My Vibram KSO’s arrived last Monday afternoon and I promptly put them on. Other than sleeping I didn’t take them off until today. I was pretty nervous about the shoes so I decided to dive in head first into wearing them to see how I felt about them.
I previously left my impressions after the first day and promised to share a more comprehensive review at the end of a week. The brief summary is that I am quite happy with them.
I don’t have any particular foot, knee, or back problems so, unlike some, I didn’t experience any sudden health improvements. Instead I just experience a change in the relationship I have with my feet.
I know, it’s only been a week, so it may seem like I’m overstating the effect the KSO’s have had on me. Traditionally I don’t like to walk barefoot. In fact, I can’t stand it. I don’t like getting crumbs, dust, or anything else on my feet plus, to be honest, the bottoms of my feet are really soft so it hurts to step on just about anything. Further, I have naturally dry skin so I can’t really go barefoot (or even in just songs) for long or else my feet will dry out.
However, for the past week I have been able to, essentially be able to go barefoot. The shoes are so snug on my feet it feels as if I have none on. At first even with the shoes on it still hurt a little (nothing like being barefoot) to walk across gravel but, by Sunday, my feet had grown so used to the various textures I walk across that it no longer hurt.
The shoes are also very versatile. For example, I have ridden my bike to work wearing them (the spikes on my metal pedals did hurt a little through the shoes), I’ve gone swimming in them, done a little bit of rock climbing, and I’ve played a few minutes of soccer in them. In all of those cases the KSO’s held up great.
On Friday night we went to my fathers house for dinner and then some swimming. I decided to keep my KSO’s on for the time in the pool and they really surprised me. For instance I figured that the rubber soles might get slick against the lining in the pool but they didn’t. Instead, my feet never slipped. In fact, even when I was goofing off on the diving board (somewhere I always find dangerously slick) I felt comfortably stable. They were great. Plus, because the shoes fit so snugly they didn’t slip off my feet at all while I was swimming.
The shoes, do, however, take a while to dry. In fact, if it weren’t so sunny out on Saturday morning they may not have dried before the mid-afternoon on the day following the swim. The top portion of the shoe dried but the insole did not. There was also a sticker on the insole of each shoe that I had not previously noticed. After the stickers came off the insoles were left with two sticky spots. They are getting less sticky over time but the stickiness is really annoying at the moment.
When climbing the rocks at the park the hold given by the sole and the flexibility of my toes was great. Plus the soles protected my feet from the heat in the rocks. I was also surprised, on the descent, when I decided to jump down from about six feet my feet didn’t hurt from the landing.
The “soccer” was actually played with a red kickball and I was also surprised to find out that none of the kicks with the ball hurt my foot. I may actually try an at bat in the next kickball game in them. The sole gave me a much better “feel” for the ball and I think I may be a better bunter with them than I am with the cleats.
I’ve also tried some running in them - though nothing far at all. I can attest that, becuase you land on the front portion of your foot and then push off again that you end up putting A LOT more stress on your calves than you do when running in shoes. Even after a very short distance I noticed my calves were really having to work hard. I imagine if I were to attempt any substantial distance that my legs would be exceptionally sore the next day. Even knowing that though I am intrigued by the whole “barefoot running” phenomena so I may actually try to work up to some longer distances in them.
After a week they are still hard to put on - particularly on my left foot where my small toe doesn’t want to cooperate. Granted, it is much easier to put them on now than it was, and the total time I spend putting them on is no longer than it takes me to put on and tie traditional shoes, I still feel like a clutz trying to put the KSO’s on. Twice I have accidentally ended up with my two smaller toes in the same toe pocket.
In my prior review I mentioned that my pants are too long when wearing the KSO’s and this is still a problem. A twitter acquaintance suggested I cuff the pant inside itself and then use a paperclip along the back to hold the pants up. That didn’t work very well for me but I upgraded from a paperclip to a small paper “binder clip”. Because they are black they blend into my pant leg fairly well and they are much stronger than a traditional paperclip so they do a better job of holding up the cuff.
A couple of times I have accidentally snagged my pinkie toe on something which, while it hasn’t hurt, has left my toe feeling odd. I’ve also had a jar fall from a window ledge and land on my toe. Both of these events have served to illustrate that the KSO offers almost no protection for your foot from damage from above - they have been great with protecting the sole of my foot; but the top is left completely unprotected.
I understand this has been a bit of a rambling review of my week but hopefully it gives you an idea of how my experience has gone. Overall I’m pretty sold on the shoes. They aren’t perfect but they’ve been much better than I expected.
