Barefoot shoes try to outrace the black market
money.cnn.com
money.cnn.com
EDIT: spelling (typed this on my phone)
Alibaba is by far the biggest player, their ecommerce empire is easily the third biggest after Amazon and eBay. Their main site is basically for people outside China to hook up with factory agents to buy stuff wholesale. They also have a japan-specific version, and a heavily used internal chinese B2B version. Their http://taobao.com is super dominant within China, occupying a space between Amazon and eBay stores but with even more marketshare, and with sellers ranging from a kid in a dorm room to multinational corporations. They also own Yahoo China, the chinese paypal-equivalent, the biggest chinese ad network, and a salesforce.com-style CRM.
Their equivalent site to TradeTang would be their recently launched http://aliexpress.com that has a full US localization and integrated cart/payment/shipping/etc. You'll find some weird shit on there, like this seller: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/801597/all-wholesale-product... — page through his catalog to find dried seahorses, reciprocating drilldoes, folding bikes, giant inflatable water walking balls, ghillie suits, dried human placentas, cow bezoars, portable titanium stripper poles…
By far the biggest hassle with using Alibaba is just communicating with the seller, they hate answering email and if you ask multiple questions they'll cherry-pick the most superficial one to respond to. The only way to get anything done is to be up in the middle of the night and get them on MSN messenger.
Can you elaborate? Is this only true if you need more detailed info about the product. If you know the product is what you want will it be rather easy to order it?
Or is it that Alibaba doesn't have "full US localization and integrated cart/payment/shipping/etc"
On Alibaba, you have to talk with the seller for anything to happen. Though some of them work directly for a factory, many of the sellers are total freelance agents, and even the ones that work for a factory will act as agents to resell items from other factories. You can usually suss out how direct a seller's relationship with the ultimate supplier is, and they'll often tell you outright, though none of them seem to be willing to talk about each other. All of the ones I've interacted with have been ~30yo women that seem to be working solo as agents with other people doing the fulfillment.
The other thing is that they very rarely put up enough information to find out what the product actually is. Often the product can easily be made-to-order with finishing options up to you (though the factory does all the product development). You end up looking at a bunch of agents and looking at pictures, weights, and options to discern who's reselling what. Occasionally the OEMs will have product data on their websites and you can backtrack from there. It's kind of maddening but none of them really give a shit.
Even if you think you know what you're getting, you still want to get spec sheets from them for confirmation, and spreadsheet catalogs of similar stuff so you know you aren't missing anything (they don't keep their listings up to date). Even after that you still have to go back and forth on quantities, prices, shipping, lead times, options, potential setup fees for customizations, etc. They do like MSN and pasting stuff into excel documents to send via direct file transfer. It works ok once you get that far, but it feels really sketchy.
[1] http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/310761384-7inch-PAD-tab...
I started running with an ancient pair of shoes. Flat, thin sole, absolutely no cushioning in it. After quite some time, I bought new running shoes, thick sole, lots of cushioning.
On my first run with the brand new shoes, I was much faster. MUCH faster. I got home amazed and thought I should have switched a long time ago, what was I thinking running in those ancient beat up shoes!
And I thought these new shoes must have a lot of bounce in them. So I jumped up a bit - nothing, no bounce. So I took them off, and tried to bounce them again. Still no bounce. They are cushioned, they dampen shock, absorb it, they are the opposite of bouncy.
Well then I should have been slower, why did I run faster with dampening? I kept thinking about that, and then the next day my knees were in pain. And that's when I seriously started researching running and shoes.
And I've pretty well convinced myself barefoot is the way to go. But to avoid stepping on you name it, look for shoes like the Vibrams, avoid heavy cushioning.
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=129234... (found via images.google.com .)
This site also has an amusing comparison of crocs & vibrams.
image: http://birthdayshoes.com/media/blogs/bdayshoes/2010_Photos/m...
description: http://birthdayshoes.com/merrell-barefoot-shoes-partner-with...
I love my VFFs. Vibram deserves to reap the financial rewards for creating a whole new product category, and doing such a great job with it.
As an aside, both my friend and her husband (who sometimes runs barefoot) said they didn't like the shoes. Since the glove-like fit actually forces the toes a bit further apart, they prefer lightweight "natural" trainers like these: http://tinyurl.com/yagubt5
I've been interested in barefoot running ever since products like Vivo and Nike Free began making headways into the market. The article posted makes it seem like these are competitors introduced after Vibram Five Fingers, but they were all introduced at roughly the same time.
The barefoot products mentioned were all introduced at a time period where barefoot running was beginning to gain serious traction. It was excellent timing for all companies pushing barefoot products. Personally, I think alot of Vibram's press has to due with their unorthodox design. Nike's barefoot alternative is a much more traditional shoe design (that I think is more known for its comfort).
Vibram is popular due to a quality product with some timing that wasn't just coincidence (they weren't the only company who saw the trend). I think their "honest" and unorthodox design gave was the real differentiator that made them that much more popular than the competition
It sounds like here these were counterfeit Vibrams (holding themselves out as real) but can someone else make gloved shoes (with individual toes) or do these guys have a lockdown on that entire concept?
This is with KSOs. With the Sprints, I've never had an odor problem, but they can air out more easily.
I suspect that if you had some kind of warm-air (~35C) device (e.g., a heat gun) to gently blow air through them post workout, one could keep the odor on KSOs down.
Don't tumble dry them though -- the glue melts.
edit: according to Wikipedia, heat guns go from 200-1000 deg F. Still far too hot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_gun
Now for a specialty shoe, rock-climbing/boulder comes to mind, yeah these would be incredible. In fact, I think I'll probably buy a pair for that the more I think about it. I don't tend to sweat as much climbing.
You don't really need the socks though, and I've only worn them barefoot. The material is moisture wicking and your feet might get a little stinky but you can just throw the shoes in the wash fairly easily.
I've climbed in them before, and they're a bit different to climb in than specialized climbing shoes (I wear 5.10 spires normally). The rubber on the FiveFingers model I tried wasn't as tough as the 5.10 Stealth (which is likely different depending on the Fivefingers model), and climbing shoes also have much better ankle support. In particular, my Spires have a band of thick, tough rubber that covers the Achilles tendon, which is brilliant for heel-hooks. The Fivefingers, lacking that support, made moves like that more difficult.
I hope this issue gets solved with the new 2010 running models (Bikila, Speed) which have 2 additional millimeters of sole.
Real climbing shoes are tighter and more rigid. They do just the opposite of what these barefoot shoes do; they bunch your toes together, forming them into a kind of single supertoe. It's probably about as bad for you as wearing high-heels, but it's very effective.
Also, the soles on barefoot shoes are not sticky enough for climbing, so smearing doesn't work too well.
There's the occasional exception though, I was once able to gain a foothold in the five fingers by sticking my big toe in a hole that fit it exactly.
I always wear socks with my vibrams, they provide slightly more insulation, and it's just generally more pleasant not to wear the rubber shoes directly.
I do a lot of trail running, and I can't say they weren't made for trails. In fact, I prefer them for trail running.
For the longest time I've worn the smallest, lightest Pumas I can find, because of the closer to barefoot feel, so I may just pick up a pair of these to try.
I like the shoes too, but sometimes the rhetoric used to promote them strikes me as silly.
And I've only gotten compliments on my VFFs. Then again I chose the blue camo color.
I don't know how other people do it, but I find it hard not to land on the balls of my feet when running.
The reason why companies have to make "Barefoot" running shoes is because shoes have been traditionally manufactured with thicker heel and thinner forefoot. This promotes a heel footstrike rather than with the balls of your foot. Shoes like the Nike Free or the Vibram Five Fingers were designed to promote natural foot movements.
If you try running barefoot, I think you'll notice that when you land with your heel, you're actually not putting much weight on your heel at all - it's more of a gentle support to pivot and most of your weight is only put on your forefoot.
When I run in running shoes, my cadence/form does change slightly. I am used to running by landing on my forefoot, but I personally find it more difficult with running shoes on. I made a conscious effort to land with a bit more weight on my forefoot.
I don't think there's any particular secret to running like this; I do martial arts and am barefoot all the time, so running with such a stride seems pretty natural to me -- it ultimately just works better for barefeet, whereas shoes promote an "unhealthy" foot movement.