Interview with Justine Lam on her Vibram Five Finger KSOs

Interviewing Justine Lam on her Vibram Five Fingers KSOs — she uses them for hiking and crossfit, among other things.

Name: Justine Lam
URL: http://justineblam.com and http://www.koalaninja.com
Feet are: my friends!

What prompted you to get Vibram Five Fingers?

I had read about them in one of the Evol Fitness blogs, maybe Mark’s Daily Apple*. I had heard about them back in 2006, but didn’t know where I could try them on in a store. Finally decided to find a store in 2008 because of another article/blog and because I was starting to CrossFit. It seems like the perfect match for weightlifting activities.

What type and color Five Fingers do you have and how long have you had them?

grey and green — KSOs

What do you do most while wearing your Five Fingers?

Hiking or CrossFit. Sometimes I wear them to work. I convinced my colleague at a media company in NYC to purchase some and often we’d be wearing them to work together. He had black KSO’s.

Any unusual experiences while wearing them?

In NYC, on the subway — multiple times people would comment on my shoes and then ask to touch them (or not ask at all) and reach for my feet and feel them.

How do Five Fingers fit in with who you are as a person?

Perfectly! It embodies my Koala Ninja personality. Super-crime fighting shoes.

Anything else you’d like to share about your Five Fingers?

I love your website and am so happy that you decided to start it. I have so many ideas brewing on how we can help share the fun of our shoes to more people.

Thank you, Justine!

A great shot of Justine pre-hike wearing her b-day shoes next to two boot-shod friends
Here is a great shot of Justine pre-hike wearing her b-day shoes next to two boot-shod friends. An additional photo of Justine can be found here!

I met Justine via twitter only to learn that we had a great deal in common — from the obvious mutual interest in birthday shoes, to evolutionary applications for diet and lifestyle, to having similar political persuasions — Justine was eCampaign Director for the Ron Paul Presidential campaign, which set all sorts of insane records for online fundraising (My paltry attempts to aid Paul’s campaign were limited to a few t-shirt designs). It’s great to have her interview on birthday shoes and I look forward to hearing more of her VFF ideas that she’s got brewing!

*Incidentally, it was MDA that first clued me into Five Fingers. Mark’s youtube beach sprinting video has likely informed more people about birthday shoes than anything out there!

By Justin

Justin Owings is a deadlifting dad of three, working from Atlanta. When he's not chasing his three kids around, you'll find him trying to understand systems, risk, and human behavior.

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