Review: Vibram Five Fingers Classic
crunchgear.com
crunchgear.com
Unfortunately, they also provide little to no toe protection, so when I smacked my 2nd toe against a wooden ridge, the nifty independent-toe design happily allowed that one toe to hyperflex, which chipped my metatarsal and ruined the joint space permanently.
Great shoes, but make sure to have a little more vigilance than usual. To be honest, I can't wait to get back into them once my surgeried joint heals up.
I guess I am lucky and never have had running injuries, but why are people giving these things such good reviews?
because they're fun. they're not a holy grail, certainly not one with instant gratification. they are pretty good when used as one part of a larger effort towards joyful outside time. the next step is seeing how easy it is to make neat footwear yourself, both recycled or from leather. then it's such a good feeling. shot and dang. plus, maybe you could make padded sneakers with low heels that you used to walk ball-first. just to try.
because they're comfortable! try running barefoot in a grassy field vs. running w/ shoes. no contest which feels better.
with the 5 Fingers you get the same barefoot feeling while running on asphalt, concrete, whatever.
i love my five fingers KSOs!
One thing I think is interesting, is that Vibram seem to be getting a lot of grass-roots evangelism but the company itself has done a terrible job of encouraging that. Someone I know who's had Vibram's for way over least a year (to my knowledge) asked them repeatedly if he could sell them somehow, since everyone always asks about his shoes. Vibram said that unless he wanted really large distributor amounts, then no.
It seems to me like they could make a great story by enabling people wearing the shoes to refer people to their online store with a small discount in return for a buck or two. If you wear these shoes people will stop and ask you about them, and this would be a great model to encourage Vibram owners to upsell them.
Just thinking to myself, it'd be interesting if Vibram included X number of preprinted "affiliate" cards in the box of each pair of shoes you bought from them. The set of cards would contain a custom url (e.g. xyz123.vibram.com) and the wearer of the shoe could carry these cards with them and pass them out whenever someone asked about the shoes.
The preprinted business cards would give each customer an easy way to get up and running referring other potential customers.
If I like the product and people ask me about it I don't mind evangelizing it. However if so many people ask me about it that it becomes a burden I can see why people want a little love back.
I guess it's a matter of opinion, but it seems to me that if you have to pay for good word of mouth, then maybe your product isn't so great after all.
He doesn't mention, though, that your muscles will (initially) hate you for it the day after a run. I'm in my early 20s, and for the couple of days following my first "long" run in my Vibrams, I was walking like I was in my late 60s or 70s.
That said, the pain is worth it -- I'm now walking with a better posture and with more natural-feeling movements, even in my socially accepted shoes.
All I wear now is Vibrams and Vivos, and I don't even run... >.> I used to hate shoes and wear flip-flops at every opportunity, but now even flip-flops feel clunky.
I find they hurt when running on gravel(nickel sized rocks hurt!) more than anything so I try to avoid that but it might be something your feet adjust to with more mileage. I started at 2 miles and have worked my way up to 8 at a time. When switching back to the KSO's after doing a run in regular shoes the day before you feel very light on your feet because they weigh so little. The most pain for me is that im getting blisters in a couple of places I havent before but I expect that to not be a problem once my feet adjust accordingly. Also make sure you get socks if you are going to do running..you dont need them for regular use but you will want them for long distance running.
EDIT: The KSO's are probably the shoes you want to get if you want to do longer distance running vs the classic (Based on numerous other reviews I read when trying choosing a model).
I've had mine for about a year now. I just wear them like that, I don't use them to run. I like them a lot.
That being said though, a good friend of mine is a runner on the track team at one of the University's here and he wears them for time to time(I don't think he runs in them all the time) and he says they are incredible.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-...
They're great fun as river shoes, though I have to guard my toes with greater care than I did with worn-out trail runners (my previous river shoe of choice).
...total non-sequitur.
(I've had a pair of classics for a few weeks now. I like to run in them. Sadly, the appearance is somewhere between gorilla feet and ballet slippers.)
Anyway...I honestly couldn't say. I don't surf, I only swim, and I've never gone swimming with mine. Other than that, I don't think I've noticed anything weird about how they handle sweat or moisture compared to other shoes...they get wet when you're wearing them somewhere wet, although I find myself sweating less on my feet with these because I'm not wearing socks with them (although you can wear toe socks) and they don't smell yet (they're only about a month old). The upside is tossing them into the washer to clean them.
I have the sprint version though, vibram makes a "flow" version made of neoprene that might be more appealing to you if you surf.
My second and third toe are fused together at the skin and vascular level. They have independent bone structure and ligaments, but they never fully separated in the womb. I could theoretically have surgery to make them "normal", but I always felt I should be proud of who I was and not have mutilate my body to make it like everyone else.
For now I'll continue to have to go barefoot.
I've been told that it's not uncommon in Ireland.
While these shoes aren't saviours, they are easily worth it IMO. First couple of weeks made my ankles and calves hate me, but afterwards I've always felt great.
running on hot pavement - the thin soles enable you to feel the temperature of whatever surface you're on. It never gets unbearable, but you'll definitely know when you're standing on a hot surface.
stepping on a single small rock - wearing normal shoes, the soles don't bend much if you step on a rock, but the vibrams flex around the rock so you'll definitely feel the pain.
stubbing your toes - the vibrams make it feel like you're barefoot, but the shoes make your foot slightly larger so sometimes you might trip on yourself walking normally because your body assumes you're barefoot.
not good on small clipless pedals on bikes - I bike a lot and sometimes I'll jump on my bike without my shoes with cleats. Normally it's not a problem with normal shoes since the rigidity of the soles protect me from the small surface area of the clipless pedals, but the vibrams make me feel like pedaling on tightrope.
getting sand in shoes - I have the KSOs, but sometimes a small sand particle will still make it in. Once in, the sand particle will make it down to the sole area and you'll definitely feel it since you don't wear socks to wear vibrams.
You'll get over most of these drawbacks after a few months though. The shoes are definitely worth it over the small drawbacks. If you're not sure, you should try them out in a running store first, you don't have to order them over the net.
I hear you on the "skymall-ish" comment... but trust me it's definitely not some crap like that, it's solid, and I highly suggest everyone at least try them out.
I also do my gym workouts in them too.
I haven't run in them, but I've hiked significant distances in them. First time was in the smokey mountains in Tennessee, along a portion of the appalachian trail. I brought along a pair of hiking boots in case my feet got sore. They didn't.
The sheer amount of texture you feel is incredible. I wear them constantly now. It's tough to describe without experiencing it, but the shoes give you an awareness of your environment that can't be felt any other way. It's not enormous, but its enough for me to pay for the shoes.
i guess they got me. i love them.
Unfortunately, I only bought one pair of the toe socks for use with them and going barefoot in them makes for a sweaty experience. So I ordered another 6 pairs of socks so I could use them all the time, but UPS wants $48 for customs into Canada (but mostly for their brokerage fee) which is ludicrous so I refused the shipment. Now I'm waiting to reorder them but this time using the USPS which seemed to work fine the last time when I ordered the shoes themselves.
Once that's sorted out, I'll be wearing these things until it's just too cold to do so up here!
Doctors and shoe specialists all told me I needed better support. The supports and insoles only ever made it MUCH MUCH worse. I have one flat foot, so that was the focal point of all their recommendations... But the only thing that seemed to help, which was a fluke discovery and not recommended by any "professional", was being barefoot.
In these shoes, I can run around and play any sport I want with zero problems so far.
What I'm hoping and seems to be working a bit is that walking barefoot more helps strengthen my arch and other less-used muscles in my foot and that helps eliminate this too. But I expect that's not a 100% solution and long-term I'll probably need some sort of treatment to correct the underlying cause, which is the fallen arch.
The shin splints were really painful though, and those are completely gone. If I put any downward pressure on my legs (sharp stops/turns, jump shots, etc) it used to feel like my legs could snap in half. Not fun :)
you can also make tire shoes yourself quite easily.
you don't need $80 shoes for awesome sandals.
that said, i have 5-finger shoes as a bday gift. they are excellent boat shoes. pretty good in rivers, but as stated before, rock bruising is very real. maybe that's something that has to be developed over time like any muscle.
Rotating your shoes is one of the best ways to prevent injuries if you're trying to move towards more lightweight shoes. I try to use a combination of racing flats, Nike Free 3.0s, and trail flats, and variety really does help cut overuse injuries. If you intend to run fast on trails, you can get many of the benefits(e.g. low weight, flexibility, and a more responsive foot feel) with a trail flat like the inov-8 X-Talon 212, while avoiding a lot of the catastrophic injury possibilities.
One final note: although I love my pair of Five Fingers KSO, they smell really bad very quickly. If you get a slightly larger size, some people have luck using the Injinji toe socks with them.
I'd recommend hand-cleaning them with washing powder in the sink, and really scrubbing the insides of the soles and fabric around the toes.
Did you have any problems?
I started to get a little plantar fasciitis from too much mileage in my racing flats and excessive downhill running, but was able to fix that by rotating my shoes more and sticking to the flats.