My little shoes.

How people deal with 'down time' varies widely. My mom reads (though she may argue reading isn't a way to pass the time so much as it's an activity people should make time for). My friend Matt gambles. I've heard of some people learning to play an instrument, or writing. My tendency is to look for ways to entertain myself, which brings me to introduce to you, my little shoes:


Made by Soft Star, a small company based in Oregon which hand crafts a variety of different moccasin-like shoes for both children and adults, my little shoes, the RunAmoc, were designed specifically for running. I've been interested in training with minimalist shoes for a while but have had trouble finding a design that could work for me. The widely popular Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) sadly assume everybody has 'normal' length toes. I happen to have abnormally short toes (for my foot size), and while good for being sneaky and swimming, they don't fit into the toe slots of the VFF very well at all. A real travesty. Lucky for me, the slipper-y RunAmocs were developed as a response to the discriminatory toe-length policies of Vibram.

After some research it appeared most who had purchased the RunAmocs were happy with their decision, the only complaint being poor 'ground feel' by some barefoot diehards. It seemed their complaints focused on the overall thickness of the sole, and the resulting discussion about how many millimeters corresponded to what type of ground feel seemed essentially pointless. Like most number crunching exercises of a personal nature, if it works for you, that should be good enough. I'm happy to report, it's working for me...


I'll come back with a more in depth analysis after I've had some more time with my new little shoes.


nick
253