Running shoes are carefully designed to cushion your feet and provide arch support and padding and all that stuff. Run without shoes and you’ll tear up your foot on rocks and pebbles. But studies have shown that running shoes can do more harm than good. When you run wearing shoes, you tend to land on your heels. Somehow, that’s what most running shoes make us do. But run barefoot, and you’ll naturally land on the balls of your feet. Striking the ground this way is less forceful than landing on your heel. So it’s likely that running barefoot may reduce injuries to the knee and lower back.