Tim Butterfield Attempts To Zero-Drop His Sneakers

It's not as easy as you would think.

My first attempt to zero a pair of shoes were my beloved Montrail Mountain Masochists.  I'd been running in my Vibrams for a couple of months, as well as hiking and wearing them to Home Depot.  I decided, since I was planning on racing in them, to go back out on a run in the MMMs.

It was a pain.  The heel kept interfering with my stride; I was regularly jamming it into the ground.  So when I got home I realized that I was not going to be wearing the MMMs any more, although they were one of the better sneakers I'd ever owned.  I followed Anton Krupicka's example, bought a bread knife at Walmart (so as to not use one of my wife's bread knives), and attempted surgery.

It wound up like Tim's attempt.  I severed the heel from the upper.  Whoops.

My second attempt involved a rotary table saw and the L.L. Bean Katahdin Iron Works Engineer Boot.  This is one of the few non-military Munson last boots available, and is amazingly comfortable to wear, aside from the heel.

Let's just say the patient didn't survive, and I was lucky to retain all my fingers.

The next pair of shoes I wanted to modify went to the cobbler, who explained, in passing, that severe cuts were the norm when first working as a cobbler.  OK, then.