Shoe choice is critical. Need to go to a good running store and inspect some shoes and their insides. Fine one that's nice and plush inside with no spots in the fit that are overly abrasive on your foot.

I run sockless for sprint and oly races, Saucony fastwitch has been my go to race shoe for a while. I'm sure others will chime in here with models that have worked for them sockless.

I am a big fan of running sockless for everything 70.3 and shorter. It does save a good bit of time in transition, but there are things to consider. I think that you could use almost any shoe provided that you don’t have any bunching of the tongue or rubbing of the seams on the top of the foot or in the instep. When you go to the shoe store, wear some really thin socks or even Injinji finger socks to ge a feel for how the shoe might feel on your bare foot.

All of that being said, there is a good chance that you will hamburger your feet a little if you get some sand in your shoes or stuck to your feet. Also, dumping loads of water on your body at a hot race can cause some friction against the bare foot. So, just know the risks going into it if you have back-to-back race weekends. If you do hamburger your feet a little, flip flops and nu skin are your friend.

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I only run sockless, for all distances. I've had good luck with Zoot, On, some Hoka and Sketchers. The insides of the shoes seem to be more finished. I found on the regular brands, Asiacs, Brooks, Saucony, etc, the inside of the shoe is more unfinished and I'm more prone to blistering. Although I have had some success with certain models.
Biggest recommendation I could make is to just start running sockless in whatever shoe you want to use. I'll usually get blisters the first few times, then the blisters callus over and the blistering stops and I'm usually good to go.
In certain shoes where I will continue to get hot spots, on shorter races I'll rub a little body glide on that spot in transition and it usually holds up for the run.

Ditto the comments that the right shoes are essential. You must have shoes designed to be worn sockless (usually a one-piece, seamless upper). I run short races in Zoot Makai.

Also, get speed laces. Those help T2 a lot. Most of the sockless-designed shoes come with speed laces.

The key is the fit and finish of the shoes. The shoes need to really fit the shape and contour of your feet. I have done everything from sprint through IM sockless over the years with NO blisters. In the old days we used to sprinkle sand in our shoes in training to toughen up our feet. BTW, I now wear socks for 70.3 and above.

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David
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This.
Saucony kinvara for me. No socks and no problems at all distance including IM. Training and shoe selection is everything. Each new pair gets a couple of short runs before going long.

Like others have said, shoe choice is critical. That and building up the skin toughness/calluses on your feet. You can't just do it on race day and expect stellar results.

And expect your shoes to soon be banished from the house.

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Body Glide and baby powder can help a bit in terms of anti-chaffing. But, as others have mentioned, shoe choice matters. I usually wear Zoot shoes for Oly and sprint and Hoka for longer distance. I only do Oly and sprints sockless. In 70.3 and IM I pre-roll my socks and can have both on in around ten seconds.

Seconds do matter, and transition time is one area to gain some time. I've won a sprint overall by just two seconds and also missed a KQ by seven seconds, so regardless of distance every second does count!

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Thank you guys for this usefull advice. It's not that i'm racing for podium but the challenge in triathlon for me is doing the best i can. If anyone would have asked years ago id probably never thought i'd ever compete in any sport. Anyway, that's why those seconds still matter for this AG40-45 MOP newbie. Just want to find out how fast i can go.

I have never heard of "hamburguring your feet" but i think i get the general idea. I never thought of using body glide or powder, i will try that ( i have a 2 year old daughter so a healthy supply of baby powder is kept). I did get new shoes after destroying my foot. Also i was advised to get 2 or 3 pair and alternate. I now have a pair of Hoka, Brooks and Asics. I haven't heard of Zoot, i guess that brand isn't popular here. Also i went to two specialised running stores. They filmed my feet while running and all that but when i asked the same question about running without socks they could not offer me any usefull advice.

I changed out the laces of the Hoka and Brooks. Put stretchy silocone laces in that i got at Decathlon. Those need a bit of adjusting at first, but work great. Especially with the Hoka which have a big loop at the back to pull on.

I will start with doing shorter runs with my most comfy shoes, powder and see how that goes.

I put Skin Sake or any kind of petroleum lube-based bike short cream in my shoes, in the spots that I know will blister. Works incredibly well. Body Glide is water based, so it won't last nearly as long.

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I trained and raced sockless since before they invented triathlons until I could run no more. I still sneak out a run a bit however. Everyone is right about shoes that don't eat your feet being critical. Triathlon and running racing shoes get really nasty with all the stuff running down into them, but sockless worn shoes are generally nastier than sock runners even without dumping water down your sweaty body. It took me a while to get my feet in shape for sockless running. But I started sockless because of blister problems. Must admit the socks were crap in the 60s early 70s was part of the reason.
I would try it for a while and be patient because it is an adjustment. I only ran sockless a couple times on the trail. Socks do keep out small rocks and dirt from eating up your feet.
Sockless runners (and I guess all runners) need to smell their shoes occasionally. Nothing worse than riding in a car to a race with some funky shoe smell circulating around the car. Wives will pick up on that pretty quick too.

Practice putting on socks in high stress situations.

I know it sounds silly, but unless you can find the "perfect" shoe and your feet can handle sockless riding and running, any blisters or chafing that occurs during a race is going to slow you down way more than the (literally) 5 seconds it takes to put on socks. I slip a pair of no-show socks on in T1 in about 3-5 seconds and wear them for the bike and the run. Just roll them up a little bit face up on your towel and literally slide into them.

I wear socks for 70.3 and above as there is no shoe in the world that is going to prevent me from blistering after more than 10k of running. And I am always competing for a win or slot at every race I go to where seconds matter. To each their own, but comfort outside of athletic exertion has to be your #1 priority.

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Strava

1. Choose your shoes
2. Do a run in them sockless
3. Get blisters.
4. Let the blisters heal and become calluses
5. Repeat #3 - #5 until the calluses are tough enough
6. Race

Coat the inside of the shoe with vasaline and top it off with something like gold bond medicated foot powder. Helps keep the smell down, helps you get your feet into the shoes faster, and you'll generally stay blister free.

You are absolutely right when you are saying that discomfort might slow me down as much as the time it takes to put on socks. That's why i want to give it a try now and not later. My first race is may 11th so i still have some time to adjust. If it turns out sockless doesnt work for me i'll just go back to wearing socks. There are a number of things in this thread though that i want to try first.

I’m absolutely agree with those saying this is about shoe selection and not building up callouses. OP isn’t looking to become a sockless runner. I always run with socks but ditched them for Sprint and Oly races years ago. I haven’t done a 70.3 in a long time but I would probably take the 10 or so seconds to put in socks for that race. Zoot shoes as pure running shoes are meh but (at least most of them) are made for sockless running—very smooth and comfy, no seems etc so that is a good place to start. Mine are toward the end of their life and, unfortunately, they don’t make the one I like any more (I think TT version maybe). I Think there is a thread I started on here a year or so back with recommendations to replace the zoots; I haven’t raced much in the last 2 years so I still haven’t gotten around to replacing them and I now run with zero drop so finding s good zero drop shoe to run sockless hasn’t been easy. I do seem to recall that the Kinvara was a suggested replacement by several people as it is in this thread.

Used to be a Zoot runner as well... the TT's and the Kiawe were the last decent shoes they put out.. I digress. I also run zero drop and really like Altra... their whole line is zero drop. Currently use the Escalante Racer/1.5 for my long/general training runs and the Vanish-R (with the minimal insole) for my track/speed/race shoes.

To the OP, I've run sockless for years now and finding the right shoes is the most important thing. Some models work and others don't is the experience I've had. It's a bit of a gamble and you don't really know until you try them. I've also found that each shoe model (even from the same manufacture) fits a little different and sometimes you'll get contact that your feet will adjust to and sometimes you'll get damage that just won't work... like a toe with a light abrasion on the top vs. a full on bloody cut on your achilles.

Speaking of trying them out, my race shoes, the Altra Vanish-R's came with two insoles. One is a regular sort of insole with an arch, the other a flat insert with no arch... in testing both out I got a nasty arch blister with the regular insole and had a race before it could heal. I used a piece of Pro KT Tape to cover it... stayed put in the water and throughout the race.

I'm pondering the same thing for this season. The running shoe seems to be the easier find, as many companies specifically market shoes for sockless running. Less so for the biking shoes. Any recommendations on such shoes would be welcome, or suggested modifications (I've heard some people remove the tongue).

For cycling i have an older pair of regular road cycling shoes by Specialised (which has a tongue, two velcro straps and one strap with a buckle) and tri-specific cycling shoes Fizik Transiro infinito R3 (no tongue). I have used them both without socks on rides up to 1-2 hours. I have had no problems with either, no blistering, no chafing.

What works for one doesn’t have to work for the other. I’m running and biking sockless for about he last 30 years. In racing and training, always. Unless its really cold. Really doesn’t matter what shoe it is. I have feet with a skin so soft as a baby, no callus develment ;-). I have zoot’s, newton’s nb’s, saucony, hoka’s, etc. Don’t use vaseline or other glides during training and just seldom for a race. I started doing it sockless because i hate how there are always little patterns, weavings or other stuff in sock and i feel that they restrict me in moving my feet/toes.

What i do no suggest as some said to try here is to run and get blisters, let them heal, get them again and develop calluses. The chance you might get an infected blister can be really, really nasty.

For some it is easy, for others everything they try and still ger blisters. I think it is aboit the same as cycle shamois. Some want teally thick pads others like me can ride for hours without any chamois at all. Don’t ask me why, i just can. Same for the sockless running ;-).

Just give it a go for a shorter run and see what happens,

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Thanks Jeroen,

It's nice to see that i'm not the only one doing this. Like i mentioned in the local running stores i visited in Utrecht they had never considered that people run without socks.

My Fizik cycling shoes i bought in Hilversum recently when i was there for bike parts and the salesperson let me try them barefoot and keep them on for a while to see which ones were most comfortable. I'm very pleased with those shoes so far.

As for running, I will start trying it on shorter runs and see what happens. I'll just bring socks on my first couple runs so i can put them on when i run into foot problems.

So i'm looking for advise for the sock thing. Should i just forget about it and wear socks?


There must be a better way to save 10 seconds than ending up with blisters.

Cool that the Fizik shoes are a good match and, yes, we allow people to try them barefoot. For me the speed thingie is not the reason why I don't wear socks. I find it just more comfortable biking and running without socks.

Regards,

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Ease into it. Wear your shoes sockless around the house first. Try sockless on shortrer runs on a treadmill. Then on bricks. Use Body Glide or Chapstick on hot spots in advance. Bring socks on your long run and put them on when you need them. Eventulaly you go hard core.
The only time I wear socks is if its cold. Once your socks get soaked with "fluids" your shoes will get heavier and you will pay a price in time for wet heavy shoes and socks.
I don't wear sock on an Ironman. Also get shoes that don't have seams and drill drainage holes in them. The holes will work better if you take out the shoe liners.
One more benefit of sockless: two less things to wash.