it's a revolution! a few words on Vibram 5 Fingers. yip! yip!

"hey you, flatfoot!"

my tale starts about 4 months ago when I rolled into PPS 2 days before leaving for Nepal and unable to find my river booties anywhere... so shop-master Scott suggested a pair of Vibram 5 Fingers. they were the only thing the shop had in my size, and well, you know, beggars can't be choosers.

so here i am, 4 months into my relationship with my Vibrams. despite feeling like an 'arranged marraige' (barf) i love the damn things like a fat kid loves cake. like hot kids love kool-aid. like beetles love poo. i loooove them.

we'll start my dispelling the myth that 5 Fingers are river shoes. they're not. they're a hybrid type do-whatever-the-mmmm-you-want-in-me shoes. after getting back from Chile I was working in the shop for a bit and I can tell you that these things sell like hotcakes. especially with runners. you'd be surprised how much traffic these shoes brought to the shop--PPS is one of the only retailers in the WDC metro area.

the Vibram niche has got its own culture almost... like people who have green homes, iPods and networks. they're chic. i've noticed that having the Vibrams seems to elicit a certain 'instant approval' from some people. haha, and vice versa, i find myself judging other people by how they comment on my shoes. people who say "whoaaa rad shoes!" rate much higher than those who say things like "those are weird". bo-nus.

sooo the gist behind 5 Fingers is that it's just like being barefoot, all the time, without the feet-mank. there have also been a few articles out and about that suggest the 'barefoot phenomena' is better for us in the long run (no pun intended); that walking barefoot as we were born to could help avoid ACL tears and hip problems. I'm no expert, but I found this article pretty insightful.

baby Jake Holland, aka Cupcake, experiences the miracle in Nepal. getting the toes in their sockets eludes him at first.

fear not, he conquers the situation. nice legs, Cupcake! ow ow, ladies he's still on the market.

so back to the versatility point. that's the best thing about these shoes. they're my only river booties while traveling, and while I definitely wouldn't suggest them for expedition kayaking, they'll do the job anyway. i put the things through trekking in the Himalayas to Class V portages and they've done pretty well. they're also not so bad for climbing. and great for running, as we mentioned earlier.

doing a little climby climby outside Queenstown. Photo by Billy Powell

alright i think that about sums up my brief and hopefully-helpful synopsis of the Vibram Five Finger phenom. if you're into funky fresh gear that does it all then these are a must-have.

one more piece of advice... if you do get yourself a pair, break them in slowly, your feet will need a bit of time to adjust.

catch yinz on the flipside!