Peter, having a durable heel assumes you are walking in a heel first manner, but it is not the only way. It also implies the heel is separate from the rest of the shoe, and the heel is the landing surface.
In bare feet, I for one find landing on the heels first feels not only awkward, but often painful when outdoors if landing on stones . Landing fore-mid foot is a completely different posture, there is natural spring in the step and feel that is totally different from landing heel first. When you land on a stone you naturally bend at the knees and "move with it" and continue on with a soft step. Heel walking is a hard step, jarring. Place your hands over your ears, now walk forward heel first, and you will hear the thumping. Do the same landing on the forefoot, and you hear no thump. No jarring forces, which heel walking accentuates by concentrating the force of landing there and up the body. The footwear we are speaking of all have one whole layer of rubber on the bottom, and yes, few if anyone offers replacement soles for them for numerous reasons, among them the models are always changing and labor cost. ---- Lum , in regard to minimalist shoes, again, the toe box shape and width is not what "minimal" is referring to. Not all zero drop wide toe box and width shoes are considered "minimalist", look at Altra shoes, most models are quite thick, 25mm and more stack height. They have the shape you are looking for but are quite thick compared to a 10mm or less shoes. The more padding you have the more clunky they feel, regardless of where you land. Same with Birkenstocks, great anatomic shape, but thick and stiff as a board with obtrusive arches. This discussion is confusing the whole minimal idea. Crocs for example, never were and and are not minimal in any way. The shape of the footbed has nothing to do with "minimal". Birkenstocks, not minimal. You can still have a minimal shoe with a not so anatomic shape. The bottom line is you have to take each shoe for what is is on it's own merits. ------ And again, health refers to the whole body and being it's not limited to or by any body part regardless of all the medical jargon used ! Heels or nor heel, both work fine for people. To claim one is right and another wrong is a stance taken only to rationalize what you wear. Okay, so what. As Patrick Moore stated, and the article I linked to, people have worn heels for a looooong time ... and they have not for a loooong time. Both exist and both work , variety works. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
