Low drop, lightweight, almost no cushion shoes have helped my feet big time when running long distance. They have almost eliminated shin splints and any knee pain. My feet were pretty flat but developed an arch because the tendons and muscles in your feet have to work as opposed to letting the shoes do all the work. Also much less stress on the knees. But it took damn near a year to get acclimated to them.
This.
I don’t run in them (much) but my feet and ankles have gotten so much better since I switched to Chucks. Anything much more substantial than that drives me crazy now.
And as for the dangers of ‘minimalist’ shoes, as I understand it, the biggest problem is people don’t work their way into it enough. It takes time for the musculature and tendons to catch up to the training. But people just switch shoes and keep doing the same old thing, which is injury city.
