3 years wearing Vibram five Fingers

This is not a barefoot running article. This is a Vibram Five Fingers (vffs) article. Barefoot Ted put me on to these suckers about three years ago. As with many things, he was way ahead of the curve and the vff revolution must have reached a million feet (and more every minute) by now.

In New Zealand, Vibram Five Fingers will be coming to a store near you in May, 2010. So, Kiwis, this is what you can expect given the vast majority of people have been wearing vffs for less than a year - or not at all. Here's my review, plus user tips.


Hiking the Tongariro Crossing: February, 2010

Buying them
You NEED to physically try them on. You may have funny shaped (or length) toes and the sizing on vffs is not exactly the same as for normal shoes. Do not buy them online first-time round. Get your second, third and fourth pair online.

Comfort, support, ease of use etc.
All good. they are super comfy, albeit a little tricky to get in to when you first buy them. Once they mould a little to your toes, they are quicker to slip on and off than a normal pair of shoes. I use injinji socks in mine about 80% of the time - and usually always when running. The injinjis add a little comfort.

Wear and Tear
My first pair of vff sprints lasted just over two years and I trashed them like no tomorrow, They are are super-well made, tough and durable. I did a lot of trail running on abrasive volcanic ash so I eventually wore holes in the forefoot of both shoes and needed to replace them with a new pair. After two years of constant use, some of the stitching started coming apart - but it was no big deal. A less heavy-user (i.e. using them for walking, hiking, boating etc.) will get a longer lifetime out of them. I am very pleased that the hole I made in these vffs was on the forefoot and the heel showed almost no sign of wear and tear - I must have been fore to midfoot striking.


Balancing on a log - Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua

Gripes
The only real gripe I have is the heel does not fit well. The back of the heel of the vff sticks out from the back of my foot. This might be just me though. Others may not have this fit problem. Does not affect performance or comfort.

Foot morphology
Here is where it gets interesting. In three years, I have noticed the following changes in my feet:
- increased muscularity over the entire foot
- increased foot width (my toes poke out the sides of my shoes now)
- greater spacing between toes
- greater neuromuscular control of my toes (i.e. I am starting to be able to independently wiggle them).
- Higher arches

and for the rest of the body...
- massive improvements in calf muscle strength and muscularity
- huge gains in running form (no longer a heel striker) and a more relaxed and softer foot mid stride.
- Big gains in uphill running ability (able to engage more calf muscle strength)

Injuries
I have heel spurs, (bad genes) that sometimes causes achilles bursitis when I run. I hope the barefoot running will minimise the number of incidences of bursa flare-ups. I run up to an hour a day in vffs. Quite a bit of this training is at a very slow pace over technical terrain (roots and rocks). I cannot remember the last time I rolled an ankle and I have never have any injuries from training in vffs.

Using them
Obviously, you can use them for pretty much anything, I wear them to work, business meetings, running trails and climbing rocks at the beach. If you have been wearing normal shoes for many years, i would recommend...

1. Walk in vffs a few weeks first before you start running. Remember, you are coming off (in some cases) 30+ years of shoe wearing and your foot shape and musculature has likely suffered a lot during that time. Wear them to work, to the supermarket - in fact wear them everywhere to give you feet the chance to adapt to being "barefoot".
2. Hike a lot in them on nice smooth trails (bush tracks) to start with, graduating to more technical and gnarly trails as you gain confidence
3. start running those gentle trail and then start running on more gnarly trails as you gain strength, confidence and technical ability.

- For the record, I still run longer races (longer than half marathon) in "normal" running shoes. I'd eventually like to run trail ultras in vffs, I just need to build up my foot strength up to that level.

In my mind, I like to pretend I am a san bushman of the kalahari - treading lightly and swiftly over uneven terrain. I like to around and over rocks and roots in an agile, swift run. Good fun.

Don't be a dumbass and take them straight out of the box to run fast on the roads

Have fun, run lightly and run free.

Paul Charteris

- disclosure - I am sponsored by Injinji toe socks. But, they are so good I'd recommend them even if I wasn't sponsored by them.