A Five Fingers journal.

We randomly came across mention of Vibram Five Fingers over at the Mnmlist blog, where author Leo bought a pair despite his “less stuff” philosophy. Curiosity piqued, we had to check them out, and so we started to do our research on the Five Fingers, and the barefoot philosophy that’s earned a very strong niche following.

Background.

It turns out, our feet evolved into one of our most complex skeletal features for a reason. With so many bones and joints, our feet are designed to be incredibly adaptable to terrain changes, aided in part by the feedback our brains get when the terrain beneath us changes form (causing us to shift our posture, gait, stride, etc). In addition to our physical endurance, this evolution allowed humans to become persistence hunters, in which we effectively ran our prey to their deaths. And, we were able to do this despite the fact that we did not strap hooves to our feet.

That all changed when aesthetic variables came into play in the western world. Earlier generations wore leather footwear roughly equivalent to what we think of as a moccasin. This provided our feet with basic protection, but apparently not enough visual appeal. So, Europeans added impractical heels to our footwear, which required a thicker, less flexible sole. The result was an arguably more appealing figure, complete with the curves and stance still present in modern fashion. Of course, this change also resulted in footwear that cut off much of the tactile feedback our brains got from our feet feeling the ground beneath us. Furthermore, with more rigid soles and heels, we began walking “heel-first,” and rolling our feet to our toes before kicking off. This was a far cry from earlier days, when the balls or middle of our feet hit the ground first, and our toes sprung our next kick forward.

Interestingly, you can see the difference between walking with shoes and walking barefoot immediately. Even if it’s the same person. Try it out yourself and pay attention.

Some studies show that the thicker a shoe’s heel/sole, the harder a wearer slams their heel into the ground when walking, as though the brain is subconsciously trying to get the feedback it desires. This heel-slamming that we do in modern society, it damages our knees and joints, because it’s not how our bodies were designed to take shocks. Similarly, changes in posture, resulting from modern shoes, provide other problems as well, such as shin splints, back pain, and the aforementioned knee problems. All because shoes themselves, courtesy of thick soles, aren’t good for our bodies.

The shoe industry, of course, has adopted. It puts a band-aid on some of our problems by adding more cushion, or curving the toes up to make up for the lack of spring our toes would naturally provide. They add “pumps,” soles that flair out, arch support, and a whole slew of other changes (not to mention aesthetic ones), but few companies look to actually alleviate the health problems modern footwear has produced by directly tackling the underlying issues.

Vibram is a company that’s actually looking to address the core problem. They, and other companies, believe in producing shoes with very thin soles, allowing our brains to get far more tactile feedback than with conventional footwear. Most companies like this still opt for close-toed shoes that still benefit somewhat from additional toe movement, but Vibram took things to another level with their Five Fingers line.

Five Fingers are gloves for feet. They provide a thin Vibram sole and pockets for individual toes. This allows a wearer’s toes to move independently and provide natural spring to a run, and because the wearer can utilize their toes more naturally, and their feet too, stability and agility are enhanced accordingly. Vibram’s idea was to give people the barefoot advantage and still provide some level of protection, and judging from the many reviews out there, Vibram has succeeded stunningly with their Five Fingers line.

Models, and sizing.

When we decided to pull the trigger on a Five Fingers shoe, we first had to determine what model we wanted. The main factor in our decision was that we wanted a jack-of-all-trades shoe for daily use. We would still be wearing dress shoes to the office, but when at home, or working out, we wanted a shoe that would work just as well around town as it did running on pavement or going on light hikes. For us, this meant a shoe that was closed on top, and that eliminated three models from the get-go (Classic, Moc, and Sprint). One of three remaining models was ideal for watersports (Flow), but not necessarily for land sports, and one model (KSO Trek) came with a somewhat thicker sole offering better traction for more robust hiking. The “do-all” model that, perhaps, wasn’t overly specialized, was the KSO.

While REI carries the Five Fingers, their selection varies from store to store. Some stores, in fact, don’t carry them at all, and those that do have stocking issues because supply isn’t currently meeting demand. The KSOs and Treks require a size-down adjustment from the other models, so while our local REI didn’t have the KSOs in our size, we were able to try on three sizes in the Classics and Sprints. By the time we left the store, we figured we’d be a 40 in the KSOs, and immediately got online to place an order. Of course, by the time our order arrived, we were dismayed to find that the shoe was too small. It turns out that the black/black KSOs run small, so we returned our 40s and placed another order.

The 41s we received were quite snug. Arguably, we could have gone up another size, and we’re fairly confident that a 41 would be perfect in any other colour or model. Still, the 41s in KSO black/black didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. So, we took them for a spin.

Day one.

Because of the toe pockets, and that our toes are used to being scrunched up somewhat in traditional shoes, getting the KSOs on took a couple minutes. It’s not difficult, but it still takes a little patience to get the smaller toes lined up correctly. In our case, it was the little toe that didn’t naturally slide into its own pocket right away, and instead curled towards its neighbor for safety.

Walking around the house felt good, like some odd combination of socks and slippers. Stepping outside where it was around 50 degrees out, our feet immediately felt the chill. The mesh on top of the shoes doesn’t do much for keeping wind out, and though our long bootcut jeans may have helped a little, it wasn’t enough. With certainty, we can say that we felt the ground better, but we obviously didn’t notice small gravel on the sidewalks. It wasn’t until we stepped on a rock about the size of a marble that we felt uncomfortable pressure, which we would have just rolled over without much thought in our other shoes.

Back to the jeans, the thin sole of the KSOs obviously reduces our height somewhat. In hiking boots, which we’re used to wearing, our jeans are the perfect length, but with most casual shoes, the edge of the back can drag on the ground. Similarly, with the KSOs, our jeans end up getting dirty because the back bottom either ends up dragging on the ground, else is outright stepped on. Without buying a new pair or becoming a seamstress, we figure we can just deal with it, else maybe cut a small slit in the back so the bottom flays out a bit more. Either way, future jeans purchases will take this into account.

A quick trip through town proved that the KSOs were comfortable. We were concerned with the snugness of the fit more than once, not because there was any discomfort, but out of buyer’s paranoia. In fact, our toes had great movement through the shoes despite that two toes on each foot were pretty much touching the end of their respective toe pockets. If anything, the feel of the wind, that we could spread our toes, and the thin sole, pretty much made our feet feel like they were barefoot, or at least close to it. But how would they hold up running?

We decided to go for a jog with our dog, and ended up doing a couple sprints along what amounted to approximately 16 blocks. It quickly became obvious that running on pavement and landing on the balls of one’s feet isn’t exactly super-comfortable. That is to say, impact to this area of the foot isn’t something we were used to while running. It didn’t hurt, but we half expected to bruise this area of the foot if we continued on. Beyond this expectation, however, our feet felt fine, and we naturally avoided landing with our heels. Indeed, it may simply have been a placebo of sorts, but we felt like we could spring forward from a stride much easier now that our toes we free from their typical footwear cages.

Stability-wise, our short jaunt felt good. So good, in fact, that we felt tempted to jump up on low walls like a newbie ninja-in-training. There’s a reason people don’t tend to roll their ankles when barefoot, and that stability is offered by the Five Fingers without question. It’ll probably take a while to acclimate our bodies to barefoot movement overall, but at slower speeds, the transition is automatic, if only because we’re used to moving around barefoot slowly. At speed is in another issue, because it’s rare that we run around barefoot, so it’s no surprise that when we enter speed-walking or running mode, that we tend to drop our heels into the ground pretty heavily.

By the end of our little jog, we noticed that our feet had warmed up considerably, and that they felt pretty cozy by the time we returned home. Given the temperature outside, we estimate that it’d be pretty comfortable running in these shoes most of the year on the east coast.

The next three days.

When we woke up the following morning, we definitely noticed soreness in our calves. Reports from other new Five Fingers users noted this pain, but we casually dismissed it. But no, it’s true: the muscles designed to stabilize our feet while moving barefoot atrophy in most individuals because they’re simply not used much thanks to modern footwear. In our case, our calves felt about what we expect them to the day after working them out at the gym, only in this situation, we didn’t intend to work them out specifically, and didn’t notice much stress on them in our very short run the day earlier.

With limited time to work out the next couple days, we simply managed to go on short walks after work in our Five Fingers, dog in tow. Nothing particularly notable about these walks other than an adjustment in gait to compensate for the heel-striking in our normal, long stride. We’ll add, though, that we naturally began to prefer walking on grass or dirt than pavement, because it feels so much better. In normal shoes, we like the idea of walking off pavement, but stability-wise, pavement feels better. In Five Fingers, walking off-road is simply a better experience all-around.

That said, hanging out in the dog park, which at this time of year is a little muddy, tended to make the bottom of our feet cold when we weren’t moving much. Just throwing a ball around with minimal movement around the field definitely impacted foot comfort, as our feet would have been more comfortable at least wearing socks. Given that our KSOs are already very snug, we’ll likely rule out socks unless we later decide to get a slightly roomier pair of Five Fingers. We’ll still wear our KSOs in these situations, but when autumn sheds into winter later in the year, we’ll obviously have to make a decision as to what to do.

On our last walk in the Five Fingers over the three day period owning the KSOs, we walked over an old cobblestone street, which made us realize the implications of barefoot movement. Modern society, or in this case recent history, clearly dictated adjustments to footwear even beyond aesthetic considerations. Using the cobblestone street as an example, moving across the man-made pathway in our KSOs was about as uncomfortable as driving a car down the same stretch. While the walk was fine when we carefully chose our footing for each step, moving from stone-top to stone-top, a blind walk down the street simply wasn’t comfortable.

We’d be happy to hear that this was only because we’re not used to the feeling, and that our feet will toughen up to this type of terrain over time, but given the experience, we reckon we’d sooner avoid these types of streets in the future. Picturing us distracted where our gaze isn’t on the stones in front of us, we can only imagine a painful outcome to a run down this same street. That said, after returning home, the Five Fingers remained on our feet, where they felt super-comfortable just hanging out. We can definitely see replacing our slippers with a pair of Mocs in the future.

By day three, only a slight soreness in our calves remain. This weekend, we’ll opt for more activity in our KSOs, as we intend to wear them all weekend long. We’ll continue to comment on the experience as time goes on, and if there is reader interest.

A Five Fingers journal.

Background.

Models, and sizing.

Day one.

The next three days.

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