4 ms·

Has anyone had bad longer term experiences with these or other "barefoot" shoes?

jplewicke 17y ago
My girlfriend had some significant issues with an attempted transition towards Nike Frees. The higher impact on the foot gave her sesamoiditis and a stress fracture near the big toe. If you have a foot structure that's not the norm, it's worth thinking twice about these. Rotating your shoes is one of the best ways to prevent injuries if you're trying to move towards more lightweight shoes. I try to use a combination of racing flats, Nike Free 3.0s, and trail flats, and variety really does help cut overuse injuries. If you intend to run fast on trails, you can get many of the benefits(e.g. low weight, flexibility, and a more responsive foot feel) with a trail flat like the inov-8 X-Talon 212, while avoiding a lot of the catastrophic injury possibilities. One final note: although I love my pair of Five Fingers KSO, they smell really bad very quickly. If you get a slightly larger size, some people have luck using the Injinji toe socks with them.
- Torn 17y ago
  Yeah, my sprints do smell bad quite fast. The fabric loves absorbing sweat. I'd recommend hand-cleaning them with washing powder in the sink, and really scrubbing the insides of the soles and fabric around the toes.
- oconnor0 17y ago
  Did the sesamoiditis & stress fracture heal and does she still wear Frees or did she give up on the transition? Did you have any problems?
  - jplewicke 17y ago
    She has bipartite sesamoids, which happens when they don't fuse together correctly. That unfortunately means that it's highly likely to happen again. On the positive side, it's something that proper orthotics or padding should let her fix. I started to get a little plantar fasciitis from too much mileage in my racing flats and excessive downhill running, but was able to fix that by rotating my shoes more and sticking to the flats.

My girlfriend had some significant issues with an attempted transition towards Nike Frees. The higher impact on the foot gave her sesamoiditis and a stress fracture near the big toe. If you have a foot structure that's not the norm, it's worth thinking twice about these. Rotating your shoes is one of the best ways to prevent injuries if you're trying to move towards more lightweight shoes. I try to use a combination of racing flats, Nike Free 3.0s, and trail flats, and variety really does help cut overuse injuries. If you intend to run fast on trails, you can get many of the benefits(e.g. low weight, flexibility, and a more responsive foot feel) with a trail flat like the inov-8 X-Talon 212, while avoiding a lot of the catastrophic injury possibilities. One final note: although I love my pair of Five Fingers KSO, they smell really bad very quickly. If you get a slightly larger size, some people have luck using the Injinji toe socks with them.

Torn 17y ago
Yeah, my sprints do smell bad quite fast. The fabric loves absorbing sweat. I'd recommend hand-cleaning them with washing powder in the sink, and really scrubbing the insides of the soles and fabric around the toes.
oconnor0 17y ago
Did the sesamoiditis & stress fracture heal and does she still wear Frees or did she give up on the transition? Did you have any problems?
- jplewicke 17y ago
  She has bipartite sesamoids, which happens when they don't fuse together correctly. That unfortunately means that it's highly likely to happen again. On the positive side, it's something that proper orthotics or padding should let her fix. I started to get a little plantar fasciitis from too much mileage in my racing flats and excessive downhill running, but was able to fix that by rotating my shoes more and sticking to the flats.