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Official Vibram Five Fingers Bikila Microsite: You Are the Technology dot com

I’m happy to spread the news that Vibram has just (a minute ago at 8 AM via a press release) launched a Vibram Five Fingers Bikila micro-site at the domain YouAreTheTechnology.com!Before you go madly rushing off to YouAreTheTechnology.com, let me tel…

Vibram has just (via an 8AM press release today, July 26, 2010) launched a Vibram Five Fingers Bikila micro-site at the domain YouAreTheTechnology.com! I didn’t make that link active for a reason:

Before you go madly rushing off to YouAreTheTechnology.com, let me tell you just a wee bit more!

I’ll be “brief:” it’s an awesomely provocative website: bold, brazen, edgy, and bare. For you office dwellers: it’s NSFW (Hence, the warning). I’ll show what I mean via a screencap of what you’ll find at YouAreTheTechnology.com after the jump!

Note: The screencap is also NSFW, but at least a little smaller, so office dwellers proceed with caution!

scroll…

A screen capture from Vibram’s micro-site for the Five Fingers Bikila running shoe, YouAreTheTechnology.com.

Birthday suits and birthday shoes — it was bound to happen eventually, I suppose!

So what do we have here? Or what don’t we have? Once you head over to YouAreTheTechnology.com and load the site (Be patient on the loading, the Flash requires a decent Internet connection), you’ll see Adam and Eve here, standing against a black backdrop, periodically fidgeting a bit and stealing the occasional glance at each other.

They aren’t wearing any clothes, obviously — well, except for the toe shoes, which are the Five Fingers Bikilas, of course! More tellingly, once you get over the nudity, what you’ll find at YouAreTheTechnology.com is a narrative about natural running. The narrative, which is the same on both the man and the woman (though it’s got some nuances for each), starts simply enough:

“You know how to run just like you know how to sneeze, how to chew — you know how to run.”

There’s a lot more to be found at the microsite. Just a few pointers on the interactive-ness of it all:

  1. From the main splash page (as in the screen capture above), you can click on the male or female to zoom in and read the writing.
  2. Once zoomed in, you can scroll up and down.
  3. As you’re scrolling, you might notice your cursor turn into a finger-pointing cursor — that means you can click. Clicks will then reveal more narrative by spinning Adam or Eve around to some other part of the story.

    Just as an example, once in the site, look for “soft things that make you soft” and click, but remember: NSFW!

  4. Once at these sub-narratives, click again to zoom back to the super-narrative.
  5. To zoom out to the topmost level, just tap the “Vibram fivefingers” stamp in the bottom left corner.

So go poke around YouAreTheTechnology.com and then come back here and let’s talk about it.

I’ll kick it off. I dig what Vibram has done with this site. You have to appreciate just how different this is from just about everything else out there. Surf around to some mainstream running shoe websites and you’ll find a bunch of shoes. Comparatively, here the Bikila is downplayed — after all, you are the technology, right? Sure, it’s the punchline as you scroll down the nude narrative, but on pure screen real estate alone, it’s almost an afterthought. It’s also significant that, Vibram logo and “loading screen aside,” the site employs no fonts whatsoever. Everything is handwritten or painted on the naked canvas of the human figure. When you think about it, the juxtaposition sets in contrast the bare human body against the one article of clothing that is present — the shoes. The very thing the site is promoting.

A thought provoking mash-up, no?

What do you think? Let’s hear it: Love it? Hate it? What other stuff did you find by clicking around?

Sound off below in the comments!

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.

18 replies on “Official Vibram Five Fingers Bikila Microsite: You Are the Technology dot com”

You don’t need all this technology to run, you already know how… except for our technology, you definitely need that to run better.

That is great! And it helps with some of my arguments (yes I have co-workers arguing that I “NEED” shoes to run) with some of the points. I also grabbed a screen shot of the woman where it says “Your butt has lots of cushioning…” and this should make for a nice desktop image on my HOME computer! 8-P

Awesome?! It’s one of the most pointless websites I have seen. And if they are naked already (like nature intended lol), why on earth are they wearing Vibrams?

I don’t think there are enough words to describe how much I love this campaign! I love it’s simplicity, the focus on the human body (the REAL technology!) and I do have to say, that guy is pretty hot :). Kudos to Vibram!

..think I’m going to take my Bikilas out for a spin now 🙂

I like it. And while I do think the NSFW warning is fair, I do wonder what it says about our society that human bodies are frowned upon to this extent, even when genitals and (female) breasts are not even visible.

Outstanding! The treadmill scenes are very clever. Music is a perfect fit and creates the right level of ambiance to evoke the emotion I think they are wanting to evoke.

Wow!

I love it!! Very… lascivious, fleshy. I just wish it were not Flash(y) so it could be viewed on the iPad. I also agree it needs a FB/Twitter share link. The music is hot.

I love it. Beautiful and artistic. Have never seen anything quite like it. I laughed out loud at the treadmill options, especially the ”breakfast” one. Well done Vibram. I’ll definately recommend to others.

Distinctive and memorable!

Will I talk about Vibram shoes to friends and family?
Absolutely!

Will I expect more marketing campaigns like this from Vibram in the future?
Without a doubt.

Will I buy it?
Maybe not so much. But I did consider it, so I guess this campaign did its job.

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