Why Are Barefoot Shoes a Good Choice for School and Kindergarten?

In August, parents start getting everything ready for the new school year – notebooks, pencil cases, sports clothes and, of course, indoor shoes for school or kindergarten. Indoor shoes are one of those things we often choose quite practically – they should be easy for the child to put on independently, breathable, go well with their clothes and, ideally, last for the whole school year. And all of those criteria are perfectly reasonable.

But there is one important thing worth thinking about even more: a child may spend six, seven and sometimes even eight hours a day in these shoes, five days a week, for many months in a row. So these are certainly not “just indoor shoes” – in reality, they may be the most important pair of shoes your child wears over the next nine months.

First of all – what do we actually want from children’s shoes?

The answer is actually quite simple. A shoe should protect the foot, stay securely on the foot and interfere as little as possible with the way the foot moves. That means there should be enough room for the toes; the heel should not be raised; the sole should bend together with the foot along its entire length and in every direction; and the shoe should adapt to the shape of the foot rather than trying to shape the foot itself. These are essentially the main principles of barefoot footwear. And that is exactly why, in my view, barefoot shoes are the most logical choice for a pair of shoes a child will wear for more than 1,000 hours during the school year.

If you would like to understand in more detail what barefoot shoes actually are and how they differ from conventional footwear, you can read more in the previous article – [read more here].

But this time, let’s focus on the practical side – why this matters so much specifically at school and kindergarten.

In kindergarten, the foot is working all day

In kindergarten, a child does much more in indoor shoes than simply walk from one room to another. They squat, sit on the floor, get up, run, jump, climb, stand on their toes and constantly change body position. The foot is doing a great deal throughout the day, and the less the shoe interferes with it, the more naturally it can take part in movement.

That is exactly why I have always found it strange that small children are still so often given stiff, difficult-to-bend shoes with thick soles and rigid heel counters. If even an adult struggles to bend the shoe with their hands, how is a small child’s foot supposed to move freely inside it? A child’s foot contains muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments, and all of these structures develop when they are used – not when a shoe supports, restricts and holds them in place.

Research also shows that shoe construction affects the biomechanics of a child’s gait, and that more flexible shoes allow the foot to move more closely to the way it does when barefoot. This does not mean that a child must walk barefoot all day, but the logic is very simple – if a shoe is needed to protect the foot, it does not also need to restrict what the foot is perfectly capable of doing by itself.

The toe box is not just a design detail

The second thing I really recommend parents look at critically is the shape of the shoe from above. A child’s foot is not symmetrically rounded at the front. Toes are not meant to be tightly squeezed together, and it is especially important that the big toe is able to continue along its natural line rather than being pushed towards the other toes, symmetrically centring the front of the foot into what in English is often described as a pointing toe box.

Many children’s shoes are attractive, soft and even technically the correct size, yet they narrow at the front exactly where the foot itself becomes wider. This is not just a question of comfort. Long-term compression of the toes can affect their alignment and is associated with various toe deformities, including hallux valgus – the familiar “bunion” at the base of the big toe – later in life.

So when choosing indoor shoes, look not only at the size but also at the silhouette of the shoe itself. Does it follow the shape of the foot? Is there enough room for the toes at the front? Can the big toe remain straight inside the shoe? These questions are no less important than whether the shoe is long enough – width matters too.

A heel on a child’s shoe is not necessary simply because we are used to it

Many children’s shoes have a slight heel elevation, even when it is not immediately obvious from the outside. In sports shoes, it is often hidden inside a thick sole, which we tend to describe rather uncritically as cushioning (but why is it needed in the first place? The foot has its own natural shock-absorbing mechanisms, which work extremely well when we do not interfere with them).

Even a small heel elevation changes the position of the foot. When the heel is raised above the forefoot, the angle of the ankle changes and the body has to adjust the position of the other joints in order to maintain balance. This includes changes in the curve of the spine – the abdomen moves forwards and the lower back arches more. The greater the heel elevation, the more pronounced these changes become.

In barefoot shoes, the heel and forefoot are at the same level – this is known as zero drop. It allows the foot to remain much closer to the position it would naturally take if the child were standing barefoot on the ground. And if a child spends almost the entire day in these shoes, it seems quite logical to me to choose a construction that alters their posture as little as possible.

Does the foot really need to be supported?

This is one of the most common questions parents ask about children’s shoes, especially during the preschool years. Does the child need arch support? A rigid heel counter? Does the ankle need to be stabilised?

A healthy child’s foot does not automatically require constant external support simply because it belongs to a child. The arch of the foot is not a rigid structure that must be held up from underneath. It is a dynamic system involving muscles, ligaments and tendons, and it is movement and loading that allow this system to develop.

Of course, if a child has pain, a significant deformity, a neurological or orthopaedic condition, and a specialist recommends specific support for a particular reason – orthoses or custom-made orthopaedic footwear, for example – that is a different situation. But we should not begin with the assumption that a healthy child’s foot is incapable of supporting itself. Fortunately, the vast majority of children are healthy.

At school or kindergarten, there is another very simple factor that matters – time

A schoolchild may spend almost the entire day in indoor shoes. That means something that seems like a minor compromise in a pair of indoor shoes becomes much more significant over time: a toe box that is slightly too narrow for six hours a day, a sole that is slightly too stiff for six hours a day, a small heel elevation for six hours a day, five days a week, for almost the entire school year.

That is exactly why indoor shoes are one of the things worth being more selective about. If, for example, a child’s outdoor winter shoes are thicker, stiffer and provide more protection from the weather, there is very little reason to keep the foot in the same kind of construction indoors.

A good indoor shoe for school can actually be very simple – light, flexible, wide through the toe area, with a flat sole and breathable enough that the child’s feet do not get too hot.

What would I check in the shop?

First, I would look at the shoe from above. If the toe box narrows noticeably, or if the inside edge of the shoe – where the big toe sits – angles towards the centre instead of continuing in a straight line, forcing the big toe into an unnatural position, I would rule that option out. If the shoe passes the silhouette test, I would pick it up and try to bend and twist it. The sole should not be flexible in just one specific place; ideally, it should follow the movement of the foot as a whole – the best shoes can be rolled almost completely into a little “snail”. Then I would look at the shoe from the side: is the heel higher than the forefoot, and is the toe noticeably curved upwards? An ideal shoe should be completely flat and sit as close to the ground as possible.

The easiest way to check whether a shoe actually matches a child’s foot is to remove the insole, if possible, and place the child’s foot on top of it. This shows very clearly whether the toes really fit within the shoe and whether the shape of the foot matches the shape of the shoe. It is the simplest test for seeing whether a shoe is anatomically shaped and whether the child’s foot will be compressed inside it.

Of course, the correct size matters too. A child needs some extra room for growth and movement, but “let’s buy two sizes bigger so they last longer” is not a good idea either. A shoe that is too large has to be held on the foot and can interfere with movement just as much as a shoe that is too small. Oversized shoes are unstable on the foot and trigger the same unconscious mechanisms we use when wearing loose slip-on shoes – with every step, we tense the front of the foot to keep the shoe in place, even if it is technically fastened around the ankle. That is why an optimal growing allowance is around 5–7% of the foot length. So, for example, for a child with a 15 cm foot, approximately 1 cm of extra space would be a good allowance.

And yes – the child has to like the shoes too

That matters. A child has absolutely no interest in our biomechanical arguments if they think the shoes are ugly and try to “forget” to put them on every morning.

Fortunately, barefoot shoes are no longer limited to one strange-looking shape. There are trainers, sporty models, more classic school shoes and styles for both younger children and teenagers. So there is no longer any need to choose between “the child likes them” and “they are good for the feet”.

And, of course, whether a child likes a pair of shoes also depends on how easy they are to put on, not just how they look. That is why, when choosing shoes in a shop, it is important for the child not only to approve of their appearance but also to try putting them on and taking them off independently, so you know they can manage them on their own. This matters less only for very young children who are still helped with dressing at kindergarten, although even then I would say that learning to manage their own shoes early is a useful step towards independence.

But in the end, it really is quite simple – a child’s foot does not need anything special at school or kindergarten. It needs enough space, the freedom to move and a shoe that protects the foot instead of trying to reshape, support and control it throughout the day.

If a child is going to spend thousands of hours a year in indoor shoes, it is worth choosing a pair in which their feet can spend those hours as freely as possible.