Be sure and check out my interview with Christopher McDougall!
In it, Chris talks about denying your nature, the sports shoe industry, getting to barefoot, cross-pollinating ideas, and more!
Last night Born to Run author Christopher McDougall was interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. The interview, which went on for a hearty six minutes, gave Christopher the opportunity to talk not only about some of the themes within his bestselling book but also about the plight of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico.
It seems the Mexican government is not only paving new roads down into the Copper Canyons, but also standing idly by as this infrastructure is used by Mexican drug cartels to plant crops and further their drug trade.
It is tragic that the Tarahumara — a non-violent people who only fled to the perilously uninhabitable Copper Canyons to escape the conquistadors some 500 years ago — are now finding the Mexican government/Mexican drug cartels at their doorstep, ready to finish the job the Spanish started 400 years ago. Kudos to McDougall for talking about this plight in his interview.
In a moment of levity at the end of the interview, Jon Stewart sums up McDougall's book as simultaneously taking on the Mexican drug cartels and the American sneaker cartels. Is Stewart so wrong? Here is the exchange:
McDougall: The shoes are the root of the problem. Without the shoes you can run painlessly and joyfully forever.
Stewart: So the amazing thing is that this book basically takes on the Mexican drug cartels and the American sneaker cartels.
McDougall: That's it!
Here's the video:
Now, in addition to a great interview that will assuredly make Born to Run even more popular, it seems that Christopher McDougall was sporting black KSO fivefingers in the interview! Just look at this screencap and note how his downward pointing foot is curved — regular shoes don't look like that — like jet black feet*!
Truth be told, I was tipped off to this VFF sighting through the official Vibram FiveFingers facebook page — the black KSOs just blend in so well it's hard to notice them unawares! Of course, Jon Stewart also failed to notice McDougall's unconventional footwear, but then again, the all black KSOs blend well with slacks — particularly in "dress mode."
As you might recall, McDougall described running in VFFs via this previous YouTube interview; however, via an even more recent podcast from Brandon's Marathon, we learned that McDougall now runs predominantly if not totally barefoot. If you've not got time to wade through the podcast, you can also read what McDougall had to say about his "busted toe" experience and his transition to barefooting in a Q&A over at Zen and the Barefoot Joggler here.
So it's good to see he's still getting some use out of his VFFs!
In the event any of you readers can put me in touch with Mr. McDougall, I'd love to get him to do a birthday shoes interview!
Other posts about Christopher McDougall and Born to Run:
* Maybe I should add "Mr. Deed's Feet" to the alternative names for fivefingers list.
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.Justin Owings+ has written 845 articles and 379 comments.
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Maybe the day is coming soon when VFF's will be considered appropriate business casual footwear. 
the revolution has begun! 
i wear them at work. i'm an IT guy working in a high rise office building. read your employee handbook, chances are your VFF's fit within regulations. that doesn't mean folks won't ask you questions or poke fun...but that is a different issue. 
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