Barefoot enthusiasts and athletes have been searching for a shoe, which seems to be mysterious and somewhat elusive... A "barefoot cleat". Whether it's for parents seeking shoes for their children, or for the athletes themselves - specific ball sports such as, Baseball, Rugby, Soccer, Lacrosse, Ultimate Frisbee, American football and so many more all require a cleat with treads/spikes, in order to optimize a change in direction at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, for most barefoot enthusiasts, wearing a non-barefoot shoe is akin to undermining their own ideology, as well as potentially damaging the feet in the process and when having to do certain activities requiring alternative footwear, this can cause a problem.
Most cleats are notorious for their extremely narrow fit, tight toe-box, and inflexible sole. The reasons behind the narrow toe-box is in order to assist in cutting (changing direction on a field); the shoe acts as a snug extension of your foot, which in turn ensures that your toes don't slip, or move around. With this being said for those of us who have wider feet and a nice splay there are some options out there.
One other thing to note, is I don't recommend competing in your high-level sport in the below mentioned cleat alternatives of these as the ability to play sports at a high level in minimalist shoes can be difficult or many people. However, what I do recommend is practicing in them, in order to achieve better foot stability, mobility and strength.
If you want to skip straight to the true barefoot cleats currently available, click here
THE CLEAT ALTERNATIVES
One of the most popular barefoot brands on the market; Vivobarefoot has designed a number of shoes targeted at trail runners. The trail range comes in both SG (Soft Ground) and FG (Firm Ground) soles, and are particularly useful for trail runners/hikers facing a myriad of terrain, such as grass, snow and mud. The SG sole has 5mm lugs, providing an adequate amount of traction on turf. Furthermore, I have personally used these, and am happy with the result on turf and grass. However, it is important to note that due to Vivos wide toe-box, your toes can slip when changing direction.
Pictured below is the Primus Trail SG Mens (available in women's also). It is priced at $160 USD and available in sizes US7-US15. Click here to view on the Vivobarefoot website.
You can use our Code VIVOTBSR for 10% off!
Cost: 160$
Best for: Short Grass.
Available on market: YES!
If you want a bit more traction than the Primus Trail SG for turf, then the newest grippiest tread the ESC is what you are looking for. Still lightweight and flexible but an upgrade on the previous soft ground model.
What is noticeably helpful here is the heel counter which helps with lateral stability.
Having it sit slightly higher on the ankle makes it similar to many cleats that football players wear. You can also swap out the quick zip laces for regular ones.
Despite being very non slip on wetter surfaces especially combined with higher turf like high grass or real turf you will still sometimes slip when changing direction.
You can find it here and you can use our code VIVOTBSR to save 10%.
It also looks like this model has been discounted but you can still find it on some sites or stores of Vivobarefoot or on Amazon here.
Recently Vivo has rereleased this model in a different color called the Hydra Esc. It essentially functions the same and can be found here Code VIVOTBSR
Cost: 179$
Best For: Artificial Grass & Low Grass
Available on market: Usually gets discontinued and released in a new colorway
This is a new release of vivo and after some testing is quite promising, it has a more lugged sole then their popular firm ground model and is coated with circular lugs making it quite grippy on regular grass or artificial turf. We tested it in 2 sizes, one based on sizing chart and one size smaller. Both fit us well, with the smaller size working better because of its added snugness (but not too snug) it allows for optimal force transfer to the ground with minimal slipping in the toe box or heel. It features a slip on wool upper along with leather edging to make both a water repellent and beautifully aesthetic functional shoe. While it is designed as an all-around shoe and even trail runner, we have found this excellent for playing sports in on turf/grass.
We also reviewed it in full here.
You can find it here on Vivobarefoot and can use discount code VIVOTBSR FOR 10% OFF.
Cost: 199$
Best For: Park Activities
Avaible on Market: YES!
4. Altra Lone Peak 4
Altra is a popular minimalist shoe brand based in the US. They don't produce truly barefoot shoes, however, all their shoes are zero-drop, and include a wide toe-box. Fortunately, Altra also cater to trail runners, and produce excellent trail shoes, albeit with a bit more padding, when compared to other brands. Their trail shoes range from approximately 25-33mm, with sizing running from approximately US 7 - 15. The Lone Peak for is currently priced at $105 USD. This shoe has great traction and can be great for someone transitioning to more minimalist style shoes while continuing to play sports. The thick cushion while being beginner friendly may be a downside due to reduced proprioception
Click here to view the Lone Peak 4, in addition to other Altra trail shoes.
Best For: Park Activities & Beginners.
Softstar hand makes some of the softest flexible shoes out there all out of their workshop in Oregan. Their Mega-grip Outsole is Vibram's grippiest sole yet and results in an extremely soft flexible shoe with an extremely rugged sole, due to the upper being a very soft leather, it's crucial that you be careful not to get stepped on or cleated while in this, but it can be a great option for solo agility drills or team practices. We chose the custom option and got to choose all the color schemes and the mega grip outsole. We chose Blue & White for our country and an orange stripe for the local tackle Football Team we play for. While the outsole is quite grippy these are a little too flexible to allow one to play high level sport in them, being that the leather is extremely soft with no heel counter or rigidness your entire foot or your toes can bend under while moving at high speeds. To be fair this shoe is not designed as a cleat but as a trail runner but proceed with caution.
They can be found here.
Best For: Low Intensity Ball Sports
A direct predecessor to the Feldom, the calver is a lugged trail runner featuring 6mm grippy lugs covering the entire base of the outsole. Made of recycled plastic bottles, it is not to stiff but not super flexible either giving you a little more structure to push off of when changing direction, after testing both the Feldom and the calver. The calver is likely the most available nonactual cleat barefoot shoe available on the market for field sports, I personally use it often in ultimate frisbee and some of my athletes use it in rugby as well. The only con for was the insole sometimes sliding inside and the tounge shifting a lot in change of direction.
Best For: Artificial Grass, Grass, Turf
Available on market: YES!
Cost: 115$
Discount Code: BFS10
The True Cleats
Another true cleat Alternative that has popped up on the Scene is Natur Athletics, specializing initially in Youth sizes they plan to expand to a full adult sizing range and also are releasing minimalist basketball shoes. Their plan is to launch their Kickstarter in September 2022. What is really unique is their patent pending cleat plate system which will prevent pressure points from the spikes underneath the rubber outsole. We will keep providing more information on these as we receive it.
Update: October 2022, Their Kickstarter is fully launched, and you can back their campaign and receive pair of youth, minimalist cleats, adult cleats or youth basketball shoes. Their campaign is going until November 13th, 2022.
Update: Unfortunately, the Kickstarter camping did not hit its goal, but they are looking for alternative funding.
Update March 2023: Pre orders are now available for both adult and youth cleats and basketball sneakers.
Update October 2023: After personally testing these, we have found them decent on firm ground or grass and ok on turf. They are very wide, resulting in toe spacers required otherwise you slip.
Update April 2024: Nature athletics are now available for shipping worldwide. They are available in Green, Black, White & Pink with their extra wide toe box.
After giving 100 or so hours in this cleat here is what we found, as an overall cleat it does excel in performance specifically on grass but the toebox is a little too wide for our liking, while we do have a strong muscular wide foot, we personally do not like playing in toe spacers and we felt too much sliding and out foot overworking with the uber wide toebox. Other than that, it makes a great cleat especially for people with a good muscular splay.
Link can be found here
Cost: 159.99$ per Adult Shoe and 91.99$ Per kid's shoes
Available on market: YES!
Best For: Grass, Turf
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2. Free Kickz
Free Kickz is a soccer specific turf shoe and cleat model meant for youth and adult soccer players; its niche is its sticky upper meant for ball handling. It plans to be released mid 2024.
FreeKicks are the 1st true soccer barefoot style shoe. Designed by a lifelong passionate soccer player/trainer Nico Vaccaro.
The main characteristics of the Freekickz are
a wider toe box, flexible outsole, zero drop, and with a fly knit upper material. The wider toe box is a few mm wider on each side strategically shaped through extensive R&D to find the sweet spot between comfort and performance. The toe box will not only let your toes splay naturally but will also hug your foot like a true soccer boot and allow maximum ball feel. The flexibility of the shoe is not over the top as well with just the right amount of give but can also fold in your hand. The upper fly knit is the same you’ll find on any “top brand” soccer cleats on the market. It wraps around your foot for a snug one-piece sock-like fit and runs up the ankle excelling touch on the ball without comprising the foots natural function. The outsole texture for both the turf and cleats is a durable rubber. The turfs pattern and configuration give an excellent grip on artificial grass as well as dry grass and the cleats are recommended for wet artificial grass as well as dry and wet grass.
Update June 2024 from founder Nico Free Kickz will be available to the public for pre-order within about a week. The pre-order page will accept deposits and will guarantee customers in the first 300 pairs and first delivery at also the cheapest price locked down.
2. Link for pre-orders will be up here by end of June.
3. Estimated price is around $174.99 maybe a shy cheaper if I can.
However, first 300 customers will get it at the cheapest price
4. What makes Free Kickz unique is that it’s the only true minimalist style and performance cleat on the market. It’s made by a soccer player for soccer players. It also has some key features that are very important. One being we don’t just have a wider toe box but a rounded wider toe box. This is key because in soccer ball feel is the most important aspect of the shoe. And we decided that just having a wider toe box wasn’t enough. We needed to find balance and the right amount of flexibility to all the foot to move naturally yet still perform at the highest level. Finally we have a zero drop platform to take pressure off the forefoot and knees and allow for natural ankle mobility and movement. This also helps give a more natural running gait when playing the game.
NOT OUT FOR MARKET YET
3. CodeFootwear
After Speaking with Chad the Owner of Codefootwear here what we pulled up.
After receiving foot scans, our cleats also require a couple measurement photos and some personal data points; height, weight, level of activity/sport, as well as your current and past favorite pairs of footwear worn on and off field. All that info determines how we engineer your personal pair to have just the right amount of flexibility/stiffness. All cleats are zero drop and made to flex under mid foot. We also include varying levels of toe spacers to be worn with and without shoes. Our 3D code work allows us to not only make the cleat fit your exact volume and toe shapes.. but allows us to dial the toe box shape to fit with a toe spacer being worn inside cleats. This gives a huge advantage (if your feet are strong enough) to finally cater to someone with strong feet and allow them to be fully splayed, and not slide around The price varies largely because of the time and material needed to print a small kids shoe vs. an adult with large feet. Cleats also come with custom insoles that have a space where you can swap out 1 of 5 foam pieces of varying heights. Not meant as a piece to prop your arch up.. it’s soft and domed and allows transverse arch to engage more some people like it, some hate it, that’s why the option is there to tune it to your specific needs. Same with toe spacers. They can be worn in between one or all toes, and can be mix matched for user preference. The cleat itself is made of various levels of TPU in the upper for lightweight containment. Slip on fit means no break in, yet can be cinched up with laces for even better performance. Interior utilizes a 1 piece seamless microfiber for ultimate touch on the ball and a textured insole to keep you from slipping around inside cleats. Our goal is to provide the best cleats you’ll ever experience no matter your age, weight, or skill level.
Update June 2024 After personally testing and logging about 200 hours in these, these are likely the best cleat one can ask for in the current barefoot market. The major cons are the price cost and the production time.
It's important to ensure that the cleats are truly perfect for your feet as making them custom like to thin or not fitted correctly can cause injury or extra costs.
While there are some NFL players currently wearing custom versions of these the company is working on streamlining their production process to make it more available and more affordable for the individual customer. They are working on sourcing better materials and the updated cost will be released after that.
NOT OUT FOR MARKET YET
4. Prevolve
While previously a independent company, Prevolve merged with code footwear for a bit of a time but are now working under separate companies now.
They are fully custom fit based on your foot scans and data. 3D printed and made on demand in the USA. They Include custom fit toe spacers and modular metpads to help you gradually strengthen your feet.
It's all custom, so we don't do sizes. There is no limit on minimum size, and a maximum size of Men's 17
We have yet to try these but have a test pair coming soon and will give feedback.
Cost: 595$ with free shipping in the USA
Currently Available: YES!
There are several other barefoot brands working on bringing barefoot cleats to the scene making the dream a potential reality of seeing athletes worldwide wearing shoes that are good for their foot health and performance
Conclusion:
The main reason behind why barefoot cleats have been slow to the scene is due to a wide toe-box having the ability to cause slipping of the foot. In addition to this, the barefoot market is a niche, and people within that market requiring cleats would be of low demand, which would not be worth investing in for most companies.
Perhaps one solution could be to educate sports professionals of the benefits of barefoot footwear, however it would be extremely difficult to convince professionals to sacrifice their performance for the sake of foot health.
You can also see our various tests of many of these cleats and various cleat alternatives on our Instagram
Click here to view our shoe review Instagram or our performance page