Any man who gives a damn about his appearance is constantly dealing with the tension between style and comfort. Ideally, your clothes should fit well, look great and feel comfortable. But let’s be honest: sweats are more comfy than trousers. Untucked shirts are almost always more comfortable than tucked shirts.

And, strictly from a comfort standpoint, most guys would choose sneakers or flip flops over dress shoes any day of the week.

But you can’t where sweat pants and grandpa shoes to the office – or anywhere, for that matter – and expect to be taken seriously. So what’s the stylish man to do?

A new company – The Primal Professional – is solving this dilemma by merging comfort and style with a first-of-its-kind product – The Barefoot Dress Shoe:

Avid runners know all about the barefoot movement, but most people (like me) reserve bare feet for the living room, shower or beach. If you’re not familiar with so-called natural running, the theory goes as follows:

People were meant to walk and run in bare feet, not bulky shoes with thick padded soles. Barefoot running requires you to land on the balls of your feet, rather than using the standard heal-toe technique that most people are used to.

Barefoot enthusiasts claim that stuffing our caveman feet into heavily padded shoes every day causes all sorts of problems, like chronic joint pain and plantar fasciitis. Supposedly, going barefoot can prevent these problems.

Of course, most people don’t want to go shoeless – it’s dangerous and socially unacceptable – which is why barefoot shoes were invented. Up until recently, however, the focus has been on casual and athletic shoes, rather than formal, office-appropriate footwear. And most of the orthopedic (built for comfort) dress shoes I’ve seen are pretty ugly.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “This is all very interesting, but I don’t have any join pain or back problems.”