But...
Could this be an example of media hype? What do you mean?
Well, as already mentioned this is not the first time an article has appeared on the HN. Not a bad thing. But lets look a little closer.
Like him or hate him Tim Farris has reviewed these. I used to like reading his blog until I couldn't help feel 90% of his stories were there to push you to buy something ( Lead Gen, no less from another article in the top 30 today ) or left you wondering if he was paid to write that story.
The New York times has ran at least two articles related to these shoes.
Wired has an article and a review.
There is a chance that they are being discovered on the merit for what they may or may not be. I don't live in an english speaking country. Equally I am a huge running fan. I am yet to see any here, not even in boutique shops. ( Oslo Norway ) So I wonder how these amazing shoes are only being discovered in mainstream tech ( type ) sites which are aimed at a particular market.
So I googled it a little. "vibram site:news.bbc.co.uk" - 0
"vibram site:guardian.co.uk" - more than 1.
Interestingly they first hit the guardian end of 2006.
"vibram site:dagbladet.no" - 0 ( main norwegian site )
"vibram site:abc.net.au/news" - 0 ( australian site )
menshealth ( us site ) - 0
menshealth ( australian site ) - 0
Clearly my searches are small subset of places I like to read, yet for me it does hold some validity that this could be "new media marketing".
Would love to hear if any of you agree or disagree and why?
Equally would love to hear how as consumers we can read thru the lines of "hidden marketing" and "real" reviews.