If you follow, me you may have noticed that I recently received my second pair of Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) the other day. In my closing-in-on five years of running, VFFs have been the brand of shoe that has treated me the best. Here’s a brief history of why I like them.

As a Kid

When I was about nine or ten years old, I was diagnosed as one of the 20-30% of the general population that has flat feet. My parents thought I was just lazy when we would go places and I would quickly complain about foot and leg pain. Truth was, I had no arch to my foot, which was causing the pain.

I don’t know if it was an aggressive doctor or the severity of my flat-footed-ness, but I clearly remember being told that my options were one of two: wear these plastic inserts in my shoes forever or let them medically break my feet and construct an arch.

Since I have a mother (and a worrier at that), I was by no means getting my feet purposely broken. So, at the mature age of ten, I, for the first time, had my feet wrapped with bandages to get a mold of my feet which were then taken and used to make a lift which would give me an arch. I was told I would always need to tie my shoes well, so that the lifts could properly work. Every shoe I had from here on out would have to have good support and be able to fit my lift.

Enter the Dragon…I Mean the Running

Running became a solid part of my life in 2007 when I graduated college. I’m the son of a father who has been running since the mid-90s (were slowly approaching his 20 year mark) and I thought a great way to do a big father-and-son moment would be to commit to running and do a half-marathon with my dad.

When I was in high school I tried to do this. I would get about 1000 feet before I bitched out. It was the same leg pain I’d always had as a kid: achy knees, sore feet, quick fatigue. I didn’t get it. How could my legs feel like this? I had lifts. Lifts! They were my solution to the pain! So, being an angsty high schooler, I thought, “Screw this, man. I don’t need this shit.” And that was that.

But back to 2007.

I started running, now out of my angst phase, and found a way to push past the pain. It still hurt, but this wasn’t about just me, it was about me and my dad being a father and son. And I ran my first my half. It was slow and ugly, but I did it.

Then I ran another. Then a marathon. It was like a disease had taken over me and I liked it.

But throughout this whole time (which spans three years until July or August of 2010), the leg pain remained. I tried all different types of shoes. I had my gait analyzed. It’s a proven fact that flat-footed individuals pronate hard one way or the other (I, by the way, pronate to the outside). No matter what I did, no matter what shoes I tried, it just hurt.

In fact, it got worse. The pain that used to be relegated to my knees, lower legs, and feet had now shot up into my right hip. During my marathon training, I was taking cold baths to subside the hip pain.

But I didn’t get it. I had lifts. How could this be?

Flat-Foot Runner + Lifts =/= Relief

A podiatrist that I have never visited, but my mother, who also has flat feet, now goes to told her something that changed my perspective on lifts a lot. Because of the way our foot moves as we run, in terms of running, lifts to close to nothing. And when I think about it, it really makes sense. The lifts cover half-to-3/4 of the foot, but when we run, we end up on the balls of our feet more often than not. So how could the lift be helping? As the doctor said, it probably wasn’t.

Eureka! My pain was there because my cure (the lifts) did jack shit!

But that didn’t solve my problem. I still had to run. So was I relegated to painful runs forever? Well, as you can guess, the answer is no. No I did not.

Sloth Shoes

My dad has always made fun of me, telling me I have sloth toes. I do. My feet are disgusting. I advise you, if we ever meet, to avoid direct eye contact with my feet. They’re like the Ark of the Covenant and they will murder you.

So in my quest to fix my pain, I stumbled across this new(er) trend in running called barefoot (or minimalist) running. I’ll save the long spiel, but the idea is that our feet are naturally suited to meet the trauma of long distance running and wearing shoes with padding alter our natural posture and screw the whole thing up, causing pain, mostly in the joints.

Mostly in the joints, eh? Like the knee and hip joints? Interesting.

So I took a leap of faith and, for my first birthday as a married man, my wife bought me VFFs KSOs. I was nervous that my abnormal, sloth-toed feet would have trouble fitting into them. On top of it, every conventional wisdom imparted upon me by years of podiatrists said that a minimalist shoe, which provided no arch or arch support would make things worse. The fake arch is what had been keeping the pain manageable for all these years. Right?

So I eased into it. I was not in training mode, so it was perfect timing. Most people who try these shoes complain that they hurt, but the truth (I think) is they don’t transition correctly. I did a mile a few times in the shoes. Then a couple miles. Then three. Within a few months the shoes had become my primary mode of long-distance running.

I was faster in them. Not only that, but running had become more fun all of a sudden. People looked at the shoes on my feet with interest, which was cool. At races, I had a subculture of VFF-wearers that I was now part of.

And the pain? Well, conventional wisdom is a funny thing. It’s wisdom because it’s a widely held belief. But if life teaches us one thing it is that just because everyone thinks something doesn’t make it right.

My pain went away completely. I don’t mean sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. Gone. Adios. Au revoir. Peace bitch.

These VFFs are great and I love them. I had to run in regular shoes for the last 100+ miles as, after 500+ miles (which is a lifespan of almost double any shoe I’d previously owned), my VFFs finally got a hole in the sole. The “regular” shoes are the, part-Vibram/part-New Balance, MT20s and are, really a great shoe, but I bought them strictly for trail running. They have a tougher sole that prevents rocks from bruising my feet. Running in these shoes has brought back some of that old pain. Just a little thicker sole and the pain returns.

To the Future!

So all of this being said, VFFs have been my best move, in terms of running, since making the decision to become a runner. My pain is gone, I’m faster (I ran my fastest race, a half-marathon, in them), and—more important than anything—running is straight up fun because of them.

Don’t be afraid of these shoes. I promise you, they are the future. Well, at least for me they are.