Saving on running shoes?

We see something new every day. Today, as I was wrapping up my morning run, I ran into a young man, running barefoot. I had never seen this before.

He was on the asphalt road as I was, and while I had seen people running with finger-shoes, that are already close to wearing nothing, this athletic looking runner was in direct skin-to-road contact.

I know that barefoot running is part of a wide movement called "natural running" inspired by the Tarahuma folks in Mexico, and that it became fashionable in the last decades, but it's not quite for me. I still like to first have the “rubber meet the road”!