place, especially when running (which is what I plan to do in them).

Actually, I'm considering finding some old soft leather or heavy canvas and using that for the sole. That way my foot won't slip around so much, and they'll also be easier to make. The rubber I'm using now is from a door mat (only flat piece of rubber I could find), and it keeps tearing because it's not designed for this sort of thing. One day of use and I'm already having to glue up a few places. I've had my eyes open for discarded tires for a long time now, but there just aren't that many people who drive around here. Maybe I should take a hike to the recycling center nearest me and try to figure out how to ask them to give me an old tire in Czech... The looks I get in response to that ought to be interesting.

The alternative is I could go buy a pair of commercially made barefoot sandals, but the only ones that I've been able to find in this country are hideous and - of course - also go between the toes: http://www.trailpoint.cz/vivobarefoot-achilles-ii-l-black/

[nenjin]

I used to love thong sandals as a kid but I seem to recall having the same problem. Plus, no backstrap, I'd always be falling out of them. So I gave them up for a decent pair of ankle strapped sandals with a backstrap. Haven't ever missed thong sandals since. I too also have pretty sweaty feet.

[Sappho]

If you look at the video I posted, the way I'm tying them, most of the lacing goes around the ankles. These are not flip-flops. The problem is that my foot pushes forward so hard that the ankle lacing isn't enough to stop them from jamming against the piece between my toes. The tips of my toes even tend to slide over the front edge of the sandals, leaving a huge gap at the back.

Even when I have sandals which don't go between the toes, my feet slide forward over the front edge of the sandals. I have to strap them on super-tight to get them to stay, and then they tend to hurt my feet because they're too tight. The only ones that ever worked in the past were ones with two wide straps on the top of the foot. They're more like a shoe with large holes in the top than a sandal. My foot stays put in those, but since I've been wearing barefoot shoes I can't wear them because they hurt my feet, as well as my knees and back, because of the way the sole is constructed.

I wonder if I could find a way to make straps like that on my huaraches... Maybe if I poke more holes along the sides and tie the laces over the front of my feet after doing the ankle part, they'd stay put...

[Bauglir]

If you've got a pair of the now-unwearable ones, you might consider cannibalizing them for parts. Specifically, cut off the straps and poke some holes in the ends so that you can strap them onto your wearable ones, maybe?

[Sappho]

Son of a bitch... I've spent hours preparing these stupid things, and now the holes are all ripping right through to the edge. They're completely falling apart. This rubber is useless for making sandals. After I spent almost two hours shaving off all the rubber nubs from the doormat, I have to just chuck it all in the trash. I'm ready to throw something across the room.

There has to be somewhere I can find better rubber for this. I keep seeing instructables and whatnot about people using car mats, but I have been looking for a flat rubber car mat for nearly a year and never seen one. There just aren't that many people with cars here. They're not in demand. The only car mats I've seen have fur or something on them.

I'm going to the big secondhand clothes store near me now, and looking for something made of heavy leather that I can cut up. Or at least some heavy canvas. And of course, on the way I'll have to wear my store-bought sandals, which will make my blisters worse. Wheeeeee.

Why is this so fucking complicated? I can't even order those "make your own barefoot sandals" kits, because the shipping cost to send them here is ridiculous. How can it possibly be so difficult to strap a piece of rubber to my feet?

[DJ]

Do you have any old purses you never wear any more? A lot of those seem to made of fairly sturdy leather. Just double it up if it's too thin.

[Sappho]

I have never owned a purse in my life. However, I did find a leather jacket at the secondhand shop. It's huge, plenty of material there. Actually, I'm not sure if it's real leather or not (I've never owned anything leather), but hopefully it'll be tough enough to hold up. Only 100 kc (about $5)! I'll try making a pair from that material later today. Wish me luck...

[LordSlowpoke]

good luck, post progress pics if you can

i am actually interested in how you would produce sandals

[Vector]

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[Sappho]

It doesn't hurt right away, actually. It starts to hurt after a few minutes, then the pain builds up until I can't even walk normally and have to either kick off the shoes or limp around.

So it turns out that when you cut up a leather jacket, the actual leather is extremely thin. The thickness and heaviness of these things are because there are two layers of leather with some insulation in between them. To get a proper barefoot feel (and to avoid hours of sewing), I'm going with just one layer for now. Actually, the paracord is turning out to be overkill for something so light and thin. I tried traditional tying and it was definitely better than with the rubber ones, but still after a few minutes it started to hurt. So I'm going to move the holes a bit so the sandals are super-loose, and replace the paracord with an old light shoelace or long strip of leather. The sandals are so light, it shouldn't do much harm - I don't need much force to keep them on.

On the other hand, because they're so light and thin, they tend to flop around where they're not attached to my feet. I'm considering two ways to deal with this. The first would be traditional tying PLUS an extra lace that just goes over my toes to keep the leather from flapping around. The other is to tie them in a different way, criss-crossing over my feet so they're attached in several places at the front and back.

As requested, here are a few pics:

My workstation with abandoned rubber:


The leather jacket:


Completed first try at leather sandals:


Bonus shot of my cat sleeping on the remains of the leather jacket:


EDIT: Success! I have found a way to tie them that works great and is comfortable. I took a lot of pictures while tying them, and I'll post them soon with an explanation of how to make these in case anyone else wants to try. It's actually very easy and EXTREMELY cheap, not to mention far healthier for your feet than anything you might buy in the store. All you need is something leather that you can cut up (easy to find something at a goodwill or secondhand store) and two pairs of shoelaces, as well as scissors and something to poke holes with. And I actually find that tying the laces is really fun. I've done it so many times now with all my failures that I'm a real expert! But now that they're done they'll slip on and off, so I won't need to do it again unless a lace breaks (not likely, since they don't touch the ground like they do with the traditional between-the-toe lacing).