Russell Moccasin's Minimalist Shoe Line

See here.  For my money, these and Vibrams are the best minimalist shoes out there, and I own most of the available options.

I really wanted to post the contents of an email I sent to Russell on these boots; fortunately they've made it public:

I called Russell with a bunch of ideas about making a minimalist shoe, but not a lot of practical experience in shoemaking. Fortunately for me, Russell has plenty, and I’ll take full credit for realizing that I should stop talking and let Russell make me some shoes. I learned more about this whole minimalist shoe movement from a short conversation with Ralph Fabricius than from almost anyone else. I figured I would need to make a sales pitch to convince Russell to make these shoes for me, but Ralph got the whole concept before I’d finished explaining it.

This is really what makes Russell's shoes different from all the other minimalist shoes: they've been shoemakers for a long time.  Ralph's probably forgotten more about making shoes than the other manufacturers have learned.

I'll do a post soon on the Munson Last and its significance, but I want to note here that I never would have learned of it If Ralph Fabricius hadn't told me about it.  It was nearly forgotten, but for him.