Hello,

My name is Brooklyn from SK, Canada. I am part of a track club and really want to say thank you for your shoes.Those are the best shoes. Thanks to them I am now going to a provincial meet and possibly the North American final. I really wanted to reconize them. And say you did an awesome job on creating them for all ages. I have definitly spread the word out there and have told everybody that those shoes are the running shoes and i know tons who now are geting them after I ran in mine So just thought I'd let you all know at Vibram, that the shoes especially the bikila ones are really great shoes invented.

“Imitation is the sincerest (form) of flattery.” – Charles Caleb Colton

If Mr. Colton’s statement is in fact true, then you’ll probably agree that Vibram FiveFingers has been receiving A LOT of flattery lately. Imitations, fakes, and flagrant copies are popping up daily. Most of these counterfeits are distributed via Ebay and (over 20) forged websites that, to the untrained eye, look very similar to the real Vibram FiveFingers website (www.vibramfivefingers.com) with use of stolen imagery and text. Unsuspecting customers realize that they’ve been taken advantage of when they receive heavy, non-breathable, inflexible, and shoddy product--and sometimes they receive no product at all! Furthermore, innocent consumers are entering their personal information and credit card numbers into unsecured web shopping carts.

We’re working diligently on prosecuting the companies and people behind these forgeries. In the interest of protecting all our fans from getting taken advantage of, here’s our list of tips for spotting fakes:

You know that “FiveFingers®” products are fake if:

• The url utilizes a spin-off of Vibram or FiveFingers. Hyphens, underscores, and declarations of “authentic” or “real” products are a dead giveaway.
• There are all sorts of crazy colors offered that you’ve never seen on www.vibramfivefingers.com.
• Brands not named Vibram are offering their own “FiveFingers” products. Vibram is the only company legally allowed to produce FiveFingers products.
• Confusing or poorly written product descriptions and low-quality or low-resolution product images.
• Discounts! FiveFingers products being sold at discounts of 20%-50% or more are almost always counterfeit.
• Discount incentives and options to buy in BULK.
• Fabrics and materials that appear different should be a tip-off. Many fakes are using a lycra-like material that has a thicker, less-elastic knit texture to it. 
• The “retailer” offers no contact phone number or the contact number immediately directs you to voicemail.
• The “retailer” can’t be found on our store locator http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/productsupport/store_locator.cfm (all authorized web retailers of FiveFingers® products MUST have a brick-and-mortar presence).

Please remember this advice when purchasing FiveFingers® products on the web to avoid wasting your money on poor product, or worse, having your personal and financial information compromised. If you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/info/contact.cfm) or ask your fellow fans. Probably the best thing to keep in mind is the old adage, if a bargain seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Cheers,

Team VFF

VIA: VFF Facebook - Become a fan!

 
Photo by Magalie L'Abbé

Beekeeper Kirk Anderson has a simple message, lets bees be bees. Let them form their own comb, raise their own queens and generally go about doing what they want to do. In short, work with nature rather than try to control her. "Duh," one might say, but Kirk's beekeeping method just so happens to run counter to a hundred years of conventional beekeeping practices and "expert" advice. Kirk calls his method "backwards beekeeping" after Charles Martin Simon's eloquent essay, "Principles of Beekeeping Backwards." Simon's essay is essential reading, in my opinion, even if you have no interest in bees. It gets you thinking about what other things the so-called experts might be wrong about.

How about shoes for instance?

I was addicted to running throughout my 30s until a series of injuries in recent years, arthritis in the knees and plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammation of connective tissue on the bottom of the foot, effectively ended my happy morning runs. In the case of plantar fasciitis the doctors and physical therapists I consulted all said the same thing, that I should wear shoes with arch supports at all times, even around the house. A routine of stretching, incessant shoe wearing and abstaining from running beat back the pain for a year or so. But then it returned for no good reason.

Time to take those feet "backwards"

All the interventions of conventional beekeepers, the pre-built comb and endless treatments, have produced weak bees. It may seem crazy, but I began to see an analogy to our feet. We ain't born with shoes on, after all. So why do we think we need to improve on nature's design? Could it be that shoes, by atrophying our muscles, cause plantar fasciitis? Could the ever more massive cushioning of running shoes cause biomechanical changes that damage knees? For several years I'd been fascinated with barefoot running, but was always to chicken to try it. Two videos, done as part of a research project on barefoot running at Harvard, convinced me.

The first shows a runner in shoes with a graph of the impact forces. When you run in shoes you tend to slam down your heel first. Note the spike in the graph indicating the force of this heel impact:: 

When you run barefoot you tend to strike with the ball of the foot first instead of the heel, which eliminates that initial impact spike: 

Desperate and with nothing to lose, I decided to VERY slowly adjust to not wearing shoes. I gradually wore them less and less around the house. I began to feel a noticeable difference immediately. My feet felt stronger. In the past few weeks I've begun to carefully transition to running barefoot. I'm using a program adapted from a book, Run Less, Run Faster:  minus all the advice about shoes: I only run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, resting on all other days.

Week 1: (run 1 minute walk 2 minutes) x 4
Week 2: (run 2 minutes walk 2 minutes) x 3
Week 3: (run 2 minutes walk 1 minutes) x 4 
Week 4: (run 3 minutes walk 1 minutes) x 4
Week 5: (run 4 minutes walk 2 minutes) x 4  
Week 6: (run 4 minutes walk 1 minutes) x 6
Week 7: (run 5 minutes walk 1 minutes) x 6   
Week 8 run one mile
Week 9: run 1.5 miles
Week 10: run 2 miles
Week 11: run 2.5 miles
Week 12: run 3.1 miles

While I'm fairly certain I'll have setbacks, I'm hoping this conservative program will minimize my chances of injury and get me back to running modest distances. So far is seems to be working. I just have to contain my enthusiasm for being free of shoes and keep myself from running too much, too soon. Barefoot running really is liberating. It feels like being a kid again.

Everything we've been told is wrong

Dr C Richards, of the University of Newcastle in an article, "Is your prescription of distance running shoes evidence based?" discovered that there is not a single peer reviewed study proving the need for running shoes. He issued a challenge to shoe makers,

"Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?" 

He was met with a resounding silence. 

That is, until Nike came out with the "Free," a shoe that simulates barefoot running. In other words, caught with absolutely no evidence to justify their existence, Nike attempted to sell a shoe that's not a shoe. Now that's marketing in action! There's also the Vibram Five Fingers, an odd looking slipper-type non-shoe. While the Vibram has it's adherents, especially when it comes to preventing cuts from sharp objects, I feel that one of the points of running or walking barefoot is that it forces you to be more careful about the way you put your feet down.

A paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, "Hazard of deceptive advertising of athletic footwear".  concludes,

"(1) deceptive advertising of protective devices may represent a public health hazard and may have to be eliminated presumably through regulation; (2) a tendency in humans to be less cautious when using new devices of unknown benefit because of overly positive attitudes associated with new technology and novel devices."

The point about "overly positive attitudes associated with new technology" is a lesson well worth remembering, it seems to me. I could go on and on. I think this poetic video of a young man from Kenya, who has never worn shoes in his life, says it all:

As Kirk Anderson says, "Backwards is the new forwards." It ain't about nostalgia for some mythic past, the point is we're actually going forwards here by working with nature rather than arrogantly trying to control her. And don't worry dear readers, my hair won't get "long and shaggy", but you can bet I've bought my last pair of $100 running shoes.

For more information on barefoot running see http://therunningbarefoot.com/

via: Homegrown Evolution

by NewsChannel 36 Staff
Posted on May 4, 2010 at 11:00 PM
Updated yesterday at 6:51 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The latest craze to hit Charlotte's fitness fanatics is called "barefoot running." But it's really running with sock-like shoes called Vibram Five Fingers. 

"When you run you don't get bored as much," said Brett Bumeter, who wears the shoes. "It's like having an instant tough callous on your feet."

"It's the closest thing to being barefoot and still have something on," said Bill Bartee, owner of Jessie Browns. 

Bartee said his store can barely keep the shoes on the shelves. 

"In the past one year they've definitely taken over the active lifestyle running market," Bartee said.

The store recently received a shipment that was ordered in December.

"They're hard to get and hard to keep in stock," Bartee said.

So what's the big deal?  

"It's like a playground for your feet," Bumeter said.

Some say these Five Fingers are a way to free your feet. 

"A lot will argue this is reverting back to what we've done forever and ever," said Dr. Carroll Jones, a foot and ankle surgeon with OrthoCarolina.

There's some evidence the shoes could be good for you.

"There's information coming now that barefoot running is lower impact when the foot hits the ground than traditional running. The theory there would be lower injury," Jones said.

But if you're thinking of taking the barefoot plunge, do it carefully.

"The biggest problem we're seeing is runners transitioning too quickly from traditional running to barefoot running," Jones said. "The injuries we are seeing are runners that are doing it too quickly."

Jones said you should learn the technique of wearing the Five Fingers -- use a track or flat surface to start. 

For more information, visit http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/.

CEO Tony Post and Corrado Giambalvo at the Boston Marathon from Vibram5fingers on Vimeo.

Barefoot Running Hits Boston

• April 18, 2010

City Sports hosts big names in barefoot running during Boston Marathon weekend.

Written By: Mario Fraioli

One look at the feet of the crowd gathered inside City Sports on Boylston Street Saturday morning and it quickly became apparent this was not a footwear fashion contest. 

The gathering of about 100 strong shed their shoes in unison for the Vibram FiveFingers All-Star Barefoot Running Clinic, featuring Vibram spokesperson Corrado Giambalvo, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman, as well as author of the wildly popular book Born to Run, Christopher McDougall. Co-sponsored by Vibram and City Sports, the event was aimed at educating the masses about minimalist running, a movement which has gone viral as a result of McDougal’s best-selling book.

“This is a project in self-experimentation,” Giambalvo said. “The greatest aspect of this movement is re-educating your feet and re-experiencing the joy of running.”

Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist, has studied the role of running amongst different cultures of people throughout history and says that research suggests humans were designed to run. Running shoes, he said, take away from the organic nature of the activity.

“We weren’t born to run, we evolved to run,” Lieberman explained. “Our bodies are designed by evolution to run. You don’t need shoes to run.”

“The attendance here this morning is testament to how little is actually known about (barefoot running),” McDougall added. “I’m happy that Vibram and City Sports are doing this to give people the opportunity to learn how to use the product properly. Throughout history, running has been an activity that has been associated with vitality and freedom. Only recently has it been associated with pain and fear.”

In his opening speech, McDougall went on to tell the story of how after suffering through years of incessant injuries many different doctors and physical therapists told him that he simply shouldn’t run. He tried everything, from stretching and rehabilitative exercises to corrective orthotics. Nothing worked until he shed his shoes and started running barefoot.

“It took a while,” McDougall said of the transition to running sans shoes. “You can’t just take off your shoes, go out the door and run five miles. There is a technique to it. The best way to relearn this thing is to shut down the brain and listen to the feet.”

After the initial introduction by McDougall, Giambalvo and Lieberman, attendees broke into smaller groups to learn the basics of running barefoot before heading outside to put their newly learned techniques into practice. The trio emphasized re-learning how to run by encouraging a forefoot strike, taking shorter strides and employing a faster turnover.

“You need to start slowly because if you don’t you will injure yourself,” Lieberman advised. “It’s a relearning process, but when you emerge on the other end you’ll wonder why you ever wanted to heel strike in the first place.”

Giambalvo, a veteran marathoner and running coach in his native Italy, used a metronomic beeping device with his group to teach proper cadence as a warmup exercise before heading outside to practice running barefoot on the sidewalk alongside Boston Common. He encouraged runners to be light on their feet and to use quick strides. Running in such a way, he said, lessens the likelihood of injury and increases the enjoyment of the activity.

“This is the way we learn to be quick and light on our feet,” Giambalvo explained to the group. “When you have a high turnover rate, contact time with the ground decreases. You learn to use your quads more so your heels aren’t taking any of the impact.”

Lauren Adams, Northeast Marketing Manager for City Sports, was excited with the response to Saturday’s event and felt fortunate to have McDougal, Lieberman and Giambalvo on hand to educate a curious crowd and bring people together on Marathon weekend.

“It was important for us to do the event this weekend not only to educate, but to bring people together,” said Lauren Adams, Northeast Marketing Manager for City Sports. “Vibram is a great partner of ours, so it was nice to put on such a great event for so many interested customers. The response was fantastic and by publicizing it through social media everyone was really geared up. We’re really excited about it.”

Giambalvo, who will run Monday’s marathon in a pair of Vibram’s, said that educational events like the one hosted by City Sports are a good way for runners to face their fears with others who share a similar type of uncertainty when it comes to trying something different.

“I think an event like this is important because you get acquainted with other people that are doing something which you are unsure about,” Giambalvo said. “Luckily there’s a lot of stuff on the web which is contradictory, sometimes outright critical, and I think that’s good. This is a hands-on kind of experience. You need to try it. You need to confront yourself with what it is that you’re doing.

VIA: Competitor.com