Vibram FiveFingers

My iGoogle page is an endless source of information and daily joy. Every morning I can have a glance at the news headlines, my horoscopes, incoming emails (if I got any at all), quotes of the day, newest Garfield etc, etc.

There are days when a random vague piece of information that is fed to me by the homepage prompts me to do some research that subsequently unearths something absolutely fantastic.

I had one of those days recently. I didn't realise until now, when the research has concluded, but the "How to of the Day" has just saved my health. The article titled "how to make shoes for minimalistic running" that was not great on it's own, had a picture of something that I thought didn't exist uploaded from Flickr. I followed the link only to  find out that the picture didn't have much of a description. Five fingers - I can see you have five fingers! I want to know what is it that you're wearing on them!

I then spent over an hour reading various articles about minimalistic running and I found out that Five Fingers is the name of the product - made by company called Vibram. They have a website - and an online shop! At LAST!

Behold: the Five Fingers Performa, next item on my wish list:

You see, a runner should know how his or hers feet land on the ground during a run, and in normal running shoes one lands usually heel first, as the shoe absorbs some of the impact. This is not healthy for the spine or the hips as the rest of the impact radiates from the foot up. Barefoot runners land on the balls of their feet first, which is overall better for the entire posture and the running experience. Vibram Five Fingers give you all the benefits of running barefoot with some of the protection that a shoe provides by shielding feet from direct exposure to the environment.

This is such a brilliant idea I'm surprised it hasn't been done before!

I need to get myself a pair (or two) of these as soon as possible...     Link: Vibram Online Shop