Vibram Five Fingers Barefoot Running Shoes Review

I finally invested in a pair of Vibram Five Fingers barefoot running shoes. After thinking about it for over a year since I first started hearing about them.

I deal with clients with various kinds of foot and lower leg pain, and I have some minor issues there myself.

As I had heard that some people switching to barefoot shoes had experienced benefit to foot and lower back problems (I am a couple years into a ruptured L5-S1 disc dynamic), I decided to try out a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes as an experiment.

Vibram Five Fingers Barefoot Running Shoes
It Took A Year To Get A Pain

I figured that I would learn something that could benefit my clients, and I may learn something that would benefit myself, and maybe, just maybe, switching to a Vibram barefoot shoe could fix my feet and/or my back.

The first I had heard about them was from an article in a running magazine. Great things were said about how it affected the stride and helped the foot.

Barefoot just made sense, physiologically and kinesthetically.

But I'm pretty lazy that way. Even though over the years my arches have been collapsing, and I have been needing more and more padding and support in my shoes, I didn't have any foot Tendonitis or Plantar Fasciitis.

The next I heard about them was from my good friend Kevin, who is a massage therapist to the US BMX Supercross competition team and travels with them internationally. He's also co-owner of Redding Crossfit, and works out in his Vibram Five Finger shoes.

I saw him wearing them at the 2009 Crossfit Games where I was doing sports massage on the competing athletes.

The barefoot shoes looked funny, but he said he loved them, and that everyone he knew that had barefoot shoes loved them.

I was intrigued.

So a year later, I finally got a pair. It's funny what happens when you walk by a running (shoe) store.

And I have to say, I REALLY like my Vibram Five Fingers KSO barefoot shoes.

Below I'm going to review my experience with the Vibram Five Fingers barefoot running shoes.

You are welcome to leave your own barefoot shoes experiences, I'm curious what you have to say! (I love the "I couldn't get my toes in the slots" stories :)

Vibram Five Finger KSO
Why I Bought A Pair

Why did I buy a pair of barefoot shoes?

1. I was just plain curious.
2. I like trying new things.
3. Over the last decade or so, by arches have been collapsing. My left foot is at least half a size bigger now because of that slow arch collapse.  So my arches, one could say, are failing.
4. Over the last decade or so, I've noticed that I need more and more cushion in my shoes.  My feet just don't feel tough or solid anymore. They don't hurt, I can still hike long distance etc, but they just feel....weak. Like I'm in danger of them just....failing. Not too tight, but too loose.
5. I've noticed for a long time, that I have a heavy heel strike. That can't be good.

I'm a smart guy. I can see the trend. More support, inserts, and thicker insoles obviously aren't fixing anything. And I like fixing problems, not just helping them get worse slower.

So.

The Vibram Five Finger theory, the whole barefooting movement, makes sense.

Time to put it to the test!

I don't really even know what I was going to test, exactly.

But basically, the experiment is to see:

• Will switching to barefoot shoes make my feet stronger, and/or tougher?
• Will the FiveFingers shoes change my gait, and my foot strike?
• Will walking barefoot help my low back pain?

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