Best Barefoot Gym Shoes (2024)

Looking for sustainable, high-performance sneakers for gym workouts, general training and day-to-day life? Then you’re in the right place.

The versatile, incredibly barefoot Primus Lite III is our most popular Vivo ever. Super lightweight, it’s designed to fully enable natural movement to unleash your feet with every step - walk, run or workout as nature intended.

But how?

There is a common misconception that high-performance workout and training footwear needs the latest fancy underfoot technology and support . But as we love to say: the most incredible piece of technology to ever go into a shoe is the human foot. If you simply let yours do their thing, you’ll be rewarded with supercharged strength, balance and mobility from the ground up.

The Primus Lite III has three crucial, simple design features that help you do just this.

First up, our 3.5mm Active Sole is really thin. The closest footwear that mimics the barefoot condition, this means the 100’s of foot muscles and tendons in each foot are able to work, which improves balance and you'll begin to regain a natural spring in every step. Winner of sneaker awards in Men’s Health 2022 and Women’s Health 2021, we think judge Lauren Kanski said it best when describing the Primus Lite III: “When it comes to strength training, I want to feel all the little muscles in my feet to execute proper lifts, and these are the closest thing to being barefoot in a shoe.”

Padding only pampers.

Secondly, width (footshape-not-shoehsaped) is also amazing for weightlifting performance. Especially when performing powerful lifts like deadlifts and squats - but also for all sorts of balancing movements - a wide sole allows your feet to splay naturally to stabilise you. A strong and stable base of support is the foundation of good technique and in turn better walking, running or weight-lifting performance.

The third key feature is flex. Made with super lightweight materials, the Primus Lite III offers oodles of it. This makes it incredibly versatile. Especially when running, cross-training and performing varied movements through practices like animal flow or calisthenics, flexibility means maximum range of motion and optimal technique.

Just as high performance footwear don’t require padding, minimal shoes should minimise harm on the planet. The less shoe there is, the less impact on foot and planet. Not only does the Primus Lite III offer less shoe for less impact, it is made of recycled animal-free materials so your workouts are sustainable in more ways than one.

Speaking of workouts, if you’re new to barefoot, don’t forget to take it steady. Especially with performance footwear like Primus Lite IIIs, your body can need adjustment time. To avoid injury, wearing your Primus Lites for daily walking is a great way to start, before moving on to gentle gym workouts and running. Always listen to your body and take your time.

If you heed this advice, wearing your Primus Lite IIIs will supercharge your foot strength, balance and health, not to mention your general athletic performance. You’ll be like Joe Wicks in no time (possibly). Which isn’t surprising, given The Body Coach wears Primus Lites for his bodyweight workouts! There’s no higher praise than that.