Content Integrity and Expertise
At the Barefoot Shoe Guide, we uphold the highest standards of content quality. The goal of any blog or social media post is to educate and inform the reader or viewer, and provide an accurate, honest review. I write the review that I want to read—informative, practical, specific, and accompanied by quality photography.
As much as I am the reviewer, I’m also the end user. Before I see a shoe, I have many of the same questions that you likely have when you’re trying to decide on which barefoot shoe to purchase, and I try to answer all of those questions in my content.
I have personally worn and tested hundreds of barefoot shoes. In addition, I regularly read countless other reviews and discuss the fit, feel, durability and overall experience with hundreds of other barefoot shoe wearers to get a more well-rounded perspective.
I strive to provide a helpful review. This means noting what I love, and sometimes what I don’t. Shoe fit and wear is highly personal, so I understand not everyone will have the same experience. I try to highlight any common issues I’m aware of, even if I didn’t personally experience it with a brand or shoe.
Why trust our reviews?
I know people want an honest, impartial review. In this new age of the influencer, it’s hard to decipher when someone is sharing a product they truly like and use, or if they’re doing it because it’s #sponsored. This is always top of mind for me as I decide which brands I’m sharing and what content I create.
Here are three things we have done on this platform to do our best to provide unbiased reviews.
1 Only covering barefoot shoes. The benefit of niching down to just barefoot shoes is that I’m reviewing and creating content for essentially what are competing brands all the time. I’m sharing a category of products I use and love on a daily basis.
2 Using display ads on our website. While I know display ads are not the best for user experience, they have allowed me as a blogger and content creator to focus on creating content that I find truly helpful, whether it converts to shoe sales or not. All of our display ads are served through an exchange, so it is a source of income completely separate to the content we create.
3 Most of the brands are on an even playing field in that most shoes are gifted, and most brands have an affiliate program that offers similar commissions. We do not make or sell shoes, so we don’t have an incentive to push our own product over other brands. Our goal is to help you find the best pair of barefoot shoes for you, whatever that may be, and whoever may sell them.
About our “Best of” Barefoot Shoe Lists
I don’t accept any sort of compensation to be added to my “best of” lists. The purpose of these lists is to share what I see as the best options out there, regardless of any kind of affiliation with the brand.
In addition, these are not necessarily in order of my first recommendation to my last. What will be the best barefoot shoe for you will highly depend on your foot shape, personal preferences, use, budget, etc.
For example, in this post about the best barefoot shoe for beginners — I thought about what I shared with family members that were thinking about making the switch. I wanted them to have the best experience transitioning to barefoot shoes, and I want you to as well, regardless of any type of compensation.
Content creation is very time consuming, and I appreciate being able to monetize this content, but I also don’t want to create bad content. I think people can see through that pretty quickly, and it’s not worth it to promote something I don’t really believe in. And I know that if you have a bad first experience with one of my recommendations, you’re likely not going to come back for more. I don’t share anything that I haven’t taken into thoughtful consideration first. I see and take the feedback and criticisms, and try to improve for the next thing I make.
Here are the ways in which I work with brands:
Gifted Product
Brands will gift barefoot shoes to be considered for reviews. I only accept shoes that I would recommend without reservation to my audience, which means the shoes:
1 Exhibit the barefoot features of a wide, naturally-shaped toe box and a thin, flat and flexible sole
2 Use high-quality materials and construction
3 Do not have significant fit issues. There is a range of fit and sizing, but for this point, I mean a significant issue to wear a shoe would not fit most people (e.g. oddly shaped, volume is too low or too high that even those identifying as such would have a issue with fit).
I let every brand I know that sending a shoe for consideration does not guarantee a specific feature or review. I generally have a good understanding if a shoe is going to be a good fit for my audience ahead of time, but if for whatever reason it does not seem like a good option to share, I’ll offer to return the shoe.
I do share some “compromise” shoe options on this website that do not fit every feature of a barefoot shoe perfectly. I understand that everyone is at different points on their foot health journey and may benefit from things like more cushion or a slight heel raise as they transition to barefoot shoes or wear them for a specific use.
I also understand that things like budget constraints mean that buying a shoe from a barefoot shoe brand may not be realistic, so I try to share as many of the “better” options as I can.
Overall, my goal is to help you find the healthiest shoe that you’ll be able to buy and wear!
Affiliate Programs
Most brands have an affiliate program, which means if you click on one of my links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. The commissions for most brands are similar, so there is not a significant incentive to prioritize one brand over another.
Sponsored Content
As I stated before, I do not engage in a pay-to-play model for brands to be included in round-up and “best of” lists–on this blog or on social media. I consider all brands for these lists equally. I also include short reviews of many brands on my Instagram stories.
I recently started to work with brands to create specific sponsored content for social media. As Instagram has changed from a photo to a video platform, the time investment to create a brand review post that meets my standards for quality has increased significantly. I am not able to spend the necessary hours planning, shooting, editing, and posting content without fair compensation. For me, the best way to do this is to collaborate with brand that I admire, and in return, value my work as a content creator.
I’ve already worked with most of the brands for several years before I’ve created a sponsored Instagram post or reel with a brand. If there is a newer brand that is interested in a sponsored post, I test and review the shoe or product first before agreeing to any sponsored posts.
Here are the reasons I recently started doing sponsored posts:
- It has become more difficult to make commission from affiliate programs. Recent and upcoming changes to internet cookies means that many sales are not tracked at all, or the cookie period is much shorter. There are also a growing number of third party retailers of barefoot shoes, which also means people are less likely to buy directly from the brand. Options are great for the consumer, so I’m happy people have more of them, but it also means it is unrealistic to rely on affiliate income as the only means of monetization.
- I really enjoy sharing about barefoot shoes as it’s something that’s made a hugely positive impact in my life, and based on the feedback I get from others, it’s been a positive change in their lives too. I want to keep doing it! But I realized that I couldn’t continue spending the amount of time it takes to create quality content based only on affiliate income.
- There are a growing number of barefoot shoe brands (which is really exciting), but also means there are too many to individually review. At this point, it is much more effective as a content creator (and often times for the audience member), to share shoes in round-up posts. However, many brands are still interested in a standalone social post or reel to advertise their brand.
- Sponsored content is a way to fairly compensate creators for their work. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of creators leave this space, even after spending several years regularly posting helpful and creative content. They felt that they were not valued by brands as many barefoot shoe companies still only work on a “gifting” or affiliate model, which often times leads to little or no compensation. Even though many of these creators loved reviewing shoes, it was not sustainable to spend so much of their time advertising for for-profit companies that would never fairly compensate for their time and talents. As a leader in this space, I wanted to establish the precedent both for myself and others that work deserves pay, influencers and content creators included. If more creators are valued in this space, it will help grow the barefoot shoe space as a whole.
- My hope is that we develop a “more the merrier” attitude when it comes to barefoot shoe content creators and influencers. From my personal experience, it hasn’t felt this way. I have talked to others at length about this, and unfortunately many feel the same way. My hope is that all influencers and creators in this space are encouraging and uplifting towards one another.
Thank You!
For anyone that has ever supported my work by liking, commenting, sharing, or dropping me a DM to say thanks, it means a lot. I know some of you go out of your way to use my affiliate link or code, and I’m really grateful.
I love that I get to be a part of your barefoot shoe journey, and hope that I’m able to continue providing helpful information for anyone that needs it.