for the love of bare feet and vibram five fingers shoes.

This past weekend a buddy of mine needed extra players for his Go Kickball league game, and since he and I had played two WAKA seasons together (The mighty "Rotties" and "Rotties Deux"), he gave me a buzz and asked me to help out.

Thirty minutes late to the game, my team was already down by twelve. As I been wearing my KSOs all day already (Had gone to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival), I switched to my rarely used Nike sneakers. So shod, I managed to get on base at my first at-bat and played outfield for an inning. However, my Nike's just didn't feel right having enjoyed the foot freedom of my birthday shoes all day. The unavoidable numbness of sneakers was all wrong.

I decided to throw my KSOs back on.

Approaching the plate at my next at-bat, I immediately got questioned by the opposing team's catcher about my FiveFingers. I believe her comment was something like, "Those are the coolest ... whatever they are I've ever seen!" This was immediately followed by a few shouts to other teammates to look at my feet. I'm not sure if the other team was so distracted by my birthday shoes or what, but after a whopping foul kick, I kicked a single and got on base. With the help of teammates, I managed to score before the end of the inning. We lost the game, but after we did the obligatory "Good Game" march, I had the somewhat self-conscious experience of the entire opposing team surrounding me and asking questions about my FiveFingers.

How'd the FiveFingers fare in kickball? Better than I expected. Outfield play was fantastic in FiveFingers as the grassy field made for an excellent sprinting surface. I juggled one monster punt by the opposing team but was nimble enough on my feet to spin around and complete the catch for an out. This isn't to say that FiveFingers are built for kickball: notably, it was awkward rounding the bases at sprint speed and trying to grind to a halt on a base without cleats. As you might imagine, there was also a slight sting to kicking the ball with so little foot padding — though not as bad as I expected.

Would I play kickball in KSOs again? Maybe, but I think I'll have to revert to my cleats next time.