Walking on Sunshine: Vibram Five-Finger Shoes Grow to New Heights, Infiltrate Benzinga Office

There’s been a lot of buzz lately for this unusual shoe from Vibram. Its name FiveFingers – is as uncommon as its design. Not only are these shoes fashionable, tailoring towards outdoor enthusiasts who love new and unique products, but these intriguing shoes are also functional. FiveFingers aims to improve balance and agility, conforming to the actual contours of a human foot. It might even have what it takes to improve your posture and spine alignment!

Over the last couple months, these shoes have been walking their way into the Benzinga office. Up until this moment, I had never seen them before and was quite impressed by the design of the shoe alone. I started thinking, “Why do they look like that?” Curious, I turned to one of my FiveFingers-wearing colleagues, Joe Young. Young said that he first saw the imaginative shoes on a colleague at his previous job.

“She showed me how unique and practical they were, which led me to conduct my own research and find out what all the benefits were,” Young said.

I then asked him if he found the shoes to be beneficial. “I have had some issues with shoes being too narrow (thanks to a wide, flat foot), which has caused some great discomfort in the pads on my feet that was quite constant. The time spent with Vibram's shoes has soothed my feet and stopped making them feel cramped.”

Another colleague of mine, Brian Danowski, referenced the Leonardo da Vinci quote, “the human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

“That is all I needed to hear,” Danowski continued. “da Vinci is not talking about feet with shoes. It feels like the shoe is just part of my foot.”

After I asked him what benefits these shoes provided, he replied, “I get better balance. I can feel my toes are becoming stronger…I love running in them.”

So should other footwear companies like Nike NKE, Deckers Outdoor DECK, and Reebok be worried? Only time will tell. But one thing is for certain: FiveFingers shoes have provided us with one of the most unique concepts we have ever seen in footwear design. With a wide variety of styles, these shoes are used for running, kayaking, yoga, traveling, trekking, and more.