ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the survey of the space occupied by the minimalist running movement within the striated space of North American capitalism. While technology and 'naturalness' or 'nature' have sometimes been framed as polar opposites, with technology necessarily seen to be polluting what is 'natural', Nike, through its design ethics, has clearly utilized the discourse of the 'naturalness' to create new technologies. Deleuze and Guattari observed that all spaces are continuously being transverse: striated spaces are altered into smooth, smooth spaces are reversed back into striation. The Greatest Race, however, was to materialize in the desert like conditions of the Barrancas with the rough terrain and demanding altitude conditions. McDougall popularized the idea of minimalism, even without a major focus on the barefoot running. With strong support by the evolutionary biologist Lieberman, barefoot running also entered into the scientific community interested in the distance running.
