vibram five fingers news, reviews, and fan forums

As a follow-up to the last post on the new fivefingers Trek and Glove comes a bit more information pulled from a scanned February 2009 edition of FN (Footwear News) [PDF] that was found by barefootnyc and posted to the forums. This was in their "Buzz" section (Bracketed words are inferred in place of words chopped off in the PDF file):

[Italy-]based Vibram ix expanding its Five Fignerse collection with winter-[sho]es for fall '09. For men, the KSO Trek — a version of the popular KSO [— ha]s 4 millimeters of EVA in the midsole and 3 millimeters of Vibram's TC-1 [performanc]e outsole. A new, lugged tread design adds traction, and a suede or shear[ling lined? $]125 and $140, respectively) supplies warmth. For women, a midcut, fully [lined] winter boot called the Cortina will retail for $290. the Performa and Moc styles, for women and men, use thin kangaroo leather in the upper for tear resistance and feature pods of Vibram rubber for flexibility in the outsole. Both versions, available in multiple colors, will retail for $110, with a shearling women's version for $140. All models are slated to deliver to outdoor, comfort and running shoops on Aug 1.

To sum up, we've got the:

• Five Fingers Trek — suede or shearling, lugged, slightly thicker sole, and has 4mm of padding (pictured here)
• Five Fingers Glove — kangaroo leather with rubber "pods" instead of the standard single-piece rubber sole, which should provide for maximal toe freedom Note: this may be what's referred to as the "Moc" or "Performa" in the above FN piece (pictured here)
• Five Fingers Cortina — some sort of fully-lined boot only for women
• Five Fingers Performa — maybe the same as the Glove? Maybe something different?
• Five Fingers Moc — maybe the same as the Glove? Maybe something different?

Still trying to piece this all together until we get something official from Vibram. If you hear anything, please let me know!

Other posts regarding new Vibram FiveFingers models:

• Vibram Five Fingers Cortina Seen?
• Two New Five Fingers Models, the Glove and Trek, listed on voycontigo.de!
• More on the FiveFingers Trek, Glove plus the Cortina, Moc, and Performa

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 754 articles and 302 comments.