fivefingers – Justin Owings

As regular readers know, I have a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Classics (Reviewed last summer). I’ve gotten a lot of use out of my VFFs, having worn them for CrossFit, short runs, sprints, frisbee, world traveling, weight lifting, and for everyday uses like going to the grocery store or any number of other activities. Suffice to say that I think FiveFingers are a fantastic product and allow me the freedom of barefootedness.

So it was with great joy that I recently procured a pair of Five Finger KSOs via John at Kayak Shed, which I just reviewed yesterday. What’s that? You didn’t see my review? That’s because it’s not on justinowings.com. Rather, it is on my latest project, Birthday Shoes dot com, a site dedicated to being barefoot by way of consolidating information about the closest-thing-to-barefooted-footwear-available, Vibram FiveFingers:

Let me guess your thoughts. You think I’m out of my gourd to create a site about barefootedness, specifically one to support a product that is difficult to describe, a sock/shoe/foot-glove/ninja-shoe.

You might be right.

Five Fingers are just footwear: how great could this product be? Pretty extraordinary, actually. Why? Because they empower us modern hunter-gatherers to move about the earth and do things in accordance with our evolutionary design, which is to say, locomote a concrete, polluted and often trashy world wearing virtually nothing on our “birthday shoes” (Yeah, like “birthday suit!”) but a thin piece of rubber sole.

And though it might not be obvious at first glance, this is a very big deal. FiveFingers are important because they are designed to work harmoniously with our human nature. Sure, we all could entirely ditch any form of footwear, build up callouses on our feet, and roam the earth completely barefoot (Indeed, many do), but such a pure solution is also out of reach for most of us. By comparison, just as many pursue a “primal” or “paleo” diet by cutting out grains, sugar, heavily processed foods, and other modern food inventions, we still live in a modern world and aren’t hunting and gathering in a true sense, nor should we. There are fantastic benefits of modern technology; the trick is finding ways to marry our genetic hardwiring with our modern inventions.

FiveFingers go a long way towards that goal.

Birthday Shoes is an attempt to centralize information about Five Fingers, be a hub for different VFF experiences, display humans being human, barefooted or in their birthday shoes, and ultimately act as a sort of gateway-idea*, that can open the eyes of otherwise domesticated, corporate-dwelling, debt-servicing, and generally depressed people to a freer world, one more harmonious with our human nature.

In short, maybe I’m not that crazy after all, or at least, there is a method behind my madness. Check it out:

birthday shoes dot com

Recent posts at birthdayshoes.com:

* I’ve also called it a “trojan horse idea.” I can’t decide which way to describe VFFs is catchier. “Trojan horse” is kinda fun because the VFF is literally not unlike a mask or cover-up for our feet, hiding the reality of what is really going on. “Gateway idea” is nice because it uses the “gateway drug” definition — VFFs serve as a gateway or catalyst towards higher understanding about other things. Ah maybe I should just use both.

Be sure to see my updated comments at the bottom of this post!

In preparation for my trip to India, I ordered a new pair of Chacos from Zappos. They are the Chaco ZX/2 in black:

My first pair of Chacos were bought back in 2003 in preparation for a trip to Italy. They have served me well over the years, and there is still plenty of Vibram sole left in them (particularly in the front, less in the back). However, I’ve been convinced almost since the second week I bought them that they were one size too big. Chacos don’t come in half sizes and I am typically a 10 and a half. I had gone for 11s back in 2003.

This time around, I ordered 10s in the new ZX / dual-thin strap style, still electing to have the toe-strap.

So far, I like them. The 10 is definitely a better fit for my foot. And the dual-thin strap of the ZX makes them much easier to adjust. They are also a smidge lighter than my five year old, one-size bigger Chacos. Here’s a comparative shot (apologies for my ugly, long toes):

See how well my old Chacos have held up? Over that same time period, my Milano Birks (God bless them) have been worn through to the leather upper!

I like Chacos for their smart design: the one-strap cuts out any need for velcro and makes for a very clean look. The Chaco footbed is heavy-ish, but quite durable — definitely much more durable than, say, Birkenstocks (I’m a big fan of Milano and Boston, being on my second pair of both in the past 10 years). I’m a big fan of Vibram soles, too (See my review of Five Fingers). Interestingly, I’ve thrown my old Chacos in the dishwasher to clean them. Works like a charm!

As for Zappos.com, all I can say is, “wow”. I ordered my Chacos on Monday mid-day and they were delivered by UPS Tuesday afternoon. That was with the $7.00 rush processing (Note: no other shipping or handling fees at all, meaning had I not gone for rush, it would have been free shipping — oh and no sales tax!), but even so, that is impressively fast. If you know what you want (I.e. size and style of shoe), how can you go wrong? Oh wait, even if you don’t like it, they offer free return shipping! Impressive.

So we’ll see how these new Chacos hold up. My plan (presently) is only to take my FiveFingers and Chacos to India. Now all I need is some injinji socks!

Afterthought: Some of you might be thinking I’m a bit crazy for blogging reviews on my footwear. You just have to understand that I’m a huge fan of being able to wear as little shoe as possible (I have to wonder if this is some primal instinct — a throwback to the countless human generations who never knew shoes. Furthermore, I hate packing multiple pairs of shoes on vacations. To me, the flexibility of Chacos, particularly these ZX/2s in black which combine utility with a bit more “dress”, win out over the comfort-factor of my Birkenstocks, which don’t hold up well to lots of walking, inclimate weather, lots of standing or hiking. And the FiveFingers, well they are incredibly packable and great for long plane rides.

Update, 11-12-2008: The ZX/2s performed beyond expectations on my trip to India where I wore them almost exclusively for three weeks. Of note, whereas the ZX Chacos had a nasty habit of “scissoring” right above my big toe where the two straps crossed over, which caused irritation and a blistering-effect when I wore the Chacos for extended periods (i.e. when I wore my ZXs almost exclusively back on my Italy 2003 trip). Thanks to the interlocking-at-the-crossover double strap of the the ZX/2s, this effect was entirely eliminated. I had no irritation there whatsoever.

My wife thinks the ZX/2s are a bit “strappy”, which is to say, “feminine.” However, I think they’re more stylish, less granola and beyond all, much more functional than the single strap ZXs. Assuming the style is acceptable to you, I highly recommend the ZX/2s over the ZXs.

Now, one drawback of note. I found the soles of these new Chaco’s to be slippery in wet conditions. I expected a bit more “grippiness” from Vibram soles, so this was a slight disappointment — a minor gripe though.