The hype, rave, excitement and novelty around social media sites and all they can do has worn thin. The Novelty has given way to Normal.

Are they less capable of doing what it once did (technically)? No. But without the attached hype, excitement and novelty I think social sites / services like Facebook and Twitter have moved into the realm of Normal.

I remember one of my first Nokia mobile phones in the 1990′s. Big, yellow, 5110. This baby even had a snake game on it. It held like 100 phone numbers. I hung that sucker off my belt loud and proud.  Then they become normal. Smart phones emerged about a decade later – ‘Ahh, 3G, colour and touchscreen!” Now, as wonderful as smartphones like the iPhone are, they are pretty ubiquitous too.

I’m wondering what’s next?  What will ride off the back of Normal to be the next Novelty?

This recent interview gives some great insight into reasoning behind the minimalist and barefoot running movement in the developed world and he even makes some bold claims with regards to the entire shoe industry coming back to flat, simple, minimalist shoe design.

Worth watching if you have an interest in human movement and running in particular.

Lee Saxby, Barefoot Running Coach from GottaRun with Will on Vimeo.

I recently took them to the Australian Countryside - Roads are really coarse here.

I started barefoot running and a transition out of shoes with orthodic arch supports around April this year.  A great decision in hind-site. BUT finding a pair of shoes that let me ‘feel’ where I was walking and walk without an arch was a challenge. Especially in size 13.  For about $120 AUD delivered, I have a custom sized, hand-made pair of shoes I wear both at work and casually. They are light, flat, don’t stink, darn comfy and my toes can move and splay all they need and want.

I have run about 30km in them across terrain and roads too rough to run barefoot on. Walked many more. They rock.  I can’t knock them. They seem to be what shoes may have been many years ago – tools for travelling on ground too rough for bare feet.

Just out of the box - Yes, they are wide in the toes but so are my toes!

If your considering a pair I can only give them 10 out of 10. They’re a pleasure to wear with or without socks and the team as SoftStar Shoes are great to work with.

Me and my 6 year old and 3 year old kids. On a Barefoot Walk

Is barefoot best for kids?  6 months ago I would have said No.  Now I encourage my family to go barefoot as much as possible.

5 months ago I happened across a series of books and studies on barefoot running and living. I made the switch,  ditched my arch supports and decided to go barefoot as much as possible. My feet and posture have never been better.  I’m running an average of 20km per week barefoot on pavement, road and a little grass.

“So what about kids? Why encourage your three kids to go barefoot as much as possible? ”

The clincher for me was reading of foot health studies done across children and teens in developing countries and those in developed countries.  Basically looking at the affect of shoes on kids.  No one could argue the results.  Kids in places like India,  Africa and Haiti who didn’t wear shoes showed nearly no signs of bad foot health like fallen arches, fungal infection, ingrown toenails etc.

Contrast that against children in countries where shoes are encouraged and often mandatory and you find cases like me. Before age 14 I had three ingrown toenails surgically operated on, several pairs of orthodics (custom arch supports) and the inability to run without pain in my legs or lower back as a result of fallen arches (due to weak feet.) In my adult years I’ve suffered with much back and leg pain not to mention all the fungal stuff that breeds in warm moist socks wrapped in shoes 12 hours per day.

Without going into to much detail, I had a innate feeling that I wanted to go running. I stumbled across a book called Born to Run and just read the glowing Amazon reviews. A few weeks and barefoot running books later and I was running (slowly) albeit 1km a few days per week. Slowly and surely I improved on this, working on my posture and spending as much time barefoot as possible. I can’t tell you how much enjoyment and physical good it’s brought me already.

Back to the kids.  Anyone I share my story with that’s over 30 or 40 and grew up outside the city say “Yeah, I remember spending years without shoes and loving it. I hated shoes!”  Yet, they insist on their kids wearing clunky rubber shoes that seriously affects their gait and ability to walk with good proprioception.

My advice? Do the study for yourself.  Keep in mind that kids footwear is a multi-billion-dollar per year industry so you’re not going to hear Nike or Adidas tell you otherwise but…

Save yourself HOURS of TIME.

Save yourself HUNDREDS of DOLLARS on shoes.

Save yourself HEADACHES and STRESS of choosing and remembering shoes and…

LET YOUR KIDS GO BAREFOOT.  AS MUCH AS THEY WANT.  WHEREVER THEY WANT.

My kids go to the shops, church, park, everywhere  - barefoot. Yes, there are school uniform criteria and places like a job site or hot cement that require footware, but outside of this, allowing them to go barefoot has so many benefits and their feet will thank you for it.

This may seem counterproductive to say on a blog but I’m going to say it anyway.  “It’s not all digital”

I have worked in the web design and online business consulting arena for many years. In fact I was talking to my wife a few days ago and we discovered that I had began to build websites in 1997. Honestly, in digital years, that makes me a veteran. There must be some kind of pension for a people like me, even though I’m in my early 30s.

One great advantage of promoting your business, products, service or whatever online is that you will be able to measure so many aspects of engagement with your website. For example, by using Google Analytics you can measure who visited your website, what browser they use, what country they live in, what time they came, what pages they visited on, you can even install software on your website now that tracks mouse movements. There is so much that you can measure digitally.

Also coming from a strong business background, I realise that key performance indicators, statistics, numbers and similar data are all so important because they enable you to make decisions based on fact.

HOWEVER this digital measurement is only part of the mix. It is so easy to get caught up in this data and forget that there is a human being on the other side of those clicks and that traffic who is interacting emotionally with your site or social media effort. It is hard to beat, and this is really my point, a face-to-face, person-to-person meeting to assess feedback and measure the success of your product or service. You may have lots of traffic on your website and or YouTube video e.g.  Rebecca Black’s Friday. But that interaction may be negative and it may be harmful and you have no idea of knowing. You could be doing a lot better if you only picked up the phone, went to that networking meeting or visited that person and received real human feedback.

You see this all the time when it comes to chatting with somebody via SMS or instant messaging and you have totally misunderstood that person’s intention because you didn’t see the smile or the nuance or the smirk or winsome look on their face.

Do yourself a favor, get offline from time to time because digital measurements and stats only tell part of the story.

If you think about it, Facebook and probably many other social media platforms were birthed out of a desire to be included and not miss out on what was going on in the lives of others around you. I am going to be stereo typical here, but let’s be honest, geeks and nerds at school don’t generally have fantastic social skills or are invited to all the cool parties (I can’t speak from experience). And where were most of these social media developed? College?  By teens and those in their early twenties?

The fear of missing out. Social Exclusion Anxiety.  I think many of us can truly relate to this feeling and fear from time to time to varying degrees. And for some people, the thought of missing out on some news regarding your social circle is very hard to bear. You genuinely have a fear of being excluded from an online comments-fest on Facebook or the re-tweet of your favorite tweet peeps words of wisdom.

I think we need to remember, that what we see on social media networks in writing is, in some aspects, what happens quite often away from the computer in social circles and human experience. We miss out. We don’t get the latest gossip. We aren’t included in the conversation. We aren’t included in the lunch invitation. We are not invited to the party. And what happens? We begin to question ourselves. We begin to question our likability. Our intrinsic worth.

What I believe is incredibly dangerous and destructive is a thought pattern that says, in a round-about fashion,  ”If you don’t Like this (Facebook post), you don’t Like me.”  ”Is anyone reading and caring what I write? Do they care about me?”  If that is the way you think, or approach social media, you need to step back and assess how things are and get a grip on your worth because YOU are incredibly valuable. You are loved and have the capacity to love and embrace. You are somebody’s son or somebody’s daughter, you have been fearfully and wonderfully created by God.

I think Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and all the other online social media arenas all have their place, have become a part of our lives and have enriched them also. But seriously, if you are checking social media feeds all the time, in fear that you will miss out on being included, I suggest you take a break. Disconnect. Fast. Whatever it takes to know that you don’t have to draw your worth from this well of social experience.

Go hug someone. Call someone. See someone. Touch someone. Love someone. Find security in a loving God who takes you as you are and loves you forever in all your brokenness and insecurity.

There will be people reading this thinking, “Running? Dave? With sandals? Are you nuts?”.  No, I usually don’t where any shoes at all. You might need to read my last post as a filler.

To all the other barefoot and minimalist runners out there. Welcome! You know my joy and frustration.

Onto the review.

I bought these online here http://www.runbranca.com/ two months ago because.

1. They were new

2. They were cheaper than other huaraches type sandals available online.

3. I made a pair of my own huaraches from 4.5mm insertion rubber but they were heavy, stinky and left my feet black.

They arrived in this

They arrived about 3 weeks later (I’m in Australia) in a flat post pack.  I don’t have a photo of them before I cut the toes end but I’m a size 13 shoe so there wasn’t a lot to trim. You’ll notice how NOT-Handy I am with the scissors. Was going for the rough unshaven guy look in my cutting style. Not true again, I had crappy little scissors.

You notice on their site they give some instruction videos on cutting them when you get them. It’s good  to be generous at first with your size. You will be running in them so cut a little, wear them, go for a run and trim again to suit.

The back of the sandal is already styled and cut. Very nice and neat and not small considering the size of my foot. In fact, given the price, the craftsmanship on the sandals is quite good.  The video on their site outlines some of the sandals features and is worth watching if you are considering a pair. Which brings me to the materials.

THE MAIN STRAP LACING is standard nylon shoe lace material. Ties up well and feels alright.  I’ve not owned a pair of running sandals with leather straps so I can’t compare but these are fine.  The strap is protected under the sandal with an additional rubber patch. Clever but I wonder how replacing the strap lace will go considering its sealed underneath.

THE BACK STRAP is rubber and I must say, very comfortable. Nice, light and makes the sandal easy to get on and off without having to do the laces again. Clever.

THE SOLE is rubber. Just smooth underneath and I needed to scuff them on some rough rough to take the shine and slipperiness off them.  I’ll be honest with you though, you can smell the rubber. It smells like the insertion rubber I made my own huaraches from a while back.  The smell hasn’t gone either.  I do like the thickness of it. Just right so it’s a little flexible but doesn’t flap and curl under the toe line.

THE FOOTBED is, well… looks like a wide piece of gaffer tape that’s been stuck on and obviously is how they make the custom crazy colour models so cost effectively. It seems pretty well glued on and is trimmed well. Didn’t un-stick when I cut them with my crappy scissors.  The footbed is smooth and doesn’t take any moisture. Which sucks for me because I have sweaty feet and slip all over the place – which is probably the thing I dislike most about them.

THE COST:   At $30USD & delivered to Australia in three weeks. These are great value. Don’t know if I’d pay double or even $50 for them. The price seems fair to me considering the materials used.  Actually, it is really good value for Australians with the dollar the way it is now. I mean they get delivered to your door and you’d pay that for a decent pair of thongs (FLIP FLOPS – hey downunder we call ‘em thongs OK mate!?)

WEARING THEM:  I have worn them a bit. Honestly, because I love barefoot running on concrete I’ve only ran maybe 1-2KM in them but the slapping sound of the material, the lack of proprioceptive feedback on my skin and the sweaty, slippery surface puts me off and I carry them.  HOWEVER, casual wearing to shops or out and about is good. Again, the wet sweat underneath put me off if it’s warm (which it is in the state of Queensland) but they beat a pair of thongs or fully enclosed regular shoes for casual wearing.    I am still to wear them more and may be able to report the long term wear and tear in a year or so.

THE LOOK:  Hey, if you go minimalist sandal, you are asking for comments, looks and laughs so you can’t be too hungup about the looks. I will say though, the shoe lace tying method on top is both great (for practical reasons) but a little girly looking for my liking. But that’s just me. I’d like for them to tie a little differently and considered cutting and tying them but the lace stretches after a few wears like a normal nylon shoe lace does, rendering the cut and tie idea a little useless.  My wife may get a pair of crazy color ones for the summer and she won’t mind the look of a bow on her ankle.  I mean, leather strap huaraches look sort of Roman and eastern. These, on a guy, look a little too feminine in my opinion.

OVERALL:  I can’t really compare these to other minimalist shoes/sandals (feel free to send me some to review) but I think these are good value for money and will probably suit the female not-sweaty-feet-sole market really well.  They have a great range of colours and they are custom made to fit you well. The back strap and the lace system is great and quick and easy.  The smell (although not drastic) may go after a while but if you leave them in a hot car you will smell them when you get it.  At size 13 mine weigh about 370gram from memory. Not super light but no super heavy  either.

Although I’m yet to wear them more across summer and I’m not a fan of running in them (personal preference). As a whole, I like them and the team who made them have thought through the production and lacing system well.

FOR YOU?  I say, try a pair – it’s a $30 risk which, in the scheme of things isn’t a massive one for minimalist shoes/sandals.

So we know our five senses right? Sight, touch, smell, sound, taste.  What about Proprioception? Perhaps if it were easier to say and spell it might have made it on there. What is it and why am I blogging on it?

According to this site one overlooked sense, known as proprioception, is as important, if not more important as the other senses, for normal functioning. Proprioception is “the process by which the body can vary muscle contraction in immediate response to incoming information regarding external forces,” by utilizing stretch receptors in the muscles to keep track of the joint position in the body.

Now I’m writing about it it because I came across the term whilst studying this article, video and e-book from Lee Saxby.  I came across the site because I took up barefoot running 5 months ago and I honestly think it’s the best thing I have ever done for my body (but that’s for another post or 20).  And for those new to the term or idea – it’s running, no shoes, on all surfaces – I like concrete pavement. Did 10km this morning. Took about an hour. Feels amazing.

It’s said that during running your brain relies on proprioception for 70% of it’s feedback. Often muffled by fat shoe soles it may explain common injuries like twisted ankles and other injuries related to poor running form (and attention need whilst in shoes), which in turn, is often the result of your body not having the correct sensory feedback to make adjustments to gait (stride) and pressure applied on impact.

I’m convinced some children learn to walk and balance later than others because parents always have shoes on them and the brain isn’t geared for it, especially that young.  Our last two kids walked earlier than the first and I’m quite sure some of it has to do with footwear and this false idea we bought into that said “Protect their feet!”  from what? Feeling the ground? lol.

Even studies and therapy with the elderly have seen them gain greater balance and mobility once again by taking off their shoes and standing/walking on varied to surface to wake up the senses in their feet.  Again, it’s proprioception doing it’s thing again.

Am I against footwear? No way. Power to it! It allows us to dominate as a species. But like gloves for the hands, footwear is a tool and doesn’t HAVE to be used all the time.    See how long you last with a pair of gloves on all day.  As with all things, common sense reigns.

For those that can’t bear the thought of going totally barefoot, there are an increasingly large number of minimalist shoes on the market. Even manufacturers like Merrell are making minimalist shoes now.  Shoes that still let you feel the ground but protect them from elements and harm. You might also have seen the weird looking Vibram Five Fingers shoes around too. Again, thin & light to promote proprioception and foot strength.

*Just want to add that the Nike Free shoes are SO NOT minimalist or barefoot-like. Definition and proprioception FAIL but marketing WIN – I’ll give them that much.

Thought I’d end with an embedded video from movement specialist Lee Saxby who has partnered with Terra Planna (I hear they are the best minimalist shoes out there – still to get some in Australia) to explain the topic and demonstrate how it affects how we move. Video here if it doesn’t display http://vimeo.com/12451532

Learn to Run Barefoot with Lee Saxby and Terra Plana from GTB Goodtruebeautiful GmbH on Vimeo.

My goal was to have a meal or coffee with a new person every week for 52 weeks. By far the best business and career development decision I ever made.

To challenge myself I put a few names on the list of people who I knew I would have to work hard to get an audience with. These were people, who at the time, were out of my proverbial reach. But, I even got them!  In fact several of them ended up chasing me.

The quickest way to come across 52 candidates are:

• Join several networking groups.  Eg  BNI.
• Don’t limit yourself to a particular industry or person type.
• Be bold and ask ask ask.
• Pay for the meal or coffee. (Word gets around if you are stingy)

Have a favorite place to meet and get to know the wait staff well. This just looks impressive. I had an account at a local diner which saved valuable time during the meetings also.

The monetary return on investment was partly immediate but it’s best to go in with a long term view on return. I would have to say, within 12-24 months, it increased my market worth two-fold. No lie.

The personal return is impossible to measure because I gained some great friends in the process.

So give yourself a worthy financial year goal like I did. Your confidence in your ability and market worth will grow.  You’ll meet some great people. You’ll learn some highly valuable people skills. AND you’ll drink plenty of coffee… and that’s always a great thing!

Still, to my surprise, I met plenty of people who didn’t need internet at home. Or they couldn’t afford it. Working people. Men. Women. Married. Singles. No internet at home.

“But it’s so cheap!” I shouted after coming from 512K expensive speeds in Australia 2006.  ”Yes, but I don’t need it, I have my cell phone if I need.” was their reply.  Or “I use it at work if I need the speed and download.”

I was in IT at the time and needed the net at home for work and staying in touch with family overseas.  I needed wanted the Pay TV for the English channels.  I needed the net and liked Pay TV but the super high speed connection speed… it was just a bonus really.  Still, many seemed to be OK without it at all in the home. Saving their YEN for other things like clothing and food and using their mobile devices for net access.

I recently ditched my fixed line and ADSL at home. I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab with Telstra and use the Wifi HotSpot app to provide net usage to the home. $59 for 7GB per month and we take it everywhere. Saved ourselves over $600 per year and just cut back on a couple of browsing and downloading habits.  And now, I’m OK without the massive speed. So would about 80%-90% of the people I know…. and I’m talking 100′s.

Which leads to the question in the title. When the  Australian Government spends billions of dollars to roll out an Optic Fibre based network, will we use it or feel we need it?  I mean really NEED it?

Do I need Pay TV? Or am I happy with the large number of free to air digital channels available to me now? I mean there is satellite too right?

Do I need insane download speeds? Or can I wait a couple more minutes?

Do I need to see the doctor on webcam? Because last I looked, I could do that now if I wanted. Speeds are fast enough… and I don’t do it.

Will my children be part of a learning environment where it’s really needed? I mean what can’t they do now that’s of great value?

Do I need VOIP a phone system on a giant high speed system? Mobile phones remain our choice of voice communication in Australia and you’ll have a hard time convincing us to do otherwise. Besides, VOIP run fine through ADSL.

In my opinion

Should the network be upgraded? Yes, create a sustainable upgrade plan for the next 3 years, and revisit it after that to take into account trends and technology.

Should it be at a huge cost to the population as is currently planned? No, I think it’s overkill. While everyone is talking ‘Green’, ‘Sustainable’, ‘Simple’, ‘Cutting back’ and ‘Future proofing’, the Government is ripping up the pavement to lay a highly volatile form of cabling that may never be used by more than 20% of the population. The cost to the tax payer is incredible. For now, just lay fibre into those places that need it most; Hospitals, Business Hubs, Schools.

I’m just not convinced that across this vast land, optic fibre is the best solution. I would be spending the money on wireless technology and infrastructure. Employing the best minds in the world to develop packet streaming and compression systems that will increase speed and function to the masses and their mobile devices. Perhaps license and sell that technology off to other nations. Seriously, I mean even now, how many are reading this on a mobile device? Did you need fibre to to view it? How many of us spend hours per day on sites that are crippled by ADSL or Wireless internet speeds?

Open to comments and thoughts. BTW, if you’re over 21, still living with your parents, still  in your pajamas, you’re a massive movie thief and online gamer, you can get a life and keep your comments to yourself.