Vivobarefoot Review: Are They Worth It?

Updated: Sep 15

Vivobarefoot review

What the vivobarefoot running shoes can do for you

The vivobarefoot shoe is designed to act as if you are not wearing shoes at all. They come with just 3mm of thin cushion underneath your foot so you can start to learn how to run with proper form again and can start to strengthen your feet and legs.

They are obviously also ultra light, this helps you to learn how run with full range of motion, they are light enough for you to be able to pick up heel up properly underneath you and to develop your knee drive well.

Specs (1)

Weight: 232 grams
0mm heel to toe drop
7mm stack height
Primus outer sole (to help you get as close to the ground as possible
Tough rubber compound
Sticky grip
Polyester upper

Why these shoes?

Running injuries are a huge part of running, if you are a runner then it is highly likely you have experienced the lows of injuries. But we evolved as runners throughout time, we used to hunt animals to exhaustion, running up to 50 miles at a time. We are not meant to be getting injured.

So, where are these injuries coming from? Why do some runners seem to never get injured? And what can we do to put an end to our injury problems?

Well, we are built to run long distance and until we start to mess up our bodies we are brilliant at running, we can run with great form and aren't susceptible to the typical running injuries. Then, when we turn about 4, we are forced to sit down for 6 hours a day in a very unnatural position (a small chair in a school). This tightens our hip flexors, makes our glutes inactive and makes up quad dominant. All of this leads to us running with bad form and causing injuries. So, to reverse this damage you should be sure to do proper dynamic stretches and drills and get doing proper gym workouts for runners to prevent injuries.

The other huge aspect which dooms us to lead a life of injuries is by wearing shoes (specifically ones with big cushioned heels), this again is very unnatural. Think of our ancestors who ran for hours hunting- they were doing this barefoot. Only wearing running shoes with big cushioned heels is going to lead to running injuries.

But don't worry- you don't have to run barefoot all the time or even completely give up the nice cushioned shoes.

The East-African mystery

East-Africans are the best runners on the planet, and a big part of this is down to the fact that they can always train and they nearly never get injured. But, if you think about their lifestyle that they live, it kinda makes sense:

They rarely sit down- they can sit in a deep squat for hours and be just as comfortable as most people are sitting down.
They often don't grow up wearing shoes

You can learn a lot from this lifestyle, however it is likely that you are not going to give up sitting down or wearing shoes. So, what can we do instead?

Word of caution

You should not just throw away your running shoes and turn straight to these to begin with, or even ever.

You can start with doing just a 5 minute jog 2-3 times per week in the vivobarefoots, even this could lead you to ache a little bit. You can build up slowly overtime, remember your body is not used to this yet. You can add in a few minutes to each run slowly over time.

Once you can get to the point where you can run for 30 minutes in these shoes and it feels comfortable and you don't ache from these runs, then you can add in some strides afterwards to further focus on running with good running form.

By the time you get to this stage, your lower legs are going to be a lot stronger, your feet are going to be stronger and your form is going to have improved a lot!

Now, you can drop back to doing just one run in these shoes per week with strides at the end of the run. This is plenty enough for you to reap the benefits of these shoes.

Galen Rupp (Olympic Bronze (marathon) and Silver (10000m) medalist) was reported running in the Vivobarefoot shoes although he mainly ran in Nike structures for most of his runs.

I hope this Vivobarefoot review has helped you to make the decision to buy a pair and help to start to put these pesky running injuries behind you!