Barefoot Running Magazine is Ready for Download!

Anna T said:

I am co-founder of Barefoot Running Magazine and think it’s time to set the record straight here as some of you are not aware of the how the magazine is put together.
The first point I’d like to make is that we don’t receive ANY money out of this magazine. I don’t mean that we break even – I mean that we receive no money for advertising and as you all know, it’s free for readers. Somebody said something about the “glossy content” – we’re pretty impressed with that, since it’s put together by two people in a one bedroom flat in London, on Microsoft Publisher because we can’t afford a more sophisticated design program!
The background of the magazine (now in its third year) is that it started off as our newsletter and it’s grown into the huge magazine it is now because we wanted to offer as much as possible to any runner, or indeed fitness enthusiast. We quickly realized that the content would become very repetitive if we only talked about barefoot running. However, there are always features about barefoot running in the magazine, if you care to read it properly. One of you suggested an article on working with children – one of our first issues had a feature on a course that we ran in a local primary school called “Run for Fun”, which included getting kids and their families to run barefoot.
Barefoot running means different things to different people too. Some think of it as an extreme sport, some like the therapeutic aspect of it, some look at it as a purely mechanical thing that helps their running. Our magazine tries to touch on all aspects.
The magazine includes minimalist shoes as well as other types of fitness because we want running and fitness to be all inclusive. Many of our readers are not barefoot runners but enjoy the content anyway, because of its diversity. Barefoot running is about community, support and inclusivity, not exclusivity.
In fact, the community aspect has helped keep the magazine running because all our contributors also offer their time and expertise for free. We’ve had fitness trainers, nutritionists, bloggers, Pilates teachers, yoga teachers and Feldenkrais teachers all contributing their knowledge. And yes, barefoot runners contribute too (David and I both run completely barefoot).
The name "Barefoot Running Magazine" appears to be a problem for some, but as there is a barefoot running theme in every issue and we also include minimalist shoes, the name seems pretty fitting, along with its subtitle. As TJ mentioned, this website is called “Barefoot Runners Society” but has sections on shoes and other things.
As TJ also said, she has (at our request) asked several times for people from BRS to contribute to the magazine and some members have, which we very much appreciate. We would love it if you would send us suggestions, articles, photos, etc. One of you suggested flooding the magazine with your barefoot experiences and “something would be good enough to print”. All of it would! It’s an amateur magazine, rough around the edges – it is far from perfect and we are not looking for perfect content. Just interesting, helpful, entertaining reading.
We’d like to continue to improve the magazine and welcome constructive criticism, in a structured form, via email rather than feeling like we’re under attack! This is the nature of forums – people can get carried away, but please be aware that your comments do reach real people.

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Anna T said:

Thanks Lee. There is still a barefoot running theme though (two thirds of the current issue are directly related to running, more than half of that relating to barefoot/minimalist running) and it's the name it's had since its inception. David and I are movement therapists and barefoot runners and know that people can get injured when running in shoes. They also get injured from barefoot running - for various reasons including mechanics, doing too much, poor diet, stress, or any combination of these. It's therefore important for people to have access to as much info as possible. The Sock Doc kindly contributes our injury articles at the moment, and the message is always to look at the whole picture if you're injured and definitely to not rely on your shoes to keep you running, but to address underlying problems. Again, BRS itself has all kinds of products featured on the website (including shoes) which is why it is such a wealth of information. Should its name change also? We have barefoot/minimalist runners who test the shoes so that they can offer feedback to the manufacturers to help them create footwear that is closer to a barefoot feel. There will always be footwear, so it's part of our goal to help make that footwear as healthy as possible. Many minimalist footwear companies actually have the same goal. Please feel free to contribute to the magazine as you are obviously well informed and passionate about barefoot running and the more perspectives we can offer, the more rounded view we can provide to readers of what it's all about.

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Barefoot TJ said:

I understand it's difficult for a magazine to reinforce it's stance, since it's a static presentation, whereas, a forum is dynamic with ever-growing conversation. But, one way to overcome this with a magazine like Barefoot Running Magazine (if shoes as tools is the stance of the magazine too) is to perhaps have an editorial note or inset in each edition stating such. I'm sure this would be reassuring to barefoot runners everywhere.

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