Yesterday my new shoes arrived and I immediately put them on to wear around the office so I could determine if I really wanted them. So far I have found three things about them that annoy me however, my overall impression is quite favorable. With that said here are my brief day 1 impressions with the negatives first.
The first thing I noticed was how hard they were for me to put on. My smallest toes are curved a bit under the toes adjacent to them (on the big toe side) so it was difficult for me to get the last two toes on each foot in their appropriate pockets. Fortunately, after putting them on a few times I think it is getting quite a bit easier to get everything lined up.
I have long had an issue where my feet, when naked, are cold. My wife has pretty much always complained about my icy feet. Fortunately, when I wear normal shoes and socks they do a pretty good job of keeping me toasty. Unfortunately, the complete absence of insulation and padding in the Five Fingers means my feet are always cold again. It isn’t bad if I’m outside but when I’m inside with air conditioning my feet stay cold (even when the rest of my is comfortable). It was suggested that I might have them on too tight but I don’t think that is it. I think it is just my typically cold feet.
My final issue with them, so far, is unavoidable considering they are a shoe that aims to provide the barefoot experience while still providing some protection for the soles of your feet. My pants, now that I have no real height addition from my shoes, are all a touch too long and the back of my pant leg drags on the ground and often gets under my heel when I’m walking. I’m not really sure how I’m going to address this issue in the long run but, for the moment, I just pull them up and try to get my pants to catch on the rear pull tab (used when putting the shoes on).
These are all pretty minor complaints considering how fundamentally different the Five Fingers are compared to traditional shoes and you may be surprised I’m only nit picking. However, the positives to the shoes, for me, really shine out in contrast to my three negatives.
My favorite part of the shoe is how snug they actually are. I always tie my normal shoes pretty tightly (my wife, when she was pregnant, would complain at how tight I tied her shoes). I like a snug shoe but really, none ever have felt as perfectly form fitting as the Five Fingers do. They are like a racing glove for my feet. It’s pretty cool.
Sitting at my desk today I caught myself thinking I wasn’t even wearing shoes a couple of times. They are that unobtrusive. Sure, if I really focus on them I notice the little bits of pockets around my toes but they are pretty natural feeling over all.
One thing that I sort of dismissed when I was reading about the shoes was the sense of connection with the ground when you are walking. But, it turns out it’s pretty cool being able to feel all the textures I walk on. For instance my street is a brick paved lane and so I can feel each joint I walk across. If I were barefoot I would say it was uncomfortable but the thin sole is just enough to remove my discomfort and to still give me some really cool sensory feedback.
The texture you’re walking on doesn’t have to be a hard one either to provide that feedback. While I can’t feel each blade of grass I could also feel the texture of the grass in the park. It’s almost as if I’ve suddenly turned on a new portion of my overal sense of touch. It’s pretty wild.
Yesterday I went to play Ultimate Frisbee. Typically, at work I enter the mens room, change into my shorts, and tee-shirt, and some running shoes before heading to the park. I always hated it because I either had to stand on my shoes or, worse, on the potentially unseen nastiness that coats a bathroom floor (in the stall) while I changed my shoes and socks. With the KSOs (Five Finger Keep Stuff Out model) I am able to just slide my feet out of my pant leg and then slide them right into my shorts without having to take off my shoes. Sure, my shoes could be nasty but they aren’t any nastier than my barefeet were before and this way the nastiness is on the shoe.
I have not really run in them yet but I did try a short jog of about 100 feet just to see what it felt like. It was on blacktop and overall it felt fine. I naturally went into a barefoot gait (as opposed to a shod one) and I didn’t experience any discomfort. I am not a “barefoot runner” so I guess my natural stride, even in shoes, might lead me to a mid-fore foot strike instead of a heel strike.
The oddest feeling, when wearing the shoes, is how light and spry I feel. I have the inexplicable urge to practice high kicks and spin kicks as if I were in a martial arts class. It’s really amusing how often I catch myself in that mindset particularly considering I have no martial arts training at all and I’m about as flexible as my desk.
So far I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger to buying them. I’ll let you know in about a week how I feel after some more extended usage.