The Journey to my first pair of Vibram Five Fingers

Toe shoes.  I called them that for months.  The first time I saw someone wearing Vibram Five Fingers, I was beside myself with glee. Shoes with individualized toes?!  Sweetness in a glass!  I wanted a pair, just because they were what they were…toe shoes.

I began to evangelize, tell everyone I could about these cool new shoes I wanted.  They all had the same response, “Why?” or “Those are pretty ugly.”  This inspired me to do a little more research.  Why did these things exist?  Were Vibram Five Fingers just some trendy shoes? I then came across the concept of barefoot running.  Now I was really jazzed up.  I was completely on board with the concepts AND I now had a legitimate case when someone asked me “Why?”

I had no idea, at this time, that my journey to owning a pair was just beginning.  It was a month or so before Christmas, so I decided to hold off.  To my pleasant surprise, my lovely girlfriend gave me a gift card to the only shop in Indianapolis that carried Vibrams,  Rusted Moon Outfitters.  They had a shipment “coming in soon” from January to April (not that it was their fault).  After four months, they finally called me to tell me a shipment came in.

I ran down there as fast as I could only to find a few random pairs left.  The short version is I didn’t get any.  I tried a couple close sizes on to guess-ti-mate if a 42 (the size the big plastic foot told me I should wear) would be the correct size.  I could tell that 43′s were too big and 41′s were too small, but at this point I still wasn’t confident enough to order them online.  I wanted to try them on to make sure, and I still had the gift card to Rusted Moon.

I was devastated and ready to give up.  I came close to just buying a new jacket with the gift card and give up my dream of being ‘barefoot’ all the time.

Then luck sent me to Orlando for work.  On the plane ride down, I had the brilliant idea to check what shops had them down there. It just so happened that a shop called Travel Country had them in stock.  Travel Country was fantastic. I called, they had the exact pair I wanted and held them for me.  I then unwittingly showed up at closing time, and they were Über-friendly anyway. On top of having the Vibrams, they were just a really cool shop.  I walked out with size 42 grey/palm/clay KSO’s on my feet and a smile on my face. In the end, I had to travel 1,033 miles from home (google mapped it) to get my Vibram Five Fingers.

That brings us to the present.  They are on my feet right now, and I am happy.  The only immediate concern I have is it feels like the big toe pocket may not be long enough. I hope I either get used to it or the shoe stretches a bit.

I still have the gift card to Rusted Moon, and I think I might wait until they get some more black Treks in. They can be my slightly more ‘professional’ looking pair!

I’m going to continue to document my experience in my Vibram Five Fingers in  blogform, pictures and video, so keep checking back to see how it’s going.

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