"Whaaaaat are you wearing!?"

This is something that I hear often when I wear my Vibram Five Fingers - aka VFFs. I admit, they do look wild. They're like toe socks....but they're shoes. Vibram developed these little beauties as an alternative to barefooting and they can be used for all sorts of activities: running, hiking, sailing, climbing, living life, etc etc. I discovered them last year when I started reading about the benefits of barefoot running. At first this seems really crazy, I know. But after reading heaps of information, trying it out myself, and thinking logically - it just makes sense!! I know I come dangerously close to sounding like a whacked out conspiracy theorist when I go on these tangents, but let's try to ignore that for just a bit. People weren't born with shoes glued to their feet. In fact, people ran for thousands of years without running shoes. All sorts of little sandals have been developed over these thousands of years to protect the bottoms of feet from jagged rocks and such, but "support" was never the aim there. I won't really get into it here, but I will say that since running shoes became popular people have injuries that didn't even exist before. Wearing shoes (especially ones with support) change the way your foot hits the ground and the way your body moves. Any incorrect motion - like the altered way your foot hits the ground in shoes, as tiny as it may be, repeated over and over and over again will cause injury. Running in VFFs feels incredible - you feel easily 30 pounds lighter and it makes running feel FUN. Remember how capture the flag on a warm summer night felt? Running through neighbors' yards without a care in the world. That's how I'd describe running in this little babies. Carefree, injury free, and fun! (and you quickly get used to how they look) You don't have to believe me though, try it out for yourself. And until you do, don't knock it.