Below is a thoughtful follow-up review of the KSO after 1,200 miles of wear and also a review of the KSO Trek. Oddly enough, both come from blogs with the “Rambling” in their titles!
- Vibram Five-Fingers, 1200 Miles in at Rambling Outside the Box [KSO]:
Shoe manufactures would like you to believe that you need to replace your running shoes every few months or every few hundred miles whichever comes first. I never really bought into that plan, running happily for many months and miles in nominally worn-out shoes. Nevertheless, I am still impressed by how few signs of wear my Five Fingers show after 8 months and 1200 miles. They should be good for many more miles to come. That’s not to say that they have been completely problem free. There have been a handful of holes and seams to repair particularly wear I’ve poked the fabric with sticks. These are easy repairs to make since the material is just a cloth fabric that is easily sewn. The soles are holding up well. There is visible wear, but since there are no lugs to wear off, the wear is spread over more surface area. I have not yet needed to add any material to the soles and may not need to over the life of the shoes. As yet, I still can’t tell what the ultimate end-of-life failure mode is likely to be.
Comprehensive review not only of long-term use of KSOs, but also detailed thoughts on how a switch to minimalist footwear has affected his gait. If you want to know how VFFs hold up over the long run, check this out!
- Vibram FiveFingers KSO Trek Review at Running and Rambling [KSO Trek]:
From my standpoint, the Trek is absolutely ideal – it features all the improvements over the KSO that trail runners have asked for, while maintaining the lightness and ground feel of purely minimalist footwear. In fact, I’m so confident about their comfort and performance that doing an ultra in the Treks seems completely manageable. I’m hoping to build my overall mileage in them significantly over the course of the spring and summer, and I’ll keep you posted with updates as I look towards potential races in the fall.
You can find last week’s latest Vibram Five Fingers Reviews here.
