#412 Resolving Back Pain with Barefoot: Why I switched from “normal shoes” and my favorite brands with Christa Biegler, RD

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This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I’m talking about how switching from traditional “normal” shoes to barefoot and transitional footwear helped me resolve my own back pain—and how you can safely make the change, too.

If you’ve ever dealt with nagging back, knee, hip, or foot pain, this episode is for you! I share what “barefoot shoes” really are (and what they’re not), how heel drop and shoe shape can impact your body mechanics, and the brands I love most—from budget-friendly finds to long-lasting options.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why traditional shoes can contribute to back and knee pain
• What makes barefoot and “foot-shaped” shoes different
• How to safely transition without injuring yourself
• My personal favorite barefoot and transitional shoes (some under $30!)
• Options for adults and kids, including those with flat feet, bunions, or foot pain

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Strong feet = a strong foundation for your entire body
• You don’t have to go all-in on barefoot shoes right away—start with transitional options
• Many great shoes now cost $20–$30 instead of $120+
• A wide toe box and zero-drop sole make a world of difference
• Strengthening your feet can improve posture, agility, and reduce pain

Christa’s favorite barefoot & transitional shoe brands:

Budget-friendly:

• Whittens (Amazon) – under $40, multiple styles
• ZYEN (Amazon) – slip-on sneaker, ~$20
• JBU water shoes – great for rivers, summer wear

Everyday & transitional:

• Merrell Trail Glove (more cushion, good starter)
• Merrell Vapor Glove (thinner sole, more barefoot feel)
• Flux – attractive everyday styles, thick sole (good for concrete)
• Storehouse Flats – ballet flats for dressier wear

Long-lasting investment brands:

• Groundies (Christa’s personal favorite overall)
• Lems – casual & mountaineering looks
• Xero – sandals, boots, casual shoes
• Wildlings – ultra-flexible, thin sole (best for mild conditions)

Kids & wide feet:

• Merrell Trail Glove kids
• Whittens boots & tennis shoes
• Xero Chelsea boots (great for flat feet)

Other brands to consider:

• VivoBarefoot – very popular for flat feet
• Bed Stu sandals – zero-drop and cute but slippery on stone

❓Questions for Christa? Submit it here: https://www.christabiegler.com/questions

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

SPONSOR:
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Transcript

[00:00:00] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On the show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.
 
One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.
 
Hey, welcome to the show today. I have wanted to do this episode for well over a year because I know this is something that's been really transformational for my life and something, anytime someone brings up, foot or back or knee pain, I always just wanna recommend strengthening the foot to resolve that.
 
It's just. It's, I'm absolutely not a physical therapist, a foot specialist. I'm just like a curious nerd who's experimented a lot and it's been transformational and it's one of those like side things I get very excited about and I wanna share with people. So I've been wanting to do this forever just because I have purchased, returned and used a lot of different types of these kind of different sort of barefoot shoes that are really gaining traction.
 
We'll clarify what I mean by that in a moment, because I might. Be using that word a little bit flexibly, but I was thinking especially as we're getting back to school times, it would be very nice for you to hear, and part of the too long didn't listen, is a lot of my favorite shoes are now like 20 to 30 bucks instead of 120 bucks.
 
And so I'll kinda walk through that whole transition and. And all of that. So first of all, I wanna just clarify what I mean by barefoot shoes because we have these stereotypes in our head. I don't mean just like barefoot, I don't mean barefoot walking at all. A foot shaped toe box that is shaped more like a foot.
 
I'm gonna. I have a pile of shoes here on a cart next to me. And, sorry, they're dirty. I live in the middle of I live on dirt roads, so my shoes are not clean. And I didn't clean them for you. Sorry. So gross. I agree. So they're foot shaped tow box, and then they have a flexible sole like this, and then they have a zero drop.
 
So if you're listening today, which I think you're the best. If you are listening, we do have a video version of this on YouTube. So today, more than ever, I will be using visuals as I talk through this. So I'm just holding up this shoe and demonstrating that there's a zero drop. There's actually no heel. A common misconception is to think that our normal tennis shoes don't have a heel, and I didn't bring, I have one pair.
 
Abnormal tennis shoes in my mud room. I didn't bring up, but they usually have at least like a quarter inch heel. And so what happens with that slight heel shift is that it creates this little tiny arch in your lower back that's just body mechanics. And for me it was creating some back pain.
 
wasn't like hurting my life necessarily. I'll get to that story in a moment, but, you know what can happen is you'll get that little arch in the lower back, or if you have non foot shaped shoes, which I do have some of those, 'cause I use them, sometimes they're not, these are not super narrow and that's why I get away with them.
 
But if they're a little more pointy, you can have these squished toes and get things like bunions and just like weak feet that don't have very good muscle. And so we have these weak foot muscles that create. Potential foot pain, lots of different foot issues, right? Bunions, maybe plantar fasciitis, ankle pain, knee pain, hip pain, back pain because your feet are the actual foundation.
 
And so a strong foot, I've got all these fun little tools you can use literally a tennis ball and roll around on your feet to start to support that strengthening. That's one thing. But I just, I'm pretty, pretty obsessed with this topic, and here's why. One summer many years ago, I wore a lot of a Birkenstock style sandal, like these.
 
At the time they only had 'em like that. Now they've got all these like $10 ones everywhere. So a Birkenstock style sandal, which a purist would say that is not barefoot, but it has a zero drop foot sole. And then it had plenty of toe room and I was wearing ballet flats most of the time. And so I had this like very minor, but nagging lower back pain that would disappear.
 
And I only noticed it because on the days that I wore tennis shoes, I had a little more pain. Now I had already disregarded this pain to being caused. By carrying around small children when my two youngest were younger, just like picking them and by carrying them around. But I was a little bit mind blowing when I accidentally adopted this zero drop footbed and I got to see what I saw.
 
So I also, I don't know what the transition of events were or the, how they all manifested, but I I think I already was a little bit familiar with the concept of this from just. Being a researcher and kind of digging into crunchy health topics, but I ended up reading Katie Bowman's book, whole Body Barefoot.
 
It's a really tiny book. It's mostly pictures and exercises for your feet. I remember reading it like on the way to the movie one day, and so you just, it was very fast to read. Totally recommend it and not to judge a book by its cover there. But the result was that I started doing things that strengthened the muscles in my feet.
 
I didn't have back pain. And what I really loved about it was these types of shoes and this experience meant I was more agile. I feel more like a mountain goat on like a rocky hike, so if I'm hiking and there's this hike I love to do, and there's a lot of creek crossings, and I don't worry about falling because my foot just hugs that.
 
Little slippery rock in the type of shoes I'm in. But anytime I was wearing a normal, like even a keen will have this big old protective foot and there's all kinds of details around this, like where my husband needs protective shoes for different things in his job. But, these are all like unique circumstances that we have to discern through for ourselves of course.
 
But when I had this sort of big. I'll call it a lip, I dunno, like this toe, rubber toe thing. I would be very trip, I would be very prone to tripping over things. And so what I found through all of this was just like more agility. Just a lot of things that were very nice. For me. I got my oldest daughter onto this as well because she had bunions, I assume from wearing dance shoes and probably just other garbage shoes.
 
That's what most shoes are. Just trashy shoes are too pointed and your feet are too squished. And so between that and this little product called Juul Toes, which is probably pretty painful. It it's like a toe separator you wear for maybe 10 minutes a night. Her bunion very much corrected, which is pretty amazing 'cause that can get painful.
 
I don't know that it was actually painful for her at that time. Alright, so what I want you to know, and again, this episode's not meant to be all about barefoot mechanics. That's really to share with you just some trial and error of shoes that I have tried just to help you get going on the right foot so you don't have to.
 
Waste as much time as I did because one of the tricky things about barefoot shoes more so when I started than now, and what I'll recommend to you is a lot of the brands are European and so it's a pain to ship them and then to get them back there is, there are some. Few places you can buy things, you can get a lot of European shoes, and then you can ship back in the us Anya's Anya's Barefoot store, whatever her name is.
 
I've had her on the show before. She's like the barefoot shoe expert online. But most of those shoes are gonna be for more advanced people. So I'm gonna recommend more of transitional stuff, cheaper stuff, et cetera. So she's a great resource as well. So what I would say is you can't jump to the most barefoot shoe or.
 
Again, I'm not the expert, but if you jump to the most barefoot shoe. And you haven't prepped your feet and that you have no muscle, you could injure yourself. Technically, it would be like anything if you were like weight training and you went to the heaviest thing without building any strength, you could, create some more pain or potentially an injury.
 
So gradually strengthening is the key. And I would say a lot of people would struggle to jump straight from normal shoes into a true intense, barefoot style. And your foot type really matters. I can't speak the language of different foot types. They have all these different types for like where the toes land, and I will just say in general, I'm not flatfooted.
 
I have more of an arch, so I like shoes that hug that arch. I am gonna talk about shoes that I think work better for people with flat feet because. That seems to be my daughter. And so the shoes that were rejects for me were great for her. And I don't think you need to worry too much about the toes initially, but it's just nice to know that there's gonna be different brands that fit differently.
 
And so it may affect your experience. And so the reason I tell you that is because if you try one shoe and you're like, I didn't like this, they're not all like that. So let's talk about how this all started. For I'll use a little bit more story and then I'll get into some good transitional shoes.
 
So my local sports store had these original Merrill Trail gloves. Now these trail gloves have a little bit, I wish I had a vapor glove here. I do not. So these Merrill. Trail gloves had a little bit of a thicker soul. They were a beautiful trans, they were my first accidental transition shoe because they were carried in the store.
 
I haven't been carried in the store since. I've complained a lot about that. And they were really hard to get, during the pandemic. So these were in pretty tough shape. That would be my complaint that in general, these Merrill shoes. Stand up like garbage. And but they were I've ordered 'em for my kid.
 
They have a kid's version. They're very nice and wide, so I don't necessarily resonate with having wide feet, but I have lots of friends with kids that have wide feet and they're always looking for like shoes that their kids can actually fit into. And so this is nice for both of those purposes. So the trail glove was nice.
 
It had this nice little like hug in the arch. And like I said, during the pandemic, they were really hard to get. I found that their quality and their fit was a little bit worse when they finally came back to market. So I haven't really, I had about five pairs before that time. Just 'cause they were pretty, they didn't last very well.
 
But I started with the trail glove. I still think they're very nice. They have a little bit thicker sole to wear down. And then the vapor glove is quite a bit more thin sole. So this is a leather version of the vapor glove that I bought. I ended up getting on these were usually definitely like 120 bucks, but because they're leather, they didn't rip out like this mesh top did.
 
And so I ended up picking up several of these on Sierra trading post, which is like a. Discount site that's not as good as it used to be. I think 'cause it got bought by a different company. But they are. I bought these for like maybe less than 50 bucks and they're leather. I really don't find myself putting them on that much, but I think it's just because they're a tie shoe and I need to replace them with no tie laces.
 
'cause I'm too lazy to tie my shoes. So there's that. I talked a little bit about Birkenstock type shoes. Now a purist would say absolutely no way. 'cause they don't really have much flexibility. They have a pretty rigid sole actually. And you're not gonna be mountain goading or like really grabbing that rock with your foot.
 
But I think if you're just looking for a shoe that's got like enough room in the toe and it's for a transition shoe or if you like Birkenstocks most, or if your feet feel free there, then you might be a person who would like barefoot shoes. Alright, let's talk about one I don't have on the cart right now.
 
My daughter does have these because I tried them on and they ran big. The first ones I bought and so I gave them to her. And they are flux. F-L-U-X-I thought they were developed from by a PT out of Nebraska. Apparently, maybe they're not, and I'm not gonna do the company research on it, but I have ordered from them a couple of times.
 
I am so bummed. I want my husband to wear them 'cause they have a really thick sole. So it'd be great for someone who works on concrete, they don't have such a dad shoe. Like right now my husband's wearing these new balance, which I guess are good for Y feet. He's wearing these shoes that look like Total Dad shoes.
 
You know what I mean? And the flux top, they're a little, I think they're a bit quite a bit more attractive. I actually think that they are. I go to my local sports store and complain about it that they don't carry them because I think that they are such a good, they look like a mainstream tennis shoe that is just a foot shape.
 
So they have that nice, slightly wider toe bed without looking like clown shoes. But they have a very thick sole and it's got this like cloud effect. It's got these little raised things. They're just very nice. I really wanted my husband to wear them, but they have a little bit, you could almost wear them without socks and so they hug your ankle and I guess he's just got, I guess his ankles are too big.
 
They are like cutting off the circulation. So it's pretty bummed. And I will say I don't really like their return. Policy. It was too short, and so they weren't a favorite that way. They kinda remind me of the boutiques that when you return, it's like a store credit or nothing. But they do have a nice like training shoe now that I think would be really cute for every day.
 
So I've been considering getting some or trying another pair for myself.
 
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Okay, next up there's a couple, I'm gonna give you a couple American made ones that I think are good for transition. Lems, I think those are out of Colorado. They have barefoot and non barefoot versions, like a lems primal. They look a little more mountaineering, but not too bad.
 
You can find some that are like pretty, pretty good part of the issue with barefoot shoes is like sometimes they have this goofy look to them, and so they're a little bit like, they're not necessarily cute always, and so you have to dig for the cute ones or whatever your style is.
 
My style is a little bit of a bright interesting personality of a shoe actually. And so I like a little color with my shoes, but I still find another brand that's American Made that's very common is zero. It's XERO. I personally think they're a little ugly. I haven't ever really kept a zero shoe that I have bought, but that said, I gave some zero boots to my daughter, like some little Chelsea boots to my daughter.
 
They were better for flat-footed people, in my opinion, without. Major arch. And so she loved them, wore them to death in Europe and so super happy for her. For me, I just, they looked dumb and I, they didn't work for me. Here is one pair of zero sandals that I have that I've never worn. 'cause I, even though I like bright shoes, like I find them ugly and maybe a little bit unprotective for where I live.
 
If my entire foot is exposed. That's also I feel like I'm doing a lot of really act like I feel like I'm like in a chicken coop or something when I'm outside or doing something, I could drop something on my feet. So I like my feet just a touch more protected than maybe these shoes.
 
And so they haven't been a big favorite for me. But they are an American shoe, which means you can order and return them a little bit more easily. And they do have some absurd sales a couple times a year. It makes their shoes like very cheap. So that's a positive for them. Like the flux are definitely like one 30, which isn't pretty normal for tennis shoes.
 
But the other best transition shoes, and these might be the most popular barefoot shoe readily available online on Amazon. And then. From their website, and they are wittens, I am sure they're a Chinese shoe but they are usually less than $40. And they have, I think they're probably like the most common ones.
 
I have had so many pairs over the years. I don't have too many right here because my kids have stolen them. But I have, here's a pair of water shoe version whittens that Strat that. Tie on that I've really liked, that I really could use as an everyday shoe. They've got a really thin mesh, so I'm going tubing down a river next week.
 
I'm totally wearing these. I have some other water shoes that I've really liked that are super barefoot friendly, that are only like 40 bucks on Amazon JBU, that are great. But these are, I really liked these water shoes. About Whittens. What else is here? Sometimes they can be ugly.
 
I bought these for my son, he refused them. They're on my pile to send back. These are some Chelsea boots that I got for, I ended up giving to my middle child and she has really liked them. So they have multiple colors, black, tan, and this like pretty gray color. So I've really liked those. And I think that's all I have for Whittens on this cart.
 
But they are the most popular ones and they're really transitional. So that's one. I'm gonna give you some other ones that I've been wearing a lot as well. So those are really good transition ones, I would say. Or just like good trials. I've got some other good trials coming as well. Let's talk about some of my other favorites.
 
I will say after trialing so many different brands of. Barefoot shoes for my foot type with an arch. And I like a pretty solid, flexible shoe. Like those Merrill Vapor gloves. I was looking when Merrill Vapor gloves were really out of stock for a long time, 2020. And on I looked, I really pursued something different.
 
And so I found ground. These, they are I think like from Portugal or some European country, but they were having some kind of. Obscene sale. So I think I got like lots of shoes from them. And they have been, I would say they're my favorite barefoot Shoe company. So here are my dirty hiking boots. And I just found these other hiking boots that I didn't realize I had.
 
They're more of like a leather one, so they're ugly. But if I was like maybe dirt biking or something, they might be better. Sometimes I wear some. Shoes. I would never wear dirt biking just 'cause I'm not actually walking in them. And I wanna protect my feet. It depends on where I'm biking. If I'm biking at a bunch of rocks.
 
I have definitely been in situations where I would've broken a toe, but I didn't have a, didn't have my fry boots on with a steel toe. But they're horrific for wearing normally. These are my brownies, like my newest tennis shoes that I got. I don't know, for a trip where I was doing a lot of walking and I wanted something that really reminded me of those.
 
So these are like a leather. I dunno, one that I really liked. Ground, these are my personal favorite wittens we've already talked about, but they come in tennis shoes, boots, water, shoes. Some of them are ugly, some of them are cute. So you just have to dig through them. I found this one last year and I wore the heck out of it the last several months.
 
And unfortunately all they have are these weird camouflage looking patterns, but it was ZYEN. It was 20 bucks. It was a random purchase. They're filthy. They wash really nice. I have gotten so many compliments on these and I slip them on. They don't need to be retied, so I just slip them on.
 
And so they've been kinda my daily wearers for literal months. These have been my summer tennis shoes, so I'm sure I'll wear them out. But I am so constantly flabbergasted at how these $20 shoes were my favorite shoes. I'm like, this is absurd and ridiculous. How about if we need a dress shoe? My go-to one moment while I find them.
 
Ah, here it is on the floor. Is the storehouse flat. And so these are ballet flats. They have a really nice. Storefront. This is just like plain black leather. So pretty boring. But these are the best ones I used to wear the summer that I transitioned to Barefoots. I was wearing teaks.
 
They're very expensive. Ballet flat, they're just like a bougie brand. And so they're zero drop 'cause they have this even kind of cushion flatbed. I've got, I sprayed like. Foot stuff in 'em. 'cause otherwise I feel like leather soles can stink. 'Cause your feet get sweaty. But anyway, so you're seeing the real raw version.
 
But I feel that they're a little bit too tight in the toes. I'm having trouble wearing any of them, so I'm gonna have to purge them probably pretty soon. But I can't, I meant I might try doing some kind of stretching out of the top, but I really don't love how my. Little toes and toenails feel like they've been pressed down after wearing these.
 
So I, I tend to go for these storehouse flats, which are just a lot more comfortable. I found that I have to actually size up for best comfort, otherwise they can feel a little bit too tight as well. So my favorite brands that I wear the most, I have another like super funky, no-name brand from Amazon here.
 
That was also around $20. Unfortunately, like a little more clown, like not just in color. I don't mind the color actually, but they're a little, some of them just go a little bit too wide. You probably can't really tell on camera. I feel that these, that I got, these Z yns look a little less, maybe you can't tell it all.
 
I don't know. I feel like they look less clown. Like you would probably laugh, like you might think they both look like clown shoes to me. We all have different preferences and different styles and mine is a little bright again, so I will say that some very popular barefoot shoes that were not for me.
 
Our vivo barefoot. They're probably the original popular barefoot shoe is vivo barefoot. They do have some different things like some refurbished ones, a whole different site. They have a, I think they have some US shipping, and you can occasionally get some. On Amazon. It's been weird hit or miss, but they're not for me.
 
I think that they work better for flatfooted folks. So I tried some different vivo Barefoots, not for mine, but I know my friend Jess, who's a physical therapist, they're her go-tos. I think I've seen multiple physical therapists where it's their go-to. Wildlings. I don't have those on me.
 
W-I-L-D-L-I-N-G, I think they're another European brand. They are very thin. They have a bizarre, they have a soul that's like. Barely covers your footbed. And what I got from them is they were really comfortable. I like loved the flexibility and the comfort of them, but they didn't really have any protection.
 
I would get like little thorns, even just walking on my gravel road. I would get like little thorns coming up through the mesh on the bottom since the soul didn't really cover the whole foot. All right. We already talked about teaks and they're not even barefoot. And then I wanted to talk about some other brands that you can get away with.
 
Sometimes the barefoot purists would kick me in the shins, but. I'm not pretentious, and all these online communities, there's gonna be some kind of pretentious stuff. I have used these bed stew. Bed stew has the most adorable like you find at the buckle which I never go into, you walk by
 
the storefront. They have these beautiful leather shoes that are comfortable outta the box. I've actually never really worn their other ones, just their sandals. This is my second pair of beds, two sandals, and they are zero drop and they have plenty of room in the front. And so I have used these.
 
They unfortunately have absolutely no traction for European like stone streets. So they slip all over the place, or like international stone streets or if you have stone streets, wherever you are. So they're really slippery. So I consider just. Ordering some kind of adhesive grip to put on the bottom.
 
'cause I think they're so wonderful and they're actually cute because they're not actually barefoot, but they work. Another one, I'll try to go in like a. Ugh. It's embarrassing because they're like my everyday shoes, but I try to go into a nice shoe shop sometimes and see what they have. One time I found this brand called Remonde, R-E-M-O-N-T-E.
 
These have a really nice, kinda like foam ish footbed, I'm guessing, like there's some Dr. Shoals that could fit this. Sometimes Dr. Joel has an occasional cute shoe and. These Rami shoes are not really shoe shape, but they are wide enough where my feet do not hurt, and they have zero drop. Lastly, you can just search barefoot shoes. I'm sure you've already done this. Or zero drop or foot shaped on Amazon.
 
And I have found some like dupe, converse for some different things. I did get some dupe, controversial high tops from ground, these that I actually really but I don't know if you've ever put those high top converse on like they're, if you don't like to tie your shoes, it's a terrible choice.
 
'cause you have to sit down and unlace them and put them on. I'm not quite that patient. I'm like, let me just slip my shoes on. So these are some nice dupe ones. They might look a little clowny to you. They actually don't to me. So I have liked them and they've been okay for the right vibe, for the right time.
 
And I would just say I wanted to record this because I spent so much on so many different shoes, which is fine. No problem, when you have to ship them back to Europe, it can be just like a little bit annoying. So I wanted to share my results that I've gotten with Barefoot shoes and that you can trial them or trial transitional shoes pretty easily.
 
And I think, what are we here for? To learn, grow, and share, right? I would say you don't have to be perfect, just paying attention to what your body tells you. If you were like having some pain in your feet, your ankles, your knees, your hips. I'm not old necessarily. I'm getting there, when I first started having this stuff, I was in, definitely, I.
 
Probably my twenties. Yeah. If my kids were babies. I'm guessing. And so I definitely had things and I just would say foot health affects your whole body. So you can trial, like one pair of transitional shoes, you can trial rolling your foot around on like a yoga ball, a tennis ball, something like that every day.
 
It's actually pretty amazing, the circulation that comes in the feet and the kind of it just, it feels really amazing. You can do. Lots of things to strengthen your foot health. Just get those little dogs out of the shoes that kind of can cage them in because that stronger feet
 
you might learn something amazing about having stronger feet. Everyone's got different feet. Everyone is unique. But I wanted to share what was really helpful for me in case it's helpful for you, especially as we're back to school shopping. That said, I did buy my kid a finally a traditional pair of tennis shoes this year because it has been so hard to find some for kids and my son.
 
Seems to blow through tennis shoes. I feel like this is all boys, but he especially blows through tennis shoes. And so yeah, if you have recommendations for me, please send them my way. If this was helpful for you or if you have other shoes that you have found that are amazing send those my way as well.
 
Or if you have other questions about shoes that I've tried, feel free. I think there's this little. Button in the show notes and I think it says Send a message on my end. It says fan mail, but that's an easy way to send a message as well. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and it helps your shopping future or maybe your foot health.