My Vibram Five Finger Shoe Site

30 miles in 3 days in our Vibram Five Finger Shoes

Yes, we did!  On my recent trip to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon in Colorado, my friends and I hiked the whole thing in our Vibram Five Finger Shoes.  It was questionable whether these shoes could hold up on the rocky terrain for that many miles.

I’m also happy to report that nobody got any blisters during the hike.  The hike to Havasu Falls is 10 miles each way.  It begins with a steep descent into the canyon and then a relatively flat walk in a wash for 8 miles.

The next day we hiked from our campground to Beaver Falls.  This hike involved alot of rock scrambling and water crossings.  The only issue with the Vibrams that we had were that they gathered sanded very quickly.

Sediment in the water quickly built it in your toes.  Unlike with sandals, the sand had nowhere to escape and the only relief was removing the shoe and pouring out the sand.

Of course, along the way other hikers kept asking us what we were wearing and where to get the shoes!

It was bound to happen, but after 3 months my shoe developed holes in the top of the toes region.  I don’t know how they got there.  I don’t remember hitting or kicking anything.  I was worried that these holes would get bigger and bigger like a small chip in the windshield and eventually ruin my five fingers shoes.  So I took action.  While this is not the prettiest fix, it certainly worked.  I took some Plumber Goop, which you can get from Home Depot or Lowes and put a dab right into the hole.

I did a better job on the hole on the left.  The one on the right I put too much.  These pictures were taken about 3 months after I did the repair.  As you can see, the holes have not enlarged and my shoes are still full functional.  And honestly, I can redo it if I wanted, but I’m almost at one year on these shoes and it’s time for a new pair.

People ask me that when they see me at the gym with my five fingers shoes.  Because I don’t wear socks with them, they assume that all your foot sweat just oozes into the shoe.  Well, I guess it’s true.  I don’t think you can do anything to get pass that except wash them regularly or wear socks.

I learned this while in boxing class.  We use the same gloves everyday and they get sweaty and smelly.  However, what I do is that rub hand sanitizer on my hands and then put my hands into the gloves.  I also do this again at the very end of class.  My boxing gloves have never smelled.

So, with my shoes, I don’t use hand sanitizer, but I do use baby powder and I do put some into the shoe and shake it when I take them off.  It’s been working.

But even with all that, you have to wash them once in a while.  I just toss mine into the washer and air dry them.  They come out good as new!

If you wanted to go the sock route, I suggest getting the Injinji five finger socks.  But honestly, if your feet fit into them without socks, it will be real tight with these socks.  So if you plan to use socks, I would get a size larger than what Vibram suggests.

I workout in a boxing gym.  During boxing, we normally go barefoot or wear very thin soled boxing shoes. Look at the boxing shoes below.

I didn’t want to buy boxing shoes so I was going barefoot for months.  Barefoot was not very good for boxing because of a few things.  First, the mat got slippery once your sweat dripped all over it, this was very dangerous.   Not to mention the gross feeling of stepping on other people’s sweat with bare feet.  You couldn’t wear normal shoes because then you lose the feel of the ground.

Also, I sucked at jumping rope.  We used these plastic jump ropes and whenever I missed a jump, the rope would hit my big toe and hurt like hell!  Jumping rope was the worst part of boxing for me.  My five finger shoes provided all the protection on the front of my toes needed.  They saved me from alot of pain from many missed jumps.  So if you box, give them a try!