Vibram Five Fingers
Barefoot Running While Wearing Vibram Five Fingers is Becoming Increasingly Popular
I don't remember when and where I first heard of Vibram Five Fingers running shoes, but the idea of them continues to excite me. It makes intuitive sense to me, even though (or -- maybe because I'm naturally rebellious -- because) it goes against the commonly accepted wisdom.
Running for fun and fitness began in the 1960s with the publication of JOGGING (and people actually did refer to it with that word) by coach Bill Bowerman and AEROBICS by Kenneth Cooper. Up until then, runners ran in ordinary tennis shoes or, if officially in track competition and on a track, with then shoes with spikes in the front. These were designed to get good traction and still be as lightweight as possible.
I was on my junior high track and cross countries teams and never heard the words "pronation" and "supination." So far as I know, none of them ever instructed anybody on their form or technique. When they watched us run, they were spotting who was goofing and who was working hard, and who appeared to be the fastest. That's all.
In 1972 Bowerman designed a shoe with lots of cushioning, which raised the runner's heel up high and, in partnership with Phil Knight, gave birth to Nike.
Soon other shoe manufacturers such as New Balance were competing to develop running shoes to "protect" the feet of runners.
And by "protect," I don't mean the obvious senses of the word in blocking our sensitive skin from tough concrete and broken glass, but from the force of our feet striking the ground and from our defects in running technique and form.
Vibram Five Fingers Running Shoes are Running Heresy
By the time I took up running as an adult, the annual issue devoted to shoes was the most popular of RUNNING WORLD (certainly the only one I usually bought). The editors evaluated all the entrants from the major brands. Of course they judged them on overall durability, but more important were the amount of stability, support and motion control they offered.
Us flat footed runners needed stability or motion control shoes for support to prevent overpronation. Others needed support for supination.
Everyone needed cushioning to prevent heel injuries, from striking the ground with our heels. I remember how weird it felt the first time I put on a pair of running shoes (highly expensive -- especially for my youthful, minimum-wage budget -- and highly recommended by RUNNING WORLD to prevent injuries) and stood up with my heels so high.
And I can remember how weird even Rockport walking shoes felt when I'd go from wearing running shoes to shoes that didn't lift my heels so high or provide so much cushioning.
It was Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike and well-known as a runner and running guru, who invented the idea of lifting the heel higher.
And for the past year and a half I've been wearing a pair of Brooks Beast -- the most supportive shoe for us flat footed runners who are likely to overpronate.
However, it's estimated that 70% of all runners per year suffer from an injury. This seems to indicate that despite all the advances in running shoe technology, runners weren't being as protected as they thought.
Maybe the fault lies in trying to encase our feet in shoes that almost totally immobilize them, preventing them from performing their natural function while we run, supporting them so much they're "enabled" to become lazy and therefore weak.
Maybe it's time we runners gave our feet some "tough love" and forced them to do more of the work.
After all, for two million years or so, people ran without any shoes at all for almost their entire lives. Oh, maybe people in Europe wrapped their feet in animal skins during winter, especially while out hunting in the snow, but that wouldn't have kept them from feeling the ground as they walked or ran.
Men hunted, women gathered and children played -- walking and running barefoot in and across sand (desert and beach), mud, bare dirt, exposed rocks, mountain slopes, jungles, swamps, forests, and grasslands . . . over sticks, clumps of plants, stickers, brambles, animal holes, prairies, meadows and marshes.
In other words, humanity had to have tough feet just to survive our first two million years. And even when we switched to agriculture, most people didn't immediately put on shoes, just because we learned about leather.
Also, our feet contain many nerves, second only to our face and hands. Many are used for proprioperception, our sense of balance and coordination. These nerves are meant to be used -- activated -- by sensing the natural, rough environment. They're not meant to be lulled asleep by flat, smooth surfaces - or wearing shoes that block the our feet nerves from experiencing the outside world.
I wonder now if not wearing shoes much as a child contributed toward my being a clumsy, poorly coordinated kit -- except when I was in the water . . . barefoot.
Vibram Five Fingers Shoes Take Us Back to Bare Feet, Without Needing Thick Calluses
It's only been recently, and only in the developed world, that people have taken to wearing shoes every minute of every day they're awake, even starting with babies who can't even walk yet.
In one of his books Pete Egoscue tells of how a parent complained to him that their two year old daughter wasn't walking yet. He took one look at her sitting on the floor and trying to scoot around, and said, "Take off her shoes." The parent thought he was crazy, but finally took off the girl's shoes, and she immediately stood up and started walking toward something that attracted her attention.
She knew how to walk all right, just not (yet) how to walk and wear shoes at the same time.
I know that when I was a kid I had to wear big clunky shoes to "support" my arches because I have flat feet. Yet when I went outside to play I could wear tennis shoes (or sneakers) as all the other kids did, and it didn't seem to hurt me.
And when I ran on the cross country and track teams in junior high I wore tennis shoes and nobody paid any attention to my flat feet then. Nor during track meets when we were given track shoes with spikes to wear.
Now, I didn't put in massive amounts of mileage in those days, but somebody did. There were track and cross country stars who must have run quite a bit. Yet so far as I know, they all wore simple tennis shoes when on the street. On a regular track they could have worn track shoes, but those had no support in them.
Old-fashioned track shoes without spikes, with individual pockets for toes and fitting tight and manufacturered with modern technology to withstand friction -- that's what Vibram Five Fingers shoes are.