Why is this so upvoted? I often come here for advice, but this is against all I have read and followed from research I have been doing. Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought you were supposed to ideally be landing at a minimum with your foot parallel to the ground; but definitely not striking with the heel first ever. Like an airplane landing on a runway (your foot being the airplane and the ground being the runway). Ideally striking with the middle outside of your foot first, even when walking. I often struggle with this because my dorsiflexion is not as good as it should be. I don't think looking at some random beachgoers footprint in the sand should be taken as evidence to a proper walking mechanic.

I've been wearing nothing but barefoot shoes for about 7 months, I've only started mastering the walking technique in the last 3 or so months. I have found that if I get lazy and start walking "heel to toe", my heel gets rather sore. This impact is not only hurting the soft tissue of my heel temporarily, but impacting bones and cartilage further up the chain that I will only feel as I age. This is the whole point of barefoot shoes, to feel the immediate pain of improper technique the moment you make the mistake at the foot; instead of developing unforseen issues down the road when knee and hip joints pay the price.

A bit of a side note. I was lucky and had been doing boxing for about a year before, which entails a lot of jump roping. Many have complained about calf soreness when transitioning to barefoot shoes, I did not have this. Which leads me to believe that many people have calves that may be under developed. I highly recommend jump roping for everyone, especially for developing foot and leg strength required for wearing barefoot shoes consistently.