Runners - help needed with lightweight shoes

Ok, ok, so I read Born to Run and loved it, like a million other people :D

And I grabbed my garish purple and pink Nike Free 3's, bought as lightweight travel and work shoes, and started running with them, with visions of lightly clad Tarahumara dancing through my head. I do a semi-run commute which is about 70% trail and 30% road, and I'm now at the point where I can comfortably run about 4,5 miles every other day, or 6,5 miles with 2 days off. I cycle the other days.

I'm also at the point where the niggling little things are getting annoying, like the small blisters I get between the same two toes every time, and I can feel that the shoes are getting a bit sloppy. No trouble with knees or anything apart from a little general stiffness that quickly passes.

I'd like to try some other shoes. I really enjoy the lightweight feeling of minimalist shoes, and the contact I have with the ground. What would you recommend? I'd like to try the VFFs, but they look really weird and are fairly expensive here. Are they worth it? Any others you like? I have fairly wide feet and high arches.

Well, my answer to everything these days seems to be Lems. I don't run minimal, but lots of "natural" runners wear Lems Primal, and I just adore mine for daily wear. Blisters between your toes suggests your shoes are too narrow for you in the toe box - Lems are nice and foot shaped, and unlike most brands, I only have to go up one size in length to accommodate my #9 herring boxes (wait, those were her shoes, not her feet, but you get the idea). Toe socks would help too. My toes are too long for VFFs, and honestly it seems to me that the sole of the Primals is more flexible than the VFFs anyway.

I've got a pair of size 41 VFFs, not sure which model but it's one of the earlier ones in the sort of "Mary Jane" style, a bit stained but not worn much, yours if you want to try them.

Thank you for the offer, Oak! I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fit, though, I'm a short and wide size 39. I'll have to find a store and go try some on, though. I have short toes.

Those Lems look amazingly comfortable. I've always gravitated towards comfortably broad and flat shoes for everyday use, but never purposely bought "foot-shaped" shoes before. My toes could do with some stretching out sideways, many years of climbing have scrunched them more together than they should be and the blisters start mainly because my smallest toe is already squinched up onto the next one.

Ooh, shoe shopping.

Love the VFFs, but if I'm too cold them in the kind of winters we get in Kentucky, they'd probably not be usable most of the year in Norway!

I never ran in them, but really liked the footshape and no-drop fit of some Altras that I tried on.

Altra doesn't have any ground feel though. It's a pretty thick inflexible sole, it just doesn't have an elevated heel. But also, more protection from the elements.

They are nice and foot shaped and I loved the zero drop. But they were way too narrow for me.

Keep an eye on steepandcheap.com for the VFF. I got a pair of Fila's on there for $17.99. I love them. My usual minimalist running shoe is a peal izumi - both trail and road. My trails are Peak II. The road are the similar ones made for pavement.

VFFs are great, except when the weather gets cold. I like the KSO style--nice thin sole (some of the newer models are going in the wrong direction in terms of having thicker and stiffer soles IMHO) and less prone to sand/gravel getting in. As far as more "normal"-looking minimal shoes, Vivobarefoot is very good (look on 6pm.com to find some good deals on these and probably the VFFs and Merrells as well). The Merrell Barefoot line is pretty good too although I think the Vivobarefoot shoes tend to have a little better ground feel. As a previous poster mentioned, toe socks will help with the blister issue. One upside to minimal running shoes is they last longer...the reason you replace regular running shoes is because the cushioning breaks down. No cushioning to break down = being able to wear the same pair of shoes a lot longer. Saves money and generates less waste.

Have you considered barefoot running? I got a pair of VFF and love them, but I didn't like the price tag-- and any good running shoe has that price tag. The more I researched it, I thought "Why not just run barefoot?" That said, it is important to do it GRADUALLY. I got a lot of blisters! You can keep running in your shoes to get more miles in, but do the barefoot part as a couch to 5K program or something.

Also this time of year isn't great for starting to run barefoot. You need to build up tough skin and it can be downright painful in the cold!

I bought a pair of VFFs! Sat for half an hour in the store persuading my poor squinched toes to wiggle in and out of them, and finally took the plunge. Black KSO. I feel like I'm wearing somebody else's feet, but quite comfy nonetheless. I'm not completely convinced that they won't blister, as my big toe does jam up against the end of its pocket, but the size up was too big. The ground feel under the heel is surprisingly strong compared to my Nikes.

I'm sorta kinda working towards running barefoot, but since I run as part of my commute I needed something that would work right now. I have chubby feet with short toes and usually stay very warm when running, so I think I should be able to switch between the Nike Free 3's and the VFFs for some weeks yet, especially since all my runs are short so far.

(I can't wait to see the expression on peoples faces when I finally transition to barefoot, and either get on the metro or run all the way to my office job, with muddy, stained bare feet...)

Thanks for good advice!

Hi lph,

I went through a similar transition 2 years ago. I tried the VFFs but my toes were to short relative to my foot width and it didn't work, so I ended up with the New Balance Minimus. They have a very generous toe box with good fit for a narrow heel and excellent gorund feel. The model I have is not quite like the one in the link and I'm sure they didn't cost me that much.

Brooks also makes a nice shoe line called the Pure that have a thicker sole that might be good in winter. They are light and flexible but won't have the same ground feel. There are lots of different models with different heel drops, if you want a barefoot experience you're looking for a zero drop shoe.

It's nice to have a few different shoes to choose from. I run with Newtons sometimes, my Minimus sometimes and when my calves feel pretty tired or if I have some achilles irritation I'll where a more tradition drop shoe.

Thanks for the tips. I've tried out the VFFs twice now, with rather surprising results. I was expecting the feeling of wearing something between my toes to get on my nerves, because I tend to be sensitive about stuff like that. Instead I just felt very aware of where all my toes were, and when I put on regular (wide, comfy) shoes, my little toe felt uncomfortably squashed... Walking and running short distances with them I felt no strain on my calves at all, but I hadn't thought about how "wet" they are compared to regular shoes, just stepping on a patch of slightly damp forest soil I had water seeping everywhere. And my toes did get cold faster because of it. I'm wearing chopped off socks over my ankles to compensate a bit. While the mismatch between my own toes and the shoe toes I felt in the store just disappeared outside, no trouble at all.

Next step will be to try a real run with them, not just a hike+jog. Fun :-)

"Real run", hah. I'm such a smart-aleck. I ran 4,5 miles 2 days ago and I'm still going down stairs backwards ;-)

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