Vibram Five Fingers KSO Review

Heard all about the barefoot technology from Vibram? Read on for a thorough Vibram five fingers KSO review…

Background…

I first came across the Vibrams in 2008, when my friend (an avid CrossFitter) bought a pair on their recommendation. Nothing remarkable – he would have drunk acid if Glassman told him to. At the time he was training for a 10k run and went out for a full 10k run in them, without any bedding in period. Long story short, he hobbled back in agony, complaining they were crap and threw them in the cupboard. After limping around for a week, getting over the pain he vowed never to wear them again.

He didn’t.

Fast forward to 2010 and I attended the FitPro convention. Waiting for my next lecture, I wandered around the retail village and heard the saleman on stage talking about barefoot technology, explaining how we are designed to be sans shoes. I agreed, but still wan’t convinced – I hadn’t heard enough of the sales patter to understand the reasoning behind the claims as I was only there for 2-3 minutes. I did however, notice that the queue at the Vibram stand was long and they were selling hundreds, if not thousands of pairs! Over the weekend I saw lots of delegates in them, so there must have been something behind the claims – too many informed people were wearing them for it to be hype.

As time went on, more and more people I respect started to wear them. I noticed Paul Chek wearing some in videos. Tim Ferriss wrote about them here. On the FitCast podcast there was discussion about them. I learned Adidas and Nike had made their own (totally inferior, I have been told) versions, and a couple of personal training friends had starting wearing them. The time had come for me to learn more.

I discovered that the science behind the shoes was actually pretty simple – due to the nature of shoes, our feet have regressed in function. Our feet are no longer shaped the way they would be in nature, instead they have adapted to fit our shoes.

Without the influence of shoes, the human foot is shaped as below…

The foot of a person who wears shoes is somewhat different – the foot has changed shape to match the shape of the shoe…

My own feet are victim of this to a point – and I am someone who never wears shoes in the house and make a point of spending significant amount of time barefoot. Still, the shape of my little toes suggests it has been subject to footwear for many years…

It goes without saying that there could be terrible consequences for our health if the very body part that connects with the floor is in some way deformed. The obvious issues are postural – habitual standing in an unnatural way could cause kyphosis, lordosis, local muscular pain, long term back pain and if you follow chiropractic or osteopathy, a whole host of other issues including headaches, balance issues and joint problems to name but a few.

My research has led my to change my understanding of the shoes we wear. By adding arch supports and cushioned soles, shoe manufacturers have helped to weaken our feet. With a lack of work to do supporting the arch of the foot and the bone function within, the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the feet have become weaker, relying on shoes to do the work it should naturally be able to do. In some cases, this has compounded further the postural and back problems many people suffer from.

Training shoes are as bad, if not worse. Despite being designed for comfort and support, they have actually radically changed our gait and posture, turning most runners into heel strikers rather than forefoot strikers, which is natures preferred running gait. As a result running injuries are incredibly common, yet could perhaps be avoided with the correct equipment.

Vibram Five Fingers KSO Review

At first the Vibram Five Fingers KSO feel light and soft – almost as if they would be unable to stand up to the ‘real world’ surfaces such as rock, concrete and asphalt. There is an obvious quality to the manufacture though, and when you put them on you are instantly reassured that they would be up to the test of outdoor wear. The soles are made from a performance rubber, meaning they are hard wearing enough to offer protection from the floor but flexible enough to retain ‘barefoot’ feel and comfort during use.

The fitting is remarkably simple – I can comfortably wear a shoe sized 9 or 10 depending on the manufacturer. I opted for a 10, with the logic that then at least they won’t be too small. Whist I could probably wear a 9 with a slightly better fit, the 10’s work just fine.

You fit the shoes by placing your toes individually into their toe pockets, manually fitting each one from big to small. When the toes are in place, pull back the heel tag and place your heel into heel pocket, securing with the strap. Tighten the velcro strap over your foot and there you go – you are in!

The fitting of the shoe is such that as the strap is pulled tight, you have effectively sealed your foot into the shoe, making it suitable for outdoor use. There is no way anything could get into your Vibrams unless they ripped, such is the quality of the fitting and design.

Walking around is where you really notice the difference. They are comfortable like no other shoes I have worn. They allow you to ‘feel’ the floor underneath yet are still protective from the sharp stones etc. I was also struck by how light and ‘agile’ they feel – I had never thought of my trainers as bulky before, but in comparison to the Vibram KSO they feel huge and heavy!

The acid test was going to be the training – how would they respond to exercise? I wanted to give them a thorough testing…

As you can see, the shoes were put through a decent gym workout – I wanted to use them in a way I normally would, rather than asking them to do things that I would usually never usually do. The shoes provided excellent grip on the floor and mats whilst performing exercises with the TRX, and with the squats they were like training barefoot, which is typically how I would squat. The feel through the shoes is intuitive – you are aware of balancing on the correct parts of your feet and the flexibility afforded by the shoe is useful for certain exercises such as lunges and jump squats.

I am not a habitual runner, although I do short distance sprints in my workouts regularly. My concern was that due to the lack of cushioning, the Vibrams would be difficult to run in – as experienced by my friend years ago. The literature tells us to become forefoot strikers, running on the balls of our feet rather than absorbing impact with our heels. I expected to spend a bit of time getting used to the technique, but remarkably the Vibrams turn you into a forefoot striker subconsciously, meaning without thinking my running technique adjusted of its own accord.

I did a 10 minute jog at 12kph on the treadmill, incline 1%. The run was no problem, but towards the end I noticed tightness in the calves. I am not attributing this to poor shoe design, more a lack of conditioning in my calves and achilles for this kind of running. The lack of cushioning wasn’t even an issue. The sprints caused no problem, and the directional change work was easy given the grip the rubber provided on the astroturf.

As for the negatives, they are few and far between. I wore them for a whole day on the day I received them, and it was a cold, snowy day in Stockport! My feet were cold outside, but I didn’t expect them to provide insulation – that’s not their job!

If you don’t get your sizing correct, there may be comfort issues due to the ‘snug’ fitting around the foot pocket, heels and toes. My advice would be to err on the side of caution and make sure you have your feet measured before ordering – don’t rely on guesswork when ordering a shoe that is designed to fit so intimately.

When it comes to running, I would advise you to build up slowly and make sure you do plenty of mobility work on your calves before and after the run. Maybe start with a mile or two and increase gradually – if you do too much too soon you will regret it! These shoes are making your feet work in the way they probably haven’t for a long time! Also, check out the Vibram range as there are other, more running-specific models in the collection.

I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t be perfectly suited to anyone who prefers group exercise classes to the gym, but I would avoid spinning in them as the sharp nature of bike pedals may prove a step too far in a shoe that is designed to allow you to feel the underfoot surface so well!

Conclusion

In conclusion, I really, really like these shoes. Given my job as a personal trainer, I spend a significant chunk of my shoe-wearing time in trainers, but those days are gone! When I am working indoors I have the Vibrams on – as soon as the weather warms up I will be wearing them outside all day too.

I train in them exclusively now and I can’t offer a better endorsement than that – I use them myself for all of my exercise.

Go ahead and buy yourself some Vibram Five Fingers KSO – you won’t regret it!

The shoes are available at Cotswold Outdoor and also via my affiliate link on the amazon website, Vibram© Vibram© FiveFingers Men’s Kso Trainer.