Vibram FiveFingers Classic
Today is National Go Barefoot Day. It is a day when naturalists and modern-day flower children types can feel validated while sauntering out in public without any footwear adorning their lower-most appendages.
For those who feel less inclined to wander around sans-shoes, but would like to try an alternative to the traditional style of footwear, there is a now a solution. Vibram's FiveFingers provide the foot with the protection of a shoe, but allow the freedom of having separated toes.
There have been several reviews related to this product. There is even a doctor at Harvard, who is conducting a study regarding athletes who consistently run, wearing the FiveFingers.
This product is one that is constantly pointed to, in the ongoing debate about on the argument that modern training shoes and running shoes are actually more detrimental, than beneficial.
Some have argued that the support offered by modern running shoes actually causes more injuries, because they do not allow the foot to provide enough feedback to the body. Arguably, this causes pronation, and other instances of "bad" form, leading to increased joint damage, etc.. In a recent article by Christopher McDougall, entitled The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?, McDougall made the following statement regarding this issue:
Dr Daniel Lieberman, professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University, has been studying the growing injury crisis in the developed world for some time and has come to a startling conclusion: 'A lot of foot and knee injuries currently plaguing us are caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to over-pronate (ankle rotation) and give us knee problems.
Maybe the founders of National Go Barefoot Day were onto something. If you are convinced that getting back to nature is the way to go, but don't want to offend the public with your toe hair and bunions, maybe the Vibram FiveFingers are for you.
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