Rana drives, walks, runs, and hikes in her Vibram Sprints

By Justin Owings on Sep 29, 2009 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Rana emailed me the other day to let me know she had blogged about her recent experiences with her Vibram Five Finger Sprints. Rana's been busy putting her Sprints to all the usual tests: driving, walking, running, hiking, and, well, just playing in them. Here's a clip from Rana's blog post:

Some observations - grass is nice, as is pine duff (though you do have to watch out for pine cones). Gravel isn't pleasant, though fine-crack packed gravel is a lot better than loosely packed large rocks. Logs are fun. Kicking an Osage orange toe first hurts, but shoving it along with the ball of your foot gives a nice inner-thigh work-out. Jumping is fun, especially since it's amusing seeing your VFF-clad toes pointing in the air. The worst surface? Field stubble. The damn stuff pokes you in the sides of the toes. Ouch! Mud is interesting, though I didn't explore it too much since I didn't want to get the shoes too dirty or to sink in a bog.

The gentle pad-pad-pad sound your feet make when walking in the VFFs is also pleasant - and it's quiet enough that you can sneak up on squirrels, rabbits, turtles and cats without half-trying. (When one does try, one can walk very quietly indeed.)

So, to make a long account short, these shoes are so much fun! And they are helping me remember why I love being outdoors, and why bodies are meant for playing, not just sitting and working. Viva la VFFs!

The stealthiness of Vibrams is one of the reasons they're referred to as "Ninja Shoes."

As for the field stubble, I think in time you might find it's not so bad after all. I was walking through a gravel parking lot the other night and thinking both "Ahh a foot massage" and then "It's nice to have a bit of variation in the ground for once!"

Be sure to check out the rest of Rana's post for a slew of other photos and thoughts! Thanks, Rana!

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.