Minimalist in every way

It seems barefoot shoes aren't just minimalist in construction.....

Last Saturday I managed to crawl out of bed and get down to Endcliffe Park in Sheffield for the weekly Park Run. However as anyone who knows me will tell you I'm not great in the mornings so my key role was drinking coffee and acting a chief cheerleader for the wife who was upholding family pride and taking part.

Anyone who saw me may have thought I'd nodded off as I stared at the floor while clinging on to my coffee but I was awake (just) and watching people's shoes. What do you expect from someone with a trainer addiction?

With approx 250 people taking part there were plenty of shoes to watch as well but I didn't see a single other person wearing barefoots. 

It would seem despite more and more versions coming on to the market the manufacturers still have some way to go to sell them to the wider running community. But what is the underlying reason? 

• Is it simply they aren't marketed widely enough so people aren't aware of them or their benefits?
• Are they still seen as a niche market for people who like to be different?
• Is the need for big padded trainers so inbuilt now that people can't move away from this idea?
• Are barefoot shoes just too expensive for people to take a gamble on?

My personal opinion is its a mixture of all four of these points but from what I've seen over the past year its clear the manufacturers still have a long way to go in selling the concept to the wider public. I can probably count on my fingers the number of other people I've seen wearing barefoot shoes since I bought my first pair.

Minimalist in numbers as well as construction then.