Ben Walks Beijing in KSOs FiveFingers

By Justin Owings on Nov 4, 2009 | In user stories | Leave a comment »

Ben's VFF KSOs pictured atop a manhole in Beijing, China.

Tiananmen Square as viewed a la Vibram FiveFingers KSO.

Ben sent in the above photos snapped in the Forbidden City (Beijing, China). Ben was travelling through and went on a six mile walk from his hotel to Tiananmen Square.

I noticed a bit of wear on Ben's KSOs, so I asked him what he'd been doing in them — turns out, a bit of everything:

About of year's worth of constant wear; little tear on the left pinky, seam rip on the right big toe ... Still going strong. Bought them last October and I've been running and working out (Martial Arts, Weight Lifting, CrossFit-type stuff) with them ever since.

I travel a lot for work, which is why I was in Beijing. I had a few hours to kill and though I'd like to see the world's largest public square; I did think it was a little closer to the hotel though ...

It's tough to travel light and bring an extra pair of shoes with size 13 feet, but the 5 Fingers pack up so nicely.

I always get some weird looks, but I'm always telling people I don't care what they do, what kind of exercise or sports they do, they got to get a pair.

Thanks for sharing, Ben!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
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