I have been a fan of the barefoot shoe movement for the past few years and I generally don't miss an opportunity (spelt BARGAIN) to get my hands on a pair.
I recently came across an ad on Facebook about BARESTEP shoes, and decided to give them a try. This was in April 2023.
As you can see below, I paid R990 for a pair with a listed price of R1 090. I had a R100 promo code, a ~9% discount.
For some reason their system must not have picked up that I had already paid for a pair when they e-mailed me a voucher for R150 off the normal price. So from that,I can only deduce that if you don't complete a purchase, they will try to entice you with additional discounts to make sure they close the sale."I've managed to pull some strings"....yeah right!!
I received my pair and i can't have complained too much. Was on par with expectations given the price i paid.
My previous experience with barefoot shoes was with Vivo. This is the crème de la crème of barefoot shoes. Well, at least according to what I've been exposed to so far. The cheapest pair retails for a few bucks under R2000, before promos. I've also followed the Vibram brand quite closely. So these were my benchmarks in terms of price and quality.
Anyway, back to the BARESTEP. The shoe itself isn't branded, which gives a "fast fashion" generic feel. These were the vibes I got. I got what i paid for, I guess. No complaints.
I wear the shoes around the house, and to the gym. They aren't bad as trainers but definitely not something I'd run with. The fit is too slippery and would no doubt cause my feet to blister.
Fast forward a few months, I saw the same shoe on a Facebook ad. 65% off! 65%! I got excited. My expectation was that I'd end up paying around R382 for a pair. My intention was to grab a pair for the wife, and maybe my kiddo. 65% off was afterall better than a Buy-1-Get-1-Free deal.
I navigated to the website, and was ready to 'add to cart'.... BUT the price was actually R1 189. What the heck????
Instead of the shoe being discounted from the original list price of R1 090, the normal price was now displayed as R2 890. Disappointment!!!!
I laughed! Hard! So they actually raised the "normal price" so that you would think you're getting a bargain, while they were selling the product at a price higher than before. How did these shoes go from R1 090 to R2 890 in a space of 4 months? 165% Inflation? No way!
I guess a new and unsuspecting potential client may have easily fallen for this marketing trick. I might have done the same if i hadn't bought the shoes before, and didn't have exposure to the Vivo and Vibram brand before.
There is no way the Barestep shoe is worth the R2 890 it is listed at. I've worked at a fashion store that would buy the latest Nike or whatever brand of sneakers that were popular, then ship the sneakers to their factory shop to copy and then sell. These were the vibes I got. Definitely not R2 890. Similar types of shoes are selling on TakeALot for around R699, some less than that. I even found an almost identical product on SHEIN for R265! Yes, This excludes shipping and taxes.... But still definitely not R2 890. I would not expect to see these shoes ever retail at R2 890.
The reason I decided to write about my experience, is not to ridicule the price and quality of the Barestep shoes. It is to make you aware of the marketing tricks that are employed to get you to part with your hard-earned money.
In this case, I encountered anchor bias, which is often used to make a person think they are getting a good deal.
Luckily, I had a prior experience to refer to, and realised that the deal wasn't as good as advertised.
I also found it ironic that the shoes are always ON SALE TODAY. This creates the impression that you will miss out on a bargain should you not BUY NOW. A sense of urgency. Clever little trick.
This also reminds me of a certain carpet shop that had a "clearance sale - shop closing soon" promotion for 8 years.
Shop around and compare, don't just believe what you see and think that's automatically the best deal you're getting just because the seller says so.
Look after your hard-earned money.
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