STYLISHLY SIMIAN VIBRAMS

A stickler for economy of lines I found myself engrossed with the minimal and somehow simian design of Vibram Five Fingers, named one of the best inventions by TIME Magazine in 2007. I own a number of huge, bulky high-tops that I mainly use with shorts, skinny or drop-crotch jeans but admittedly, they’re more for looks than function.  For comfort, I use minimalist Nike Free and Lunarlite @ the gym and yet these two pairs look nothing like  Vibram’s FiveFive Fingers Classic (seemingly morphed ballet slippers) and the KSO (Keep Stuff Out) with their five-toe pouches.

I’ve read so much about the trend and benefits of bare-foot training for runners, and outdoors bare-footing from athletes, enthusiasts and physiologists on the net. It all sounded like sales talk to me, anyhow, after a call to Carlos Alvarez for directions to their outlet at Rockwell, I sought out to experience the truth about this barefoot phenomenon myself.