WHITIN Men's Minimalist Trail Running Shoes | Wide Toe Box | Optimal Barefoot-Feel

Great barefoot shoes, I almost wear them everywhere. Great fit and comfortable. I have bought two pairs so far, one for my gym workouts and the other for my daily walks. Great value for the money and plan to purchase more pairs in the future once my first two pair war out. The shoes are very durable. I've had my shoes for a year and they are still in great shape. The soles will probably have to wear through before I need to consider buying a new pair. Also, wearing these shoes have noticeably increased the strength of my feet. High praise for the comfort, durability and quality. I've have worn the five finger Vibrams in the past, but I like these much better since I don't have to squeeze my toes into each socket, which was a pain. Also, they don't look as goofy as the five finger minimalist shoes. I won't say they are the most stylish shoes, but I don't feel as self conscious as I did with the Vibrams.

You can truly feel the breeze through these shoes with average to thin socks. I love it. My feet are always hot and sweaty. Which Segways into my only minor issue with the shoes. And to their credit, I believe my sweaty feet wear out MOST insoles more rapidly than other folks feet. lol! Also I think the insoles are designed to let you feel the ground after they’re “broken-in”, which is what I want. And they are available for replacement for like $2.99, so I’m not complaining. Just informing. The rest of this long review is all positive. The insoles are my only small con, see the last photo. They halfway wore out in 3 months of extremely heavy use. So maybe it’s almost a feature and not a flaw. You want to feel the ground? Keep your insoles. Don’t mind feeling it or not? Buy replacements. I’ll keep mine till they fall apart. These shoes have acted as my one and only pair of shoes. I mean no other shoes used at all except slides occasionally for convenience. Any time I actually want to move around or walk/run efficiently, these shoes and only these are worn. I can stop on a dime/turn on a dime oh so comfortably. I’ve been working and exercising both indoors/outdoors alike, and enjoying leisure, day in and day out in these shoes. This is my second pair! I wish the grey was darker but who cares. They are THAT good. The other ones are still great. I’ve just dedicated them to the work at the construction site and the outdoors. Because they are SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE than work boots(obviously). I love sneaking around(OSHA) in them on the job site. Another worker was walking by and my feet were at his eye-level. In passing, he poked my big toe and laughed! Lmbo. You’re technically supposed to wear puncture resistant, steel toed boots. But I’ve been doing end stage HVAC construction so it’s easy to stay safe. Just watch out for occasional nails and metal shards. I bet I’m more comfortable in my actual physical shoes than anyone else there! I wouldn't even call this a gripe, because I’m keeping them. But the “dark grey” color is not dark. I’m tempted to return them and get black with gum sole, but I don’t like gum soles so I think I’ll keep them. They look great. Love the black strings and blue accent design on the sides. Such a great pair of shoes for the price. Even if they did cost more from what I can tell, they’d be worth it. Perhaps I’ll review again or update how long they last. [Amazon prompted to review the “slipperiness”] They aren’t slippery at all to me! A 26 year old, average weight male. I went from Addidas with a sole smooth as butter! I would slip as soon as there was enough rain to coat the bottom of my shoes. So immediately after it started raining. These have phenomenal grip. I use them for every day use rain or shine. They have also performed wonderfully on my trail hikes here and there as well! I love feeling the rocks, and tree roots beneath my feet. You’ll even feel the subtle crunch of leaves and pine straw beneath your feet. They fit great too. No surprise. I have worn US size 11 in men’s for all my tennis shoes since I was a teen. I didn’t check a conversion chart or anything. Just ordered 11s and they fit exactly as I would hope. Couldn’t be happier.

I have looked at minimalist shoes for years and just could not convince myself to spend between hundred and two hundred dollars. Then I found "Whitin", looking at the shoe and seeing the reviews maybe for the price this is good quality. But then again, the price was a third of those brand name shoes that received far lower reviews than Whitin's. Which surprised me, how can the quality be better but cost loss? Well, I took the plunge purchased a pair in May 2021 and fell in love with them. I wear them everyday, they are the only shoe I want to wear. If I could get away with it, I would wear at work. However, last time I looked they don't make these in steel toes. I wondered how they would hold up on rocky areas since here in Tennessee we have a lot of rock. If you ever walked on small pieces of granite rock bare foot or with a thin shoe you would how punishing these rocks can be. Not to say that river rock is not hard on your feet but granite has sharp edges that can give even a good hiking boot a fit. Well, I am here to say that these shoes can handle these rocks and with comfort. Don't get me wrong, you know the rocks are there but you don't have that sharp pain from the rock digging into your foot. These shoes are tuff wearing them for two months everyday has proven to me that these shoes are worth ever penny I spend on them. The bonus is, they are a third of the cost of the big name brands. Now, you may be wondering why I only gave the shoes four stars. Well, the only reason is, the rear heel strap broke. Putting the shoe on and pulling the heel end on it just broke. I would have just kept wearing the shoes but I know Amazon has a great return policy and I love these shoes so much that I wanted another pair. In these last four days it has been hard not having my Whitin's and having to wear my running shoes again has hurt. Yes, that is how much I love this shoe. Oh, by the way, I have bought extra pairs now to allow me the comfort of not only different colors but if I have another shoe fail I will have backups. Side note: If you are a runner yes, they work great once you learn to run on the ball of your foot and not the heel as you would with standard running shoes. Even running trails in these shoes is not a problems. Size maybe an issue if you don't like to wear socks, I wear a size 10 but they are a little loose without socks.

So far very good. This is the second pair of Whitins that I wear regularly. They’re not as wide as the canvas shoe that they sell but they are very comfortable, flexible and wide. Good daily shoe, hiking shoe and gym shoe. Very very breathable.

My new favorite shoes. Comfortable and look great. They have also been very durable. I was afraid they wouldn't last long but I have worn them pretty much every day on trails for over a year and they are in great shape and still have most of their tread.

So I bought this pair of barefoot shoes back in June making it to the 5-6 month mark. I admit I am new to barefoot shoes but I was expecting these shoes to at least make it to the 6 month mark with minimal issues but to be honest I was wrong. For starters a month in the strap on the back of one of the shoes meant to allow you to put it on easily broke in first month or two of me trying these. Needles to say the material of the fabric is not very durable. Also the padding or the cushioning of the shoe was completely shredded by the 3-4 month. Even now by the 4-5 month mark their are holes not just in the padding where you place your feet into. Now to be fair I do a lot of walking so some wear and tear is to be expected. But honestly charging nearly $30-40 dollars all for a shoe that doesn't even last for quarter to a half of the time that normal shoes last for is kind of insane if you ask me. To be honest every critical thing I highlighted would be forgiven if they simply just charged them for under $20 dollars. The build and material quality in my opinion is not up to par especially since their are other shoes that could be cheaper. Do not buy these unless you have no other choice. To be honest I am greatly disappointed in the manufacture and company. I was lucky I got these on a deal but still do not purchase these full price. I rate them three out five because of fairness as they were comfy. As someone who has always found conventional shoes uncomfortable or hard on my toes they are a nice change of pace from what I wear. If you decide to get into barefoot shoes definitely go into these gently. I would start with wearing any barefoot shoes for about 15-30 minutes of walking per day and slowly increasing that number. All in all find a better pair if you can.

These shoes are AWESOME. I absolutely love the way they feel and look. I can spread my toes without limit, yet they feel nice and snug. The flexible sole allows me to really feel the surface I’m running on without being uncomfortable or painful. The downsides are that they wear out somewhat quickly (especially on hard surfaces), and that the treads perform rather poorly on slippery surfaces. However, these are acceptable compromises for the low price tag. I hope WHITIN continues to sell these, as I am on my 2nd pair and very pleased. Highly recommend!!

This is my first foray into the world of minimalist shoes as an adult, but these shoes remind me of the complete joy I used to feel at age 10 on Saturday mornings walking alongside my dad, fishing pole in hand, loping along silently down a lakeside trail in 100% leather moccassins. I'm no longer that boy. I'm 52, with flat feet and 40 pounds too heavy. I've had two knee surguries, the last of which ended with my doctor saying "It's not if you need a knee replacement, but when. Tell me when you're ready." The inside surface of my right kneecap -- the part that rubs against the rest of the joint -- was scoped to reveal that it looks like its cartilage, which is supposed to be smooth, looks like it has been through a cheese grater. I wore hard "cookie" orthotics in my shoes as a kid, have bought hefty arch supporting insoles for all my shoes all my life, and work 12 hour days outside on Saturdays in boots that have $400 Good Feet Store hard orthotics in them. I say all this not to exhaust the reader or make this product review about me, but instead to say that although I was a cross country runner in my early teens, I am clearly no athlete anymore. If minimalist shoes should hurt anyone, they should hurt me. And some did. I also ordered a couple other brands when I ordered these. They were not comfortable. These are. They fit my feet nicely, and that's saying something for me. I have narrow feet, but have always worn B to D widths because my feet get extremely hot, so I like the extra air space. The sole padding on these shoes is just enough. The tread is good, even in mud. The flexibility is outstanding. And even though the arch supports are nowhere near as high as the orthotics I am accustomed to wearing, I find that they work fine. I walk three miles a day in these. I hope to lose some weight so I can try jogging in them -- something I haven't done in 20 years. Another thing I like about these shoes is the attention to detail in making the heel and tongue substantial, unlike other brands I ordered and returned at the same time I was testing these. The heel rises high enough and is cupped enough to prevent my heel from rubbing. This is actually amazing to me, and unprecedented as far as I can remember. My narrow feet and low arches have always caused my shoes to have no purchase on anything to hold them back from rubbing on the heel. As a result, the inside of the heel of every pair of shoes I've ever owned has had its inner padding rubbed off within months. That's not going to happen with these. Another point of quality in these shoes is the tongue. Other brands I ordered seemed to sacrifice so much to reduce shoe weight that they relegated the tongue to a limp flap of material that would wrinkle every time I laced up the shoe, which translates to rubbing on the instep and also allowing the laces to blow through and rub directly on my sock. Not so with the tongue on these shoes. They have just enough height and padding to prevent wrinkling and rubbing. I'm surprised to find that after an initial few days when I had to adjust my three-mile walks to the new gait that minimalist shoes promote, my body acclimated nicely. I found myself with muscles growing in my calves, arches, and ankles, and my normal aches from a bad knee and arthritic big toe disappeared. An unexpected bonus is that these shoes also make great slippers for padding around the house, which I usually do in bare feet in summer but doesn't work in winter. I normally hate slippers of any kind even in winter because again, my feet get very hot very easily, and I am prone to get sores between my toes when my feet get too hot for too long. Heat isn't much of a problem in these shoes, though, even in summer, so I'm looking forward to December. I am astounded, actually, that I could get a pair of shoes this comfortable for the price. Twice before in my life I've bought a second identical pair of shoes when I found a pair that I really, really liked. That's how hard I am to fit. I shop for shoes for weeks, sometimes months, before buying. But I think I'm going to buy a second or maybe even a third pair of these. Your mileage may vary, but for me, they are perfect.