Meet the Man Who Has Been Barefoot for More Than a Decade

Real Fix

Credit: SWNS   Meet the man who doesn't own a pair of shoes after going barefoot for more than a decade - even when walking rocky mountains.  Robin Greenfield, 37, was inspired to ditch his trainers in 2008 when he joined a university trip in New Zealand and noticed one of his course leaders walking around barefoot.  Robin was "intrigued" and started walking barefoot with him - which he said was a "natural draw and felt amazing".

Transcript

00:00 (music)

00:05 So, I haven't always been barefoot.

00:08 I have to be honest, I think always there's been

00:10 a little bit of an interest at least.

00:13 Even when I was in high school growing up

00:15 in northern Wisconsin with frigid cold winters,

00:19 I seem to remember trying to go outside barefoot.

00:23 And I seem to remember going to parties in college

00:26 in my sandals even in the middle of winter.

00:30 So, it's always been a part of me.

00:32 But it wasn't until my early 20s,

00:35 I was in New Zealand and Australia

00:40 and I had a mentor.

00:42 I was doing a study abroad program

00:45 and this guy, his name's Gary,

00:47 he's from Tasmania, a pretty wild guy.

00:50 And we'd be climbing over mountains on our hikes

00:53 and this guy would be doing it barefoot.

00:55 Everything we were doing, whether it was climbing

00:58 or hopping over rocks or walking through town,

01:01 this guy was barefoot.

01:02 And I saw that and it just intrigued me.

01:06 And I thought, hey, if Gary can do this,

01:09 then I have to be able to as well.

01:12 So, I started to take my shoes off and walk with Gary.

01:16 And at first, maybe I'd only make it a half mile

01:20 or a mile, but pretty quickly I was making it

01:23 a little bit more and a little bit more.

01:26 And that's what I did.

01:29 I started off small and built it up and built it up.

01:32 A few years later, I remember I was in Northport, New York

01:37 and there was a 10K, the Cow Harbor 10K.

01:41 And I had never run a competitive 10K,

01:46 that's six kilometers, not really a competitive person.

01:50 But I decided, hey, I'm gonna do this

01:52 and I'm gonna try to do it barefoot

01:53 and see what happens.

01:54 So, I started out in the back of the pack

01:57 thinking that I would be pretty slow

01:59 with everybody else having shoes

02:01 and wanting to take it easy.

02:03 And I started out and I just found myself

02:06 passing dozens and dozens and then hundreds

02:09 and hundreds of people.

02:11 And I finished the race in about 44 minutes,

02:14 I think it was.

02:15 It was the fastest that I've ever ran.

02:18 You know, really one of the fastest I've ever ran

02:20 in my entire life and it was barefoot.

02:23 So, what happened was I just found myself

02:25 continuously exceeding what I thought

02:28 that I could do with my body.

02:31 And I found my body working naturally

02:34 and I found myself working within the boundaries

02:38 that I had with my body and I just grew into it.

02:43 Now, a lot of people, they can understand

02:46 walking barefoot, you know, at the beach

02:48 or maybe in a nice field or hiking in a,

02:53 you know, smooth place.

02:55 But I go barefoot pretty much everywhere,

02:58 even in the streets of New York or in the alleys.

03:01 I'm generally always barefoot.

03:04 Now, I put on shoes sometimes, of course,

03:06 especially when I'm visiting colder climates.

03:09 But generally, my goal is to try to be barefoot

03:12 as much as I possibly can.

03:14 (gentle music)

03:17 (gentle music)

03:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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