For the past several weeks I’ve been running in my new Vibram FiveFingers Classic shoes.  I’ve reported on the very first run I did with the shoes and even my second run in the shoes.  Since then I’ve been running more in the shoes.  I can now run up to 3 miles in the shoes at a time without too much discomfort.  I still feel a little scrunched in the pinky toe area, but the pain is at least a little more manageable now.  Bottom line is running in these shoes is just more fun than plain old running shoes (like the difference between driving a manual car and an automatic transmission car).

Anyway, this past weekend I had the bright idea to combine 2 of my favorite hobbies together: exercising in my Vibram FiveFingers Classics and playing tennis.   So instead of barefoot running shoes, turning them into barefoot tennis shoes.

I was inspired to take my barefoot running shoes and turn them into barefoot tennis shoes after I read the history of Terra Plana’s vivo barefoot shoes.  The initial concept for the shoes started out when the designer discovered that playing tennis barefoot made his chronic knee and ankle injuries disappear.  I like to play tennis and have had problems in the past with blisters and ankle injuries so I figured now that I had a pair of minimalist shoes that it was worth a try.  Check out the video below:

The Good

The biggest difference you notice between FiveFingers shoes and traditional tennis shoes is just how light they are.  You feel (and look) more like a ballerina than a tennis player since the FiveFinger’s don’t have all the padding shielding you from the court.  In addition to feeling all the textures of tennis court the rubber bottom of the Vibram’s gives you great grip on the court.  I felt very agile on the court.  Moving is not an issue in these shoes.

The Bad

While moving around the court is not a problem what ends up being a problem is sprinting to chase down balls.  Sprinting in FiveFingers is easy, what’s hard (and painful) is slowing down quickly.  Tennis is a lot of stop-and-go and spurts of speed.  When you have padded shoes you don’t really notice how much you rely on your heel to stop or brake your movement.  However, when wearing FiveFingers you feel everything and I found myself taking more time to slow down just to ease the pain of stomping on the hard surface.

Conclusion

Playing tennis in Vibram FiveFingers is definitely doable.  However, depending on how intense you play tennis it could be painful.  While I know a lot of padded shoes, especially in the running community, get a bad rap since it encourages a less healthy running style (heel strike) in some cases it’s not such a bad idea.  I found myself less fast on the court with my barefoot shoes, but it definitely was a fun experience…even if I looked ridiculous.

Even billionaire geeks have been seen wearing the Vibram FiveFingers KSOs.

Check out Google’s Sergey Brin at the Chrome OS event wearing the gorilla feet, albeit ultra comfortable gorilla feet shoes.  I’m impressed that such as high status executive is he’s down to walk around in the Vibram Five Fingers KSOs!

I just came back from Asia, specifically Hong Kong for business and pleasure.  I wore the Vibram Five Finger’s KSO the entire time I was out trekking about in the crazy and hectic city of Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is a very busy place, with a ton of walking, shopping and site seeing .  It’s the New York of China and seems even busier no matter what time of night you decide to go out to the well known busy street areas.  This review goes over some of the terrain I covered and experiences in the Vibram KSOs.

Packing and Traveling with KSOs

One big plus for these shoes was the ease of packing these shoes.  It was easy for me to throw into any suitcase front pocket or back pack.  In the airplane, I simply placed them in the front area where you place magazines and in-flight entertainment guides.  After wearing these shoes for a couple months, it was easy to take them off and put them back on without misplacing a toe in an incorrect toe slot.  It would have been difficult taking them on and off quickly, like they have you do at LAX, if I wasn’t an experienced Vibram Five Finger KSOer.

Long City Walks in Vibram Five Fingers

Walking around the city is similar to long hikes on natural terrain, except there are less mountain hills and valleys.  Most of what I encountered was concrete and indoor flooring which can be a bit more painful than natural dirt and grass.  The only hiking I did was up the steps of the Big Buddha on Lantau island.

The long walks in a humid city like Hong Kong made it easy for me to sweat.  Luckily I was wearing a pair of Injinji socks as well.  This helped absorb most of the sweat and stink that goes along with long periods of Vibram wear.  If not for the socks I would have to wash them after every heavy use like this.

Man Made Ground

Walking on concrete for long periods of time definitely differs from running on grass and dirt.  It hurts more.  At first you don’t notice it but after a couple hours or even half a day you feel the pain.  I’m sure it’s something i would get used to if i wore them all day every day.  I would also think they would wear out quite fast and you’d have to purchase a new pair of Vibram Five Fingers every month or so.  After walking, shopping and wandering around in these things for hours, it felt good when I saw flooring like this in the subway systems:

It kind of felt like a foot massage (which is something that is also really popular in Hong Kong and China right now) and I would stretch out and walk around these areas for extended periods of time.

Attention of the KSOs

Since I don’t think I’ve seen anybody wear these shoes out in Asia yet, it did get some attention.  Some people in subway systems would stare and some would have remarks.  Some of the remarks that I’ve overheard:

Man telling his wife in Chinese while pointing, “Look honey, that’s crazy”

Women at store laughing uncontrollably, “Those make you look really good”.

Kid at the subway station telling his friends, “I want a pair”

and many other comments made by random people asking where they could buy a pair of Vibram Five Fingers.

Conclusion

After wearing them all day in the city, I would still recommend wearing these for every day activities.  They are quite breathable and definitely wont make your feet and shoe stink more than wearing regular sneakers.  They are comfortable and I feel like I’m working out my legs while walking for a long time.  It think there is more impact from concrete than dirt and grass, so be warned.  I also heard the Nike Free’s are excellent for training and long periods of walking.  If anybody has any experience on that, let me know!

For more information on Vibram Five Fingers Shoes, click on the links below:

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This post and images were sent in by one of my readers from Las Vegas Nevada about his first time wearing the Vibram Five Fingers Shoes and the injury he incurred because of them:

All I heard about was how the Vibram Five Fingers shoes would improve foot strength and reduce foot injuries such as knee, hip and foot problems related to running.  When I bought my first pair of the Sprints I didn’t have the greatest experience.  I wore the shoe and decided to go for a run on the neighborhood school track near my house.  The actual track was made of the soft rubbery material that the nice track programs these days have as opposed to regular dirt tracks.  This was a perfect testing ground for the Vibram Five fingers as it wasn’t too rough of a terrain for a beginner like me.

I started walking around the track and felt awesome! no pain, light on my feet!  Very light on my feet…

I then ran a mile, then 2, then 3 and decided to call it quits. I usually run much more than 3 miles on an average day.  I’ve heard that you must slowly work your way up to a normal running distance when you first start running barefoot or with the Vibram Five Fingers barefoot running shoes.

The next thing i noticed was pain under my foot.  Not directly under my foot but on my big toe.  I felt a blister.  A frickin toe blister.  One that I have never gotten from running.  Here’s some pictures:

Now the good news.  This blister was evident and was slightly painful on the first day.  But the next day it was nearly fully healed.  The day after was even better as the foot was practically 100%.  My calves were another story.  Those took about a full week to heal.  Now I understand that there would be a period my feet needed to adjust.  That’s fine.  My main concern was my joint paints in the knee and hips.  I noticed that I didn’t have any joint pains related to running.  I didn’t want to get too optimistic so I decided to try them out a couple more times before I got too excited.

After a few more runs a couple weeks later, my foot pretty much adapted to the shoes and i no longer get these blisters.  But I also no longer get the joint pains that I experienced in the past from running as well.  I STILL don’t want to get too overly excited as I haven’t ran more than 6 miles at a time yet.. but things are looking great so far.  Once I do some real distances on this baby I will write another post.

For more information on Vibram Five Fingers Shoes, click on the links below:

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More and more people are starting to look into the virtues of barefoot running I was no different after I had just bought a brand new pair of running shoes and still had issues with blisters and shin splints. It was pretty frustrating since I love to run, but I hate the pain that had started to creep on me. All of my running friends told me I just needed to find the right pair of running shoes so that’s what I did.

Before I just went to the local Foot Locker and picked out a shoe that looked good to run in and bought that pair of shoes. However, my friends said that the best way to get a good pair of shoes was to go to a dedicated running shop where the staff was more knowledgeable about running and running shoes. So that’s what I did next. The staff did seem a lot more confident in their shoe knowledge and when it was all said and done I ended up with a pair of New Balance MR1063. It was a pricey purchase at over $150, but I figured I was investing my health and well being.

After I bought these shoes I couldn’t wait to try them out. The next day I took it easy and just did a slow 2 mile pace to wear in the shoes and get a better feel for them. While they felt a little stiff it seemed like they were working. After a week in these shoes and about 15 miles later, however, I started feeling my old shin splints creeping up on me again. I couldn’t believe that with the money I had spent and the time I had spent trying to find “the perfect shoe” that really these shoes did no better than my old pair of trainers, which was a quarter of the price.

I decided I needed to look outside the box if I was going to find something better for my feet and running.

About this time I read an article in Wired Magazine called “To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes.”  In this article they made a convincing argument that a potential cause for foot injuries and aches and pains were the shoes themselves and that actually by taking the shoes off and going barefoot you were allowing your body to run the way nature intended.

This got me more interested in the concept of barefoot running so I dug a little deeper.  Turns out there might be something to this idea that barefoot is better than wearing shoes for running.  This quote from a research paper on barefoot running got my attention.

Chronic ailments such as shin splints, ilio-tibial band syndrome and peri-patellar pain are attributed variously to excessive pronation, supination, and shock loading of the limbs (Siff and Verkhoshansky, 1999, p.451). When running barefoot on hard surfaces, the runner compensates for the lack of cushioning underfoot by plantar-flexing the foot at contact, thus giving a softer landing (Frederick, 1986). Barefoot runners also land mid-foot, increasing the work of the foot’s soft tissue support structures, thereby increasing their strength and possibly reducing the risk of injury (Yessis 2000, p.124).

From that it says that by taking off your shoes you allow your foot to act as a natural shock absorber which spreads the shock of hitting the ground to the “mid-foot”.  However, with shoes this isn’t possible as the cushioning and angle of the shoe prevent this natural phenomenon from occurring.

The next part in this same research paper is what convinced me a lot more that maybe it WAS the shoes that were causing me problems with my feet.

Wearers of expensive running shoes that were promoted as correcting pronation or providing more cushioning experienced a greater prevalence of these running-related injuries than wearers of less expensive shoes (Robbins and Gouw, 1991). In another study, expensive athletic shoes accounted for more than twice as many injuries as cheaper shoes, a fact that prompted Robbins and Waked (1997) to suggest that deceptive advertising of athletic footwear (e.g., “cushioning impact”) may represent a public health hazard.

I know while I was at the running store the employee was selling me on getting shoes that added cushion and helped correct over pronation as a way to help my shin splints.  Of course these shoes were more expensive, but I figured that’s the price you pay for extra cushioning.  But I know from my experience with these more expensive shoes that it didn’t help much if any with my shin splints.

At this point I decided it was worth it to at least try running barefoot to see if helped my foot problems or not.  I mean what more had I to lose ?  I had already spent over $150 on a pair of shoes.  At least barefoot was free.

I went running around the neighborhood on the sidewalk one day after work.  At first I just started walking to get a used to walking without my shoes.  This process alone was kind of painful.  My feet have been used to being shielded from the outside elements so any rough surface I touched was painful.  Though painful just walking around barefoot was very refreshing to me.  I felt like I was a kid again!

After building up some courage I decide to have a go at barefoot running.  I picked up the pace and started a light jog.  The first thing you’ll notice when you run barefoot is that you run totally different than how you run with shoes on.  I noticed that I was running more so on the balls of my feet rather than landing on my heel and then transitioning to my toes.  I wasn’t able to run very far thanks to the pain from the sidewalk, but in the little I had run I could definitely tell that things felt a lot better than they did with my expensive New Balance shoes.  It’s hard to describe, but it just felt right.

The bigger problem though with running barefoot was just the fact that it wasn’t practical running outdoors with no shoes on.  I was watching the sidewalk like a hawk for stray rocks, glass, uneven grooves, etc… that might put a damper on my barefoot foray.  Half the time I was worrying about stepping on something that I wasn’t really concentrating on the running.

I wanted to try this barefoot running some more, but under the present conditions it didn’t look like it was going to be possible.  That was until I decided to try out Vibram FiveFingers Shoes.

It was in that same Wired Magazine article that I mentioned above where I learned about Vibram FiveFingers shoes.  They are shoes shaped kind of like gloves, but for your feet.  The toes each have their own compartment and then the shoes kind of slip on like a sock.  The shoe itself is very thin and flexible (you can actually fold the shoe back on into itself), but the nice thing is that on the bottom of the shoe you have a rubber sole that gives you traction and more importantly protects you from the outdoor elements.

I wasn’t sure which pair of FiveFingers I wanted to get, but after finding some additional Vibram FiveFingers shoes information, I finally decided on purchasing the Vibram FiveFingers Classic.  It’s the entry level Vibram FiveFinger shoe and at $80 it seems like a great deal compared to the New Balances I bought.  I didn’t want to splurge for the higher end Vibrams and to start I just wanted to see if these shoes would help me more than my past shoes had.

I’m happy to report that after a few months and about 100 miles of wearing these Vibram FiveFingers shoes my feet feel great!  My shin splints are practically gone and I now I never have any issues with toe blisters.  I do have to be honest and say that the first few weeks were a little painful for my feet (as in muscle soreness) since my feet weren’t accustomed to the natural way of running and I had to build up foot muscles I never knew I had.

However, so far the pain has been worth it and I love these shoes.

I can’t say my experience with Vibram FiveFingers shoes is typical, but I can say firsthand that these shoes helped me out.  If you are looking to get rid of foot pain I’d put these shoes on your shortlist to check out.

For more information on Vibram Five Fingers Shoes, click on the links below:

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Here is a great quote about Vibram Five Fingers shoes that I found and I thought I’d share. It briefly describes the shoe as more than just athletic gear, but a whole experience in itself. From my little experience that I do have with the Vibram Five Fingers KSO or Classic, I tend to agree:

Feel free to leave me any any comments, questions or helpful reviews.

For more information on Vibram Five Fingers Shoes, click on the links below:

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The days of wearing those ugly Crocs for comfort are over.  The Vibram Five Fingers shoes are not only great for sports such as stand up paddle surfing, hiking, running, CrossFit, mountain climbing and many others, but many report that they are great for casual outdoor activities such as gardening.

Angie, an avid gardener who has a gardening blog talks about how great they are.  Some points in her article:

• She bought 2 pairs for use outside of the garden (including work).
• There feels like there is no support but they are the more comfortable shoes she’s ever worn.
• She can feel every bump and soft spot while walking.
• When they’re dirty, all she does is hose them off and let them dry. (Here’s a good review on cleaning the Vibram Five Fingers shoes)
• She had to wear orthotics for the last 10 years but have been able to walk around with little trouble in the Vibrams.

That’s great news for people that are not only interested using Vibram Five Fingers to improve running speed and strength, but for comfortable casual wear as well.  There also seems to be more people reporting that shoes such as these have a physical therapeutic and rehabilitating effect as well.

For more information on Vibram Five Fingers Shoes, click on the links below:

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We love hearing about new fans of Vibram Five Fingers Shoes. Here is a briefing of the video:

• It’s like a condom for your foot.
• You use your feet the way nature intended.
• He does think it looks ridiculous, but it’s “So comfortable, can hardly stand to take them off”
• But he will “never appear in public this way”

This was a guest post from my friend and avid runner Howard Polard.

Hey people, I’m Howard, just wanted to chime in on my thoughts about these shoes. When I first saw theme I thought they were simply ugly and a bit creepy (check out the picture above). I swore that I would never wear these shoes! No matter how “comfortable” my friends said they were.
2 months I started to develop pain on the bottom of my feet when I ran. Some said it was Plantar Fasciitis, which is general inflammation of the foot. Because of this I decided to try wearing the Vibram Five Fingers Shoes for a couple days only because everybody said it was so damn comfortable. I’ll admit working out in them made my feet sore the first couple of days. But even then they were extremely comfortable!

I immediately got hooked.

My recommendation is to run out as soon as possible and snatch up a pair. They seem to run out quickly in sizes and color (although this will probably change once they realize the staying popularity of these shoes). I do suggest going to the doctor first before wearing these for physical therapeutic purposes.

I’m sure this type of story isn’t new to anybody that has experienced them but I thought I’d chime in. What can I say, put me on the list as a Vibram Five Fingers Shoe convert. I still think they’re weird looking, but I won’t take them off.