Ok, This is my thinking on these… We were NOT born with shoes…We cram
our feet into Shoes that are NOT made to fit our feet…the shoes want to make
our feet fit Them…I am giving my feet a chance to remain protected on the soles
and at the same time, escape the confines of the “BOX”. Hell back in the day
when I was a young man, I loved kicking up and down the beach barefoot and
that is kind of what wearing these seems to be like. It is only day 2 for me,
and so the test continues…so far, so good and this morning, my heel pain was
VERY diminished…
(Disclaimer, I am no way affiliated with Vibram or their products I am only a consumer
I am also not giving any medical advice)
Euge, this thing is helping me as well…you prolly really need to work thru the pain
with it, and don’t mince your efforts but just sayin… http://footlog.com/
Friend of mine would be all over this…he was very evangelistic about “barefoot running” and used that very same line about how we weren’t born with shoes and they aren’t natural (nor are motorcycle helmets but they are nicely protective!), and then he went out in the middle of our brutally cold winter and nearly lost a toe or two to frostbite! It was a bit of a near loss of digits for him there at first, so I had to refrain from laughing too much or making too much fun, but its funny to me now, at least!
Still, these things, strange as they look, have got to be a better idea than running barefoot in city streets and sidewalks.
You just gotta get to a pair and try em on…the mfg says the sizing is just done by putting your
heel against the wall and measuring out from there to the longest point on your foot in inches…I don’t think
4E is a factor much because I have a similiar Width in size…
Same here but after watching too many of the “Monsters Inside Me” shows I won’t go barefoot anywhere outside but I’m really thinking of getting those “feet” soon for walking in the yard-pool area.
Yeah, Our own Babalu is testimony to that …and if you are so inclined, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Our_Skin Another nice little disease vector…
but back on TOPIC…How do you like your vibrams…???
re: Lyme disease, I should have taken a pic of the tick bite last month :o
Looked like a golfball under my skin after the bite wound swelled, needless to say the wife was concerned. 101F fever, muscle aches and then just like that I was back to normal
I’ve been wearing them for about 2 years now. I kinda cycle on and off with them. They are great for hiking, as long as you are not carrying a pack heavier than 15 lbs or so. My feet will hurt after a rocky hike longer than 8 miles. I ran 6 miles in them once at a 10 mile per min. pace and had serious ankle problems that lasted a month, so be very careful adjusting to them. I haven’t done that again but I have worked up to about 3 miles. That said, I get a calf soreness if I run in them all the time. I will say, they have strengthened my feet significantly and some of the plantar issues I was having have cleared up about 90% just from wearing them around the house, walking dogs, short hikes, etc.
My wife wears them 10-0% of the time when she runs now, not longer than 3 miles. She does have some heal soreness, but some of her other foot issues seem to have cleared up.
Hope all that helps. I will say, I love mine. Ready for a new pair.
I love my vibrams!! If I could wear them everywhere I would. They need to make a dress shoe!!
majorvices - If they are hurting your wife’s heal she needs to pay attention to her foot strike. She was probably a heal striker in normal sneakers and since they are highly padded it didn’t hurt. With vibrams you need to run on the balls of your feet.
These shoes have pretty much taken care of most of my knee pain from running but it took me about a month to get to 4-5 miles in them due to needing to strengthen my feet and calves because of a change in my running mechanics.
We weren’t born walking/running on concrete either. Like Matt said, chronic foot/leg pain is more likely due to poor technique. To that end, these (or barefoot running) probably help, by eliminating the padding that allows people to get away with heel strikes. But that’s nothing you couldn’t accomplish in normal shoes with a little training.
She’s not a heel striker. Just a little plantar pain that she gets. After she switched from running shoes to the 5 fingers a lot of her other foot issues went away. She swears by them now. Personally, I’m not 100% sold on street running in them. I do believe that running shoes try to make your foot more like a hoof and that we were not meant to be hoofed animals. Hence the 5 fingers do make sense on some level. Personally, I’d rather hike or trail run and for that activity the 5 fingers can’t be beat. Of course, not all of you have hundreds of miles of trails out your back door - like me. I’m lucky! ;D
Mine were $100 with taxes…you can order some from the website for like $85 but then pay shipping…meh…
Question, how much you gonna pay the doctor to get yourself out of pain …I found the surgery for PF is
NOT always that successful 65/35% and if it is a fail you are Effed up for the rest of yer life…
I even had stem cell injection to avoid surgery…and I may have another… :-\
How are they for arch support? That seems to be my problem at the moment.
But seriously, I don’t think I would be caught dead with those things on my feet.
Although I can remember folks laughing at me when I bought my first pair of Tevas back in '88.