All Vibram Five Fingers 20% off - Bikila $48

Quote from kacki : At the end of week 1, my knee pain was bad enough I had to quit. Again. This almost led me to the brink of depression, as I know aerobic exercise is critical for weight loss. And swimming is not practical, nor is road biking where I live, and although I own a stationary bike I friggin' HATE using it.

don't get depressed, aerobic exercise is NOT critical for weight loss Seriously. I've lost a lot of weight over 10 years and have tried a lot of different things to get there, and now train and consult with people, typically about weight loss. Any change from what you're currently doing (or not doing) will create a large impact, when you start. But you will find very diminishing returns in the future. Going from not running at all to running a mile is a dramatic change to your body, and you'll see that in weight lost in the beginning. But going from 3 or 4 miles to 5-10+ miles is much less of a change and will have much less impact on your future weight loss as your body becomes more efficient at running. And there are far too many people churning out hours on treadmills or ellipticals ( ) or bikes, just watching that calorie count go up, and never seeing any change in their body, because chronic cardio will get you nowhere, and will likely work against you if you get all crazy about it an start overtraining. THEN you might get depressed. But your fivefingers are fantastic for squatting and lifting and all kinds of muscle building activity. So congratulations on your initial success, but keep changing it up and for the love of don't focus too much on aerobic exercise, the anaerobic sprinting (bike sprints perhaps) and weight bearing exercise will get you much much farther. and diet and insulin response, obviously. Good luck! if you like taking advice from strangers on deal boards. ya know

spacemonkey: terrific post, and I really appreciate it. Yes I have been (somewhat) aware of the points you mentioned, but this human being human, sometimes looks for the answers too quickly.

As the rest of my response is more of the personal than non-personal type (my person, not yours), I hope you don't mind that I have sent you a PM. No worries if you don't feel like replying. Thanks for posting.

Quote from fletch713 : Sounds like a question for your doctor, but I'll throw in my 2c. The five finger shoes do not support the heals as some orthopedic shoes do. The benefit to them, however, is that you walk/run more naturally because you don't have that support. Apparently a lot of people land on their heels when wearing thick-soled shoes. Due to the cushioning, it doesn't necessarily hurt you heel, but it doesn't use your legs' natural shock absorption, so you end up with a lot of force traveling up your legs. With the five fingers, you learn to walk/run more naturally (heel strikes become noticeably uncomfortable). So, you land on your mid-foot or forefoot, depending on your speed. This lessens the shock to your heel, which lessens the shock going up your leg. So the theory goes. That being said, if your feet hurt when you're not using them in bed, I'm not sure the type of shoe you use may matter much. On the other hand, it's possible these shoes may strengthen your foot muscles, which may help.

Good points, and let me add a little, to the best of my understanding at least.

When one lands on the heel, as the heel is situated directly below the ankle joint, there is no 'shock absorption' ("SA": with no shoes, let's assume). The thick heels of many running shoes thus provide some sort of SA, but this is artificial and is akin to the strut/shock in an automobile. You are still transmitting the direct force, even if muted, directly up the ankle and into the leg.

But when you land mid/forefoot, there is a 'leaf spring' effect, the kind of shock absorption used by (much) larger vehicles. Now I am neither a doctor nor an engineer (tho' I've met a few, ), but something tells me that if large trucks etc use leaf springs and not shocks (or at least not primarily) then the leaf spring design is inherently much more capable of absorbing the impact, in fact it does not absorb so much as dissipate it.

That's my story and it's sticking to me!

Quote from G37x : next thing to see is wearing this with an Armani suit.

Already seen it though I can't comment whether the suit was Armani or some other brand.

Quote from aboyzz : i got a heel problem from playing basketball. whenever i get off of bed the first thing in the morning my heel hurt!!. Will this support my heel? I'm thinking of wearing this indoor only..

I'm going to throw in on this, 1st to add - go to a Dr.

and my .01c (that's right 1/100 of 1 cent - I'm no Dr.): I've had morning heel pain, a very common cause of morning heel / arch pain can ultimately be attributed to plantar fasciitis. (National Institute of Health article) [nih.gov]. It can be healed, and there is absolutely no excuse to go through life with pain (I did it for years before having my knee's fixed). You can easily find things to do in the home to treat plantar fasciitis, but if it is something else, you are only delaying the inevitable.

As for the deal - I LOVE my VFF's. They are unbelievably comfortable, although they do take some getting used to.

I started buying the Fila's for ~$22-25 a few months back and picked up a pair of the five fingers from REI for ~$37 last month.

The five fingers are definitely a bit better made, look better and feel better, but the Filas are pretty nice on their own, and easier to put on and take off. The two little toes just don't like to cooperate.

Feels like you're barefoot and have thick soles or you're wearing stiff socks. You can feel the texture of the ground under your feet, thats how thin the sole is. Decent foot and front toe protection but if you step on a nail or sharp rock, its going to hurt.

Walking motion is like barefoot, which is to say different from a thick soled shoe. Not a lot of ankle or shin support, and man my middle toes hurt for the first few days I wore them but now I have a little ridge-bump of muscle along the base of the toes...up until now they haven't had to do much in a shoe.

I've used the Fila microfiber (version 2.0) as a water shoe with excellent results. I think the five fingers would as well, but the fabric on those is kind of nice, so I might just use the Fila's for that.

I've had problems with plantar fascitis in the past, and really like being barefoot, but its 110 degrees here in the summer and a little cold in the winter, but these fit the bill for being nearly barefoot but able to deal with a little crud on the road and the weather issues. Not sure I'd be thrilled to run in these, especially off road...not much support of any kind, and no padding. I ran about 3/4 of a mile with my dog the first time I had the vibrams on and my joints were very displeased with me the next day.

So far the cord on top of the fila's that you use to pull the shoe on broke off the first time I pulled on it, on one pair. The other 3 pair of fila's haven't had any quality/construction issues, nor have the vibrams.

Nice conversation starter too. Whenever I wear them, at least one cute woman asks me about them...

Quote from kacki : I am an overweight 50+ male. Not morbidly, but enough that I need to lose say 15%. This year, I started yet another exercise/diet program, which includes using an iPhone app that takes you slowly and progressively through to a decent run over 9 weeks. And I hurt. At the end of week 1, my knee pain was bad enough I had to quit. Again. This almost led me to the brink of depression, as I know aerobic exercise is critical for weight loss.

Good on you for the weight loss. I hit 250 after injuring my back a few years and just lost 70 of it. I don't run much, but I walk about 9 miles a day in the mornings. Basically if its within 2 miles of my house, the car is off limits. If you find a hilly place to walk (my town has the word 'hills' in its name, and they mean it!) you can get a pretty aerobic walk in without a lot of impact.

I'd also recommend trying triple flex glucosamine/chondroitin/msm for the joints. I'm 51 and have been struggling with knee pain for 20+ years, and added a lot of other joint and general creakiness problems over the years. The triple flex works for me, but not the stuff that doesn't have msm. Give it a whirl. Its cheap at the warehouse clubs. Between one of those a day (two a day for a few months to start) and a couple of aspirin here and there, I have very little joint pain.

Quote from kscdj : Already seen it though I can't comment whether the suit was Armani or some other brand.

Wow, you made my day. I thought people were not that...oh well..

Quote from usawrestling : Anybody have any luck returning merch to citysports? I'm very tempted to buy a size up and return to store to try to replace.

Confirmed I just exchanged my size 40 for 41's instore. Like anything keep the tags on and if you need to test it out use a treadmill.

Quote from Waam : If I wear a size 14 men's shoe, what does that equate to in these sizes?

There isn't a direct 1 to 1 correlation between "normal" shoe size and vibram shoe size (and with a little looking at past threads you can see the variance). They've got sizing instructions on their site here [vibramfivefingers.com]

Quote from venom3384 : I have some KomodoSport LS, some Biklas, some TrekSports, and some Sprints. Here's how I'd break them down: If you do most of your running on paved or finished surfaces go with the Biklas. They have more cushion than the Sprints (but not much more) and they're a lot stiffer (harder to curl your toes). The thickest part of the shoe is right on the balls of your feet and toes too, where you should be landing if you're running. So my feet like them better for the impact protection. You do need to learn how to run lightly though or you'll hurt yourself. The Komodos have more even padding, but it doesn't feel like as much. They're also more flexible so you can change direction more easily and the evenness off the tread gives them more traction. I use them when I'm running in grass, lifting, playing sports like racketball, etc. They do much better than the Biklas on wet surfaces. Finally, the Treksports are amazing for any soft, unfinished surface. They've got big treads and really dig in to the surface. It's also pretty rigid on the bottom so it does a good job guarding from rocks and debris. So offroad running, climbing, hiking, etc. these are really the ones to get.

So trying them on right now.. The website told me I should get a 39, but I got a 40. So I have a little bit of room at the front, which doesn't seem to make a difference, because these babies are hella tight! Is that how they should be? They were also a pain to get on, and weird to wear at first, but now I'm sort of used it. Am I doing it right?

Quote from jmor : I would love to try these, but cant get past how ugly some of them look..

Had to laugh when I saw your quote that you couldn't get past how ugly they are. I felt the same way until I wore them for a day. Then whenever I feel as though someone is looking at me "odd" I just feel sorry for their poor feet that will never get to put these on. Even if they aren't fashionable, they are a conversation piece as well

Quote from pamdeboy : Had to laugh when I saw your quote that you couldn't get past how ugly they are. I felt the same way until I wore them for a day. Then whenever I feel as though someone is looking at me "odd" I just feel sorry for their poor feet that will never get to put these on. Even if they aren't fashionable, they are a conversation piece as well

I had bit the bullet based on how inexpensive they were. I have been walking around in them, (no running so far) but I really like them so far. I need to go running in them though, that's the whole reason I bought them!