Vibram FiveFingers

Oh, yeah.

Vibrams.

Yes, I have Vibrams.

I love them.

Maybe we can get some Vibrams.

Oh, yeah.

Some matching Vibrams.

Oh, yeah.

Look, you don't like vivos, that's fine.

Okay, many years ago, 20 years ago, not even kidding, when they first debuted on the market, I actually tried the Vibram Five Fingers or Vibram.

I remember my

brother had a moment with the Five Fingers.

There's a lot of good running trends.

One of them that is disappearing, and if you would ask me, I don't know, eight years ago, what running trend I would like to see disappear is it would be like the barefoot gang, you know, the people that run in Vibram Five Fingers and stuff like that because there is nothing good about that.

I was a runner during the minimal shoot craze, and I partake.

a little bit partook, however you want to say it.

But historically, if there were brands on the rise that would challenge those names, we would have seen them coming.

Think about what started with the barefoot revolution where brands like Vibram Five Fingers and eventually then Hoka or Ultra launched to shake up the footwear world.

Or even more famous, and timely given that Halloween is less than two weeks away, how about Jack Gilbert and a bunch of coworkers at Sierra Designs punching out on the same day to launch mountain hardware less than a year later back in 1993.

But now there are new brands making a splash that have existed for years and who have grown to be millions of dollars large and the established industry has no idea who they are.

People say, "Well, that shoe existed 20 years ago.

It was Vibram FiveFingers." I'm like, "Yeah, and I was their early advocate, and the science was right on, and they had the, the exact right idea." The execution was faulty, and so it died.

Now we wait a generation later, same information, more information about how strong the feet, uh, s- how strong feet are integral to overall health, how having mobile and resilient feet, um, is, you know, uh, uh, one of the greatest predictors of longevity, one of the lowest-hanging pieces of fruit in the world of, of anti-aging and longevity is foot health.

I've been saying this for the last 10 years, and I've been doing something about it the last four years with this shoe company, and yet people are like, "I don't know, you know, the, you're, you're overcoming, you know, years of technology in the footwear industry from Nike and Hoka and..." No, those guys are selling you a load of crap.

Mm-hmm.

But what's your advice for people that are in my shoes like that?

It's challenging because, um, we, we want that, like...

And, and these things sometimes pay off, where it's like, "Oh wow, I w- really was missing this nutrient," or whatever.

So I, I haven't found any issues with either of those companies.

Okay.

One thing tangentially related to the Achilles and the calves is, uh, should you go barefoot often? And as you can see, I have my shoes off.

Mm-hmm.

...

Vibram came out with the Vibram Five Fingers, and it made sense to a lot of people.

They're like, "Yeah, this makes sense.

I feel more grounded." I always explain this to my patients.

Yeah, yeah.

Like the Vibram FiveFingers, where, like, each bespoke toe-

Yes

... has its own little house.

average.

But they're really hard to get now because they are popular, some of the Vibrams.

And the cute ones, they are reselling for like $400.

Exactly.

But any other shoes I would not a, I would not wear another shoe to walk.

And how I came to, um, create Peluva was I was a strong, uh, a proponent and disciple of the original five-toe shoe, the Vibram FiveFingers, and I wo- I, for, since 2007, I, I wore only that shoe.

But I couldn't walk more than, um, say two miles without getting a bone bruise in my metatarsals 'cause it was so thin.

So I needed a shoe that had a little bit more cushion.