For those who are just reaching the “petit monde” of running, minimalist sneakers are like cod’s heads: they don’t exist, no one has ever seen them, except a few methuselahs who claim to have even worn them on their feet.
An object of desire at the beginning of the decade, partly due to the hype surrounding the book “Born to Run”, by the American Christopher McDougall, the minimalist sneaker, without cushioning, was already mandatory in the portfolio of major brands. I worshiped the Nike Free, which was practically all leather, a masterpiece of elegance and restraint.
The idea behind the shoe, its “raison d’être”, was simple: to stimulate the muscles of the foot, which would do the work of cushioning, thereby also helping with speed gains.
Over the years, the concept was distorted, and the models became clogs, with very high soles, laces, flaps and airfoils. It was difficult, let’s face it, to inject added value into something that was more subtraction than addition.
For some time now, I’ve been browsing multi-brand stores and e-commerces in vain looking for an old-school minimalist. Well: without anything resembling the Free or its cousins, I ran a 10K on the abrasive Marginal Pinheiros, in São Paulo, barefoot. Or rather, socks. I talked about this a few weeks ago.
A beatific reader of the column, Frederico Giovannetti, later wrote the following: “It’s worth taking a look at Fiber’s products! I run barefoot or with these foot gloves once a week. Pretty cool.”
It didn’t happen any other way: in a short time I was in front of Gustavo Dal Pizzol, CEO and founder of this small company from Rio Grande do Sul, which also operates as a “private label” manufacturer, making sneakers for third parties – a very common model in Brazil.
Fiber is actually a “spin-off” of Top Shoes, the footwear company set up by Pizzol, who told the column that he continued the family tradition. His father made leather shoes but went bankrupt, leaving his son with debt and a certain aversion to financial leverage.
Corporate narratives aside, Fiber emerged as a “wearable” design studio, and began to gain notoriety during the pandemic, by producing two models of masks that would be adopted by Team Brasil, the group of Brazilian athletes who competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
For the feet, which is what matters to us here, the company currently manufactures “barefoot” models for asphalt and trails, as well as more conventional sneakers, with high soles. The prices are tempting: from R$299.90 to R$399.90.
Fiber’s main showcase is gyms and physiotherapy studios, as its models without cushioning guarantee, from the outset, more stability. An option to be considered especially by older people. Sales are through its own online channel, but Gustavo says that he has now signed agreements with large retailers such as Centauro and Decathlon.
This month, the venerable magazine The Economist published a report on barefoot running. Of a more revisionist nature, there is no “hook”, a generating fact or phenomenon to justify the text. I can only think of the concept of synchronicity, since someone in Brazil was dealing with or was about to deal with the issue.
The contribution is small: the magazine says that scientific studies that would confirm a lower rate of injuries among users of non-cushioned sneakers are inconclusive.
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