Credit: SWNS / Robin Greenfield
Meet the man who doesn't own a pair of shoes after going barefoot for more than a decade - even when walking rocky mountains.
Robin Greenfield, 37, was inspired to ditch his trainers in 2008 when he joined a university trip in New Zealand and noticed one of his course leaders walking around barefoot.
Robin was "intrigued" and started walking barefoot with him - which he said was a "natural draw and felt amazing".
From 2011, Robin went barefoot full-time and started strolling around the supermarket, the high street and even mountains without any footwear.
Meet the man who doesn't own a pair of shoes after going barefoot for more than a decade - even when walking rocky mountains.
Robin Greenfield, 37, was inspired to ditch his trainers in 2008 when he joined a university trip in New Zealand and noticed one of his course leaders walking around barefoot.
Robin was "intrigued" and started walking barefoot with him - which he said was a "natural draw and felt amazing".
From 2011, Robin went barefoot full-time and started strolling around the supermarket, the high street and even mountains without any footwear.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (music)
00:05 So, I haven't always been barefoot.
00:08 I have to be honest, I think always there's been
00:10 a little bit of an interest at least.
00:13 Even when I was in high school growing up
00:15 in northern Wisconsin with frigid cold winters,
00:19 I seem to remember trying to go outside barefoot.
00:23 And I seem to remember going to parties in college
00:26 in my sandals even in the middle of winter.
00:30 So, it's always been a part of me.
00:32 But it wasn't until my early 20s,
00:35 I was in New Zealand and Australia
00:40 and I had a mentor.
00:42 I was doing a study abroad program
00:45 and this guy, his name's Gary,
00:47 he's from Tasmania, a pretty wild guy.
00:50 And we'd be climbing over mountains on our hikes
00:53 and this guy would be doing it barefoot.
00:55 Everything we were doing, whether it was climbing
00:58 or hopping over rocks or walking through town,
01:01 this guy was barefoot.
01:02 And I saw that and it just intrigued me.
01:06 And I thought, hey, if Gary can do this,
01:09 then I have to be able to as well.
01:12 So, I started to take my shoes off and walk with Gary.
01:16 And at first, maybe I'd only make it a half mile
01:20 or a mile, but pretty quickly I was making it
01:23 a little bit more and a little bit more.
01:26 And that's what I did.
01:29 I started off small and built it up and built it up.
01:32 A few years later, I remember I was in Northport, New York
01:37 and there was a 10K, the Cow Harbor 10K.
01:41 And I had never run a competitive 10K,
01:46 that's six kilometers, not really a competitive person.
01:50 But I decided, hey, I'm gonna do this
01:52 and I'm gonna try to do it barefoot
01:53 and see what happens.
01:54 So, I started out in the back of the pack
01:57 thinking that I would be pretty slow
01:59 with everybody else having shoes
02:01 and wanting to take it easy.
02:03 And I started out and I just found myself
02:06 passing dozens and dozens and then hundreds
02:09 and hundreds of people.
02:11 And I finished the race in about 44 minutes,
02:14 I think it was.
02:15 It was the fastest that I've ever ran.
02:18 You know, really one of the fastest I've ever ran
02:20 in my entire life and it was barefoot.
02:23 So, what happened was I just found myself
02:25 continuously exceeding what I thought
02:28 that I could do with my body.
02:31 And I found my body working naturally
02:34 and I found myself working within the boundaries
02:38 that I had with my body and I just grew into it.
02:43 Now, a lot of people, they can understand
02:46 walking barefoot, you know, at the beach
02:48 or maybe in a nice field or hiking in a,
02:53 you know, smooth place.
02:55 But I go barefoot pretty much everywhere,
02:58 even in the streets of New York or in the alleys.
03:01 I'm generally always barefoot.
03:04 Now, I put on shoes sometimes, of course,
03:06 especially when I'm visiting colder climates.
03:09 But generally, my goal is to try to be barefoot
03:12 as much as I possibly can.
03:14 (gentle music)
03:17 (gentle music)
03:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]