1960: New Balance introduces the Trackster, generally recognized as the first shoe seriously designed as a daily running shoe.
See Also: You Don't Know How to Run
Inside the Minimalist Running MovementThe Minimalism Starter Kit
Easing into the barefoot revolutionSeptember 1960: Abebe Bikila (pictured) wins the Olympic marathon barefoot.
1976: Brooks introduces the Vantage, the first running shoe with an EVA midsole and “pronation control,” a big step toward what conventional running shoes look like today.
1977: Jim Fixx’s tops the New York Times bestseller list; Fixx wears Onitsuka Tiger racing flats on the cover.
1993–95: Tarahumara Indians win the Leadville 100-miler in Colorado wearing handmade sandals.
2004: Nike introduces the Free as a “training tool” to strengthen the feet and lower legs, an acknowledgment that most running shoes of the time provided no such benefits.
2009: Chris McDougall’s becomes a bestseller, ushering the nascent minimalism movement into the mainstream.
2010: Just four years after the shoe was introduced, Vibram FiveFingers account for 2 percent of running-shoe sales.
January 2010: Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman publishes research in supporting the idea that conventional running shoes alter “natural” running mechanics.
May 2010: The backlash begins. , a so-called maximalist running shoe with an eye-poppingly oversize midsole, debuts.
January 2012: Meb Keflezighi wins the Olympic marathon trials in Skechers, one of dozens of mainstream brands now making minimalist shoes.
March 2012: A class action is filed against Vibram for deceptive claims about the health benefits of its shoes.
December 2012: Former Vibram CEO Tony Post launches a line of second-generation minimalist shoes, .