Barefoot Monologues

A Journey of the Sole

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Review: VIVOBAREFOOT Neo

I realize I’m a little late in the game to review the Neo, it’s been out for a few months now and lots of people have reviewed it already. But that’s okay, because I don’t mind playing catch-up and I have a few things to say about this shoe.

Let me start off by saying this is going to be a pretty good review. In the past I’ve been asked to write reviews for different kinds of products, and I’ve never been the type to crank out fluff articles just to make suppliers happy. I have tried stuff I don’t like and I’m happy to say so, but so far I haven’t had much opportunity to write proper reviews before every other minimalist blogger already had them covered like grass on a golf course. And I won’t write about anything until I’ve tried it out sufficiently enough to give it a fair shake, this being why no review exists yet for my InvisibleShoes.

But enough of that blather, on to the review.

Well hello, there. Cutest minimalist running shoes I've worn so far.

I want to start with a point of reference: I love my Vibrams. They’re a fantastic minimalist running shoe. Until I met the Neos, I never thought I’d find something to replace them. But since I got these babies in the mail three weeks ago, my Vibrams haven’t seen the outside of my closet. It wasn’t something that happened right away, though. The first couple of times I wore them just around the office for the day, and while running errands. Like my Kalis, they were a little stiff to begin with. But after a bit they became molds of my feet and I’m not sure I’ll be wearing anything else running for awhile. Or at least until VIVO comes out with something even more genius.

Physical Details

Made of soft Microfiber and Airmesh, the VIVOBAREFOOT Neo is 100% vegan (if you care about that stuff), and eco-friendly with its recycled insole. The materials of the upper seem to have a water-resistant quality, so my foot stays dry longer. The flexible, zero-drop rubber sole is 4mm thick and puncture-resistant. These puppies are lightweight, too. Weight with insoles is 5.7 ounces, 5.2 without. I left the insoles in, mostly because I can’t really tell the difference, and because I like the idea of stinking up a removable insole and then replacing it later. The Neo is designed to be worn with or without socks. I have worn mine both ways – there were no seams to bother with, but the shoe is roomy (more on that later) and very warm for running so I prefer wearing socks to protect against chafing from moisture. The design and construction of this shoe is exceptional in quality, and absolutely adheres to the minimalist runner’s ideals for a running shoe.

The Neo has a durable, yet exceptionally flexible sole.

Looks

When I was given the generous discount by VIVO to snag a pair for review, I went first for the Evo II. And why not? It’s the most popular running shoe they offer. But I will admit I’m not totally in love with the look of them. The Neo is more my taste, it’s simpler, cleaner. It doesn’t even look like a running shoe to me, so I’m happy to get more wear out of my pair for non-running related stuff. The Neo is built on basically the same platform as the Evo II, but it’s a little lighter and the upper is made differently. Also the price was a bit more feasible for me.

A view from both sides.

The shoe comes in a bunch of colorways, which is pretty rare I think, especially for women’s athletic shoes. I chose the gray and red. When they came in the mail I thought they were really cute, and I got a ton of compliments. The only setback to their look is the lack of normal shoe-contour. When I put them on and looked down they looked sort of lumpy and shapeless, because they don’t tuck in at all where the natural arch narrows my foot. This is unusual for a shoe, but I don’t know that it hurts the Neo’s actual performance for me.

Fit and Feel

VIVOBAREFOOT doesn’t make shoes like Vibram or Merrell does. The Neo doesn’t hold tight to your foot like a sock. For a long time it seemed to me that was the only way to make a great minimalist shoe. But the Neo is a great minimalist shoe, probably one of the greatest, and in a completely different and unexpected way.

Like I said in a past article  “My Favorite Things (So Far in 2011)“, the VIVOBAREFOOT Neo fits like a slipper. It fits snugly and has traditional laces for adjusting, but there’s a good amount of room in there to move and flex. It doesn’t pinch or constrain my foot in any way, which is a downright miracle for someone with feet as wide as mine. The shoe and sole is soft, pliable (especially after a few wears). I can feel the ground in a spectacular way: brick sidewalks feel like brick, trails feel like rocks and leaves, the ground feel is there but in a different way than other minimalist shoes. The shoe is so pliable that it just seems to bend around surface texture. Not only does it curve upward with your toes, it curves downward and sideways as well, all while not having to conform to your foot. It truly is like running inside a soft, comfy slipper.

The Neo fits like a slipper, roomy and soft.

That point about not conforming to your foot does two more great things: 1. it keeps your feet warm. These will be my winter running shoes, I have no doubt about that; and 2. it will fit more people. You don’t have to compromise a good fit for your gnarly long toes or your beastly wide foot.

The only downside I can think of for the roomy fit is for someone with a very narrow foot. The laces are pretty adjustable, but I bet if you’ve got an exceptionally narrow stomper then you might find yourself floating around in these. I’ve met some minimalist shoes that would be well-suited for the narrower foot, like the Merrell Pace Glove and the NewBalance Minimus, both of those are made way too narrow for me (at least the 2011 models). So I guess there’s something for everyone, right?

Conclusions

  • construction is sound; this is an exceptionally well-made shoe
  • completely zero-drop
  • made of light, flexible eco-friendly materials
  • stylish and retro, not at all garish or strange-looking
  • a good alternative for VFFs, if you don’t like getting weird looks from people
  • excellent ground-feel, as compared to most minimalist running shoes
  • fit is roomy, made more for people with normal to wide-width feet
  • more suitable for cool weather months
  • hands-down, one of the best minimalist shoes on the market

If you’ve got a pair of Neos, let me know how you feel about them, I’d love to hear. And for the rest of you, I hope this review was helpful. Thanks for reading!

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My Favorite Things (so far in 2011)

As you surely know, the runner’s product review blog has become ever so popular over the last couple of years. I hope to continue adding my four or five cents to this phenomenon as time goes on. But I like lists a lot, so I’ve decided to add a quarterly (or at least bi-annual) list of all the running-related things that impress me the most. I expect this list to change and contradict itself over time as I become exposed to new and wonderful products. I also think it’ll be fun.

Because this is my first ever list, it’s going to include everything from January 2011, when I started this blog. I hope some of my readers will agree and disagree, and perhaps even suggest new things for me to try out. By the way, I couldn’t come up with a good order in which to arrange these, so I’m just going to put them in the order I discovered them.

Vibram FiveFingers Bikila LS

Yeah, you read it right. VFF‘s are at the top of my list. My first inclination was to apologize for being stale and unoriginal in this choice, but after some consideration I don’t think I will. Vibrams have lost a lot of popularity among many of my barefoot/minimalist friends and readers, I think partly because of their meteoric rise in popularity over the last 18 months, and partly because some other good (“one-toed”) shoes have moved in and lots of people like them better. I myself feel a little guilty for running out on Vibram. Maybe I was sick of the weird looks, maybe I was tired of dislodging little rocks from between my toes. But mostly I think it was because I wanted to try other stuff too. And I have. Some shoes were great, some not so great. But I’ll tell you this: when I put my Bikilas on my feet last week to walk the dog – I hadn’t worn them in nearly 4 months – they felt awesome, and I couldn’t remember why I ever stopped wearing them. I realize that Vibram has had a few problems with quality control and their newer models have been met with lukewarm response by some of the more die-hard VFF purists. But I still think Vibram gets it the most right.

Let me just clarify my reasoning here. In my observation, there are three different kinds of minimalist shoe: what I call the shoe, the slipper and the sock. The shoe is a piece of semi-rigid protective material that straps to your foot and is somewhat binding, for whatever reason. I put the Merrell Pace Glove and the NewBalance Minimus Trail in this category. The slipper is a softer, roomier contraption that is very flexible and allows more foot movement against ground surfaces. It’s kind of just there, it protects you but also provides an environment of freedom. VIVOBAREFOOT (which I’ll bring up again further down) and SoftStar make this type of shoe. Then there is the sock. An actual sock is stretchy and takes on the exact form of your foot as you move it. A sock wears your foot, instead of the other way around. This is what we’re talking about with Vibrams (and, though I’ve never tried them, Zems seems like another “sock”-like style). You don’t need to worry about width of the shoe, flexibility vs. protection, heel drop…all of that is moot. Because a Vibram FiveFingers shoe is created to wear your foot, to be your foot, in all its five-digited, super-articulated glory. How could it be any closer to barefoot? In the future I may move on from my Vibrams completely, but I challenge other minimalist shoe companies to equal the absolute freedom of that strange sock-like, multi-toed monkey shoe.

Injinji NuWool Toe Sock


Exactly how do you get through a winter of New England outdoor running in VFFs without a good pair of Injinji NuWool socks? I know that I certainly couldn’t have done without them this January, those days when the temps barely reached to the 10’s in the afternoon, the roads were frigid and slushy, and I had a long run ahead of me. NuWool is pretty much the same as the branded SmartWool. It’s very thin, moisture-wicking, and warm. The most amazing thing about these socks, besides the interesting split toes, is that you can prance through all the puddles you want in shoes that are completely non water-resistant and you’ll never get chilly feet. The material seems to soak up the moisture and then allow it to warm to your body temperature, thus drying the sock faster. The only setback, equal to that of the VFF, is the design that separates your toes from each other, so if you start out with chilly piggies it’ll take a little extra mileage before they warm up.

Garmin Forerunner 305


My husband gave me this running watch for Christmas last year. I wasn’t going to buy it because I didn’t think it would be worth the price. And it’s kind of ugly. Okay, it’s really ugly. But it’s got to be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. Not only does it tell me how far I’ve gone, but it gives me a host of other information on how mediocre of a runner I am. Time, pace, average pace, laps, heart rate, elevation, and a whole lot of other stuff I’ll probably never even use. Plus when you connect it to your computer it gives you this whole analysis of the run, your highs and lows, a map, and stores all the information by date. Now I know it is worth the price. I’d buy it again. The only complaint I have is that on occasion I’ve had to wait forever for it to find the satellites, especially in urban areas with a lot of buildings. And it’s run out of battery on me a few times, mostly because it doesn’t have a battery gauge on the main screen so it’s easier to forget to charge it up.

Nike Pro Combat Thermal Running Tight


I’ll be the first one to admit that most people look silly in running tights, myself included. They’re like slightly shiny leggings – and there some are very strict rules about leggings that all stocky, short girls like me should never stray from (i.e. cover the bum). But anyway, I tried on about 38 pairs of running tights last fall, and just about every one brought me back to that unpleasant afternoon in early 2010 when I decided to try on bikinis at Marshall’s. The Nike Pro Combat tights fit me exactly the right way. I can’t even really tell you what it was about them that made a difference – maybe it’s the rise that actually covers my buttcrack, or just the right amount of stretch, I dunno…either way these babies kept me warm, but not sweaty, all winter long. They’re not cheap – they sell for $55 big ones, but I’ll probably buy another pair.

Polartec Wind Pro Glove by Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS)


There are probably a hundred different pairs of good running gloves out there. I picked these. They were warm enough to block the icy wind, light enough to keep me from taking them off and losing them two miles into my run, moisture-wicking, dark enough to hide my inevitable nose-wiping, and cheaper than the ones NorthFace had. Turns out I really like these gloves for running and for cleaning snow off my car. Who knew?

UnderArmour ColdGear Fitted Mock


Two things: 1. Thank the running gods for this long-sleeve; and 2. I wish I’d bought two instead of one last year while they were on sale. I wore mine during the local Turkey Trot 5-miler last November at 33 degrees, and I wore it under a light jacket when it got colder. And I never needed more than that, even in the dead of winter. The thin, warm material seems to seal in your body heat, but not any of the sweat. It’s nice and long too, it covered my running-tights-clad bum and kept me comfortable without riding up too much. I plan to add another one of these to my stockpile of running clothes this winter.

The GAP Body Pima Cotton Tank Top


Okay, ladies. If you don’t have some of these, go get one. Get two, five. They’re fantastic. They’re usually on sale for something like 2 for $30, or for much less on clearance when the next season’s colors arrive. They are fitted, nice and long, and roomy in the armpit area (for lack of a better description), so no chafing. They are cool in the summer, the perfect first layer in the winter, they’re cut to look good on everyone, and they come in all your favorite colors. I have five. I hope GAP never stops making them.

Running Skirts


There is one official company (RunningSkirts.com) that boasts the invention of the running skirt. Recently I was very generously given one of their skirts and will be reviewing it shortly. But the whole revelation here is just the running skirt in general. I am of French-Canadian and Native American descent, which means I’m short, stout, very muscular, and more importantly I can’t run in shorts. I’ve tried. Short shorts, long shorts, compression shorts, doesn’t matter. I spend more time twisting and adjusting them than actually running. Enter the running skirt. Pretty, girly, mid-thigh coverage in a myriad of different colors and patterns. Some running skirts have compression shorts built in underneath, some have skivvies. I prefer the latter, and not just because they remind me of my cheerleading days. No shorts = no riding up. I love running skirts, I wear them all summer long in lieu of shorts, and they make me happy. I don’t care who invented them, in my opinion they’re the best thing that ever happened to the female runner.

VIVOBAREFOOT Neo


I plan to do a full review of this shoe in the next week or two as well, but I couldn’t help but include it in this list because it really is one of my favorite things. First let me say that if you want a really fantastic minimalist shoe and you don’t like Vibram FiveFingers, VIVOBAREFOOT is the way to go. They have several different running shoes to choose from, but the one I chose was the Neo. It’s lightweight, zero-drop, adorable, comes in several colors and it’s reasonably priced. I just got these babies in the mail a week ago and I really haven’t taken them off since. They feel like nothing I’ve ever run in. They have great ground feel but exceptional protection. They allow my foot to curve and roll but they’re not tight or binding. In every way, the Neo is an exceptional shoe. Also, they seem to have some water resistant properties and definite warmth, so I imagine they will be my winter shoe this year. Don’t worry, I’ll still be wearing my Injinji NuWool socks inside.

So this is my list at the moment. Thanks for reading. Got anything new and fantastic that I should try? Go ahead and leave a comment below – I’d love to hear about it.


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Review: VIVOBAREFOOT Kali

This review was originally posted on Sept. 26, 2011 in The Maple Grove Barefoot Guy‘s blog. Worth a visit if you want to learn about new running shoes and gear – he’s reviewed a ton of things.

My very first real product review. More to come!


Back in January I was looking for a casual minimalist shoe to wear on a business trip. My company sends me to trade shows a few times a year, and I have to stand and talk to people for 10 or 12 hours each day. I love my soft faux-leather flats but they don’t last, and Aldo started putting a kitten heel on the one I always buy, subsequently killing the reason I loved them so. At some point I stumbled upon the Kali on vivobarefoot.com (I think it was actually because Christian was giving away a pair to one of his readers so I checked them out), and ended up ordering them in black (they don’t have black anymore – I wonder why?). I wore them to the show and they were everything I wanted in a work shoe. And SO COMFORTABLE! I left the trade show each night without sore feet/back/legs, which is a lot more than I could say for my work buddies. That was eight months ago, and I have been wearing them two to three days a week since then.

The Look and Feel

I gotta say, these kicks are stinkin’ cute. They are classic without the boring, and the available colors are just darling – I’ve been eyeing the beige/lavender ones for weeks. They are made of high-quality nappa leather that hasn’t broken down at all over these months of wear and weather, and I’ve never used any leather protector products on them. I just have some creasing in the toe area, which impresses me because I tend to beat up shoes pretty quickly. Their simplicity is perfect for everyday wear, with jeans, slacks, skirts, shorts and leggings. I love the look of the wide toe box, very boho-chic, and I’m grateful for the room to accommodate my extra-wide barefoot runnin’ peds. I wouldn’t be quick to recommend these to people with very narrow feet, you might be flopping around in them. But then again that may be the reason for the elastic band over the top. At first I thought I’d have to cut the whole thing off, because I figured it would annoy my very high instep like all other elastic straps. But it didn’t – it’s actually quite supple and has a lot of give. The fit is snug for me but not constricting. I will admit I do get a mark across my midfoot by the end of the day, but it doesn’t cause any real discomfort.

Downside: the first couple of weeks in these guys was a little rough. The leather isn’t soft enough out of the box, so like most good pairs of shoes they need to be broken in. I had a pretty nasty blister on my heel for a while, but now they’ve turned into something like mary-jane-style foot gloves.

Minimal Enough for Ya?

Vivobarefoot’s commitment to the minimalist movement shines through quite well in this product. The Kalis have an exceptionally flexible, zero-drop, 3mm sole and they weigh only 5.5 ounces. I have been tempted to go for a run in them, they feel so much like my minimalist running shoes! The Kali comes with a removable insole (see pictures – sorry for the dirty worn-in shoe pics…but hey at least you know they last!). Leave it in and I have a ground feel similar to my Vibram FiveFingers Bikilas. Take it out and it’s like walking around in my FiveFingers Classics. I chose to leave the insole in because I’m not as much of a stickler for ground-feel as many other folks are. Also, I like to take out the insole and machine-wash it periodically…because I’ll tell ya, running or not, if you don’t wear socks with your shoes you’re eventually going to start wondering what died in them. Or maybe it’s just me. Hm. Either way you can replace the insoles for $15, which I’m thinking of doing soon.

I should mention that although the hexagonal-patterned rubber soles have not worn down at all (!) since I bought them in January, they do make a lot of squeaky noises when I walk on slick surfaces. I sound a bit like a basketball player scuffing my sneakers on a hardwood court. Sort of weird but not a deal breaker. The manufacturer’s details say that the thin sole sacrifices some traction, but I have actually found they have terrific grip – the first month I wore them there was 36” of New England snow and ice on the ground and I had no slippage problems whatsoever.

What’s in a Pricetag

The hardest detail to swallow about the Kali was the price. Sure, I’ve spent $100 on my running shoes and I’d do it again. I’ve spent $250 on a fantastic pair of fashion boots, no problem. But the $120 pricetag on a pair of flats was a little tough for me to swallow. And coupled with the fact that I can’t buy them in stores (they’re sold out of the UK), it was a hefty risk that I wouldn’t like them or they wouldn’t fit. But I took the risk and I found the fit true-to-size (I’m exactly between EU38-39, the 38 is perfect), and I consider the long-lasting quality well worth the sack of change. I may not have to buy another pair of casual minimalist shoes for another couple of years….but I’m not promising anything because that Venus style is looking mighty fine in purple.

I hope that this review has been helpful. If indeed I have helped along your decision to purchase a pair of VIVOBAREFOOT shoes, please show me some love by entering VIVO’s site via my blog. You can do that by entering any of the links on this article or by clicking the VIVOBAREFOOT banner to the right. Thanks so much and happy running!