The fact is most people have never seen what a foot looks like that has never been altered by shoes and just believe that what their and everyone elses feet look like is the norm/natural.

Unaltered Feet:

Altered Feet:

As you can see there is a huge difference between the altered and unaltered foot just from simple observations. Different shoe aspects shut as toe tappering, toe springs, and heel raises are the culprits. These aspects also have an effect on the arch of your foot and all the muscles associated with that arch. Like any arch in the world it needs to be supported correctly at its two bases:

However shoes all provide support to the center of the arch:

This allows the muscles of your feet to relax...for their entire lives, making them much weaker than they should be. This is significant since 80% of Americans will experience some type of foot problem in their lives.

This is made worst by the fact that toe boxes and heel raises in addition decrease the support of the two bases:

Also heel raises force our bodies to account for the lean resulting in lordosis which is one of the leading causes of lower back pain:

From the point of view of an athlete it is necessary to look at the feet as an extremely important supporting muscle group. As an athlete one is suppose to workout your complete body through compound exercise, which will increase your overall strength as well as prevent injuries. Your feet are the points that drive your force into the ground and it would be unwise to ignore their develoipment. It would be like buying a Ferrari and putting a set of Wal-Mart wheels. In addition, studies have shown that without shoes one uses 4% less oxygen.

Due to our society and environment it might not always be possible to go around barefoot due to sharp rocks, broken glass, or establishments requiring shoes. Luckily what we really want is the benefits of going barefoot and thus we can turn to barefoot alternative shoes such as the Vibram Five Finger Shoes or Crocs.

Crocs have the benefit of allowing your toes to spread out and their just cool. Vibrams are a little more extreme in that they actually move your toes to the right places and they have no arch support what so ever, which is good. I own both and have been very happy, the Vibrams take a couple days to get use to but after that they're great.

Cool so now you have all the reasons and none of the excuses to go barefoot.