birthday shoes

UPDATED (See near the bottom!)

If you ever wondered what you'd get if you mixed the uppers of sneakers with the minimalistic soles of Vibram Five Fingers, wonder no further, as (once again) Voy Contigo is on the case with their snapshot of new fivefinger models slated for 2010 taken at a German Outdoor trade show in Friedrichshafen, one of the new models makes use of traditional shoelaces and the other, while still using a velcro strap like the KSO and Sprint models, employs an upper that looks like the top of a regular trainer or running shoe. A picture here is worth a few hundred words:

A photo of new 2010 models of Vibram Five Fingers from voycontigo.de

I think it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: these new models are funky — they sort of make my brain hurt as I try to meld the sneaker/laces concept with the VFF five toed-glove design. Worlds are colliding!

What are they? Well, let's see what we can glean from a translated version of the post at voycontigo.de:

There are the models Bikila Vibram Five Fingers, Vibram Five Fingers Performa Performa & Jane, Vibram Five Fingers Moc, Speed Vibram Five Fingers, Vibram Five Fingers Trek & Glove. The Bikila are similar to the KSO, however, from a different material, almost like stretch and still breathable. The speed is slightly padded interior and cords. The trek, Performa and Moc are made of leather, the trek from the Performa suede & Moc from Kangarooleder with buckle and snap.

Based on the above translation, it seems that the brown and pink laced fivefingers are called the "Speed." The "Bikila," which is likely named after Olympic runner Abebe Bikila, is the velcro-strapped grey/green VFF in the center. Both models are slated to be available in March 2010.

We're still unclear as to what exactly are the models Performa and Moc though we've got a pretty good "grip" on the upcoming fivefingers Trek

Hat tip to xz123 and Notleh for letting us know about this exciting (and interesting) Vibram fivefinger news!

What do you think of these new models? Are we one step closer to mimicking Al Bundy's "God's shoes"? Tell us what you think about the Speed and Bikila fivefingers models by commenting below or in the ongoing forum discussion in the birthday shoes forums!

Update 1 — fivefingers Bikila: I've gotten indication that not only is the Bikila named after the 1960 Olympic Marathon winner Abebe Bikila (who ran that race barefoot!), but that the Bikila's are so-named to honor his memory on the 50^th anniversary of Bikila winning that historic race, which happened to have transpired in Rome (And lest we forget, Vibram is an Italian company!).

Furthermore, in a similar line of thinking to the Trek's use of a very minimal amount of EVA (4 mm) at key points of impact in the sole, the Bikila's will have similar "spots" of a minimal amount of EVA support (1 - 2 mm) to aid in their use on concrete and asphalt.

I'm hopeful I might get my hands on a photo of the fivefingers Bikila from underneath, so stay tuned!

Update 2 — fivefingers Speed: Word is that the laced-up fivefinger Speed will only be available in Europe (This doesn't affect the Bikila though!).