Why everyone is obsessed with ‘barefoot’ shoe styles

The case for barefoot styles and the slipper we designed around it.

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July 14, 2026 1:20pm EDT

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Most of us spend most of the day having our shoes make decisions for our feet — where our feet bend, how much space our toes get to spread out, when and where our soles hit the ground as we walk.

Take the shoes away and our feet get back to the work they're evolved to do over millennia: Our toes can spread for balance. Our arches flex as they're meant to. Those smaller muscles that a stiff shoe sole usually reigns in start really pulling their weight again.

This is the idea behind “barefoot” footwear — shoes that let your feet do what they want, while sparing them from cold, damp, or dirty floors.

Barefoot shoes have a wide toe box, a flat profile from heel to toe, and a thin, flexible sole, all of which put your foot in focus rather than a shoe designer’s whims. There’s less structure that’s going to boss your feet around, and more room for feet to move naturally.

Kyrgies are all about natural — and we’re not surprised our barefoot styles have been hard to keep in stock.

Barefoot, but better

Our barefoot house shoes — the Barefoot Slides and the Barefoot Wides — bring this philosophy of free feet home. Feet flexibility, but with just the right amount of comforting, all-natural, premium-felt cushion between you and a cold, hard (and maybe not so clean) floor.

$89.00

$104.00

Crafted with care, pair by pair

Every pair of Kyrgies are felted by hand in a women-led studio in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Made with wool that keeps feet warm in winter and breathes to keep them cool summer, while wicking moisture and fighting odors year-round, they’re intended to be worn in every season.

In fact, some version of them has been worn by nomadic peoples on the Asian steppe for centuries.