- in a nutshell -

I bought a pair of five fingers at the end of 2009. It’s been almost two years now and I guess enough time has passed to write a long-term review on the KSO’s.
First of all I’ve worn them quite regularly and used them for running, biking, footbiking, hiking, going to work, shopping and other every day tasks, except on rainy days. Ofcourse every now and then I got wet feet and I was hoping that Vibram would start to develop a water proof version. Finally they have come up with an all leather version, which certainly is more water resistant then the KSO’s but that’s another story.

My KSO’s used to be black and now they sort of have a purplish color. I assume the strong UV-light in New Zealand and Australia has bleached the upper material. I didn’t wash them often as I was wearing socks almost all the time. So I don’t think you can blame the washing powder nor the washing machine.

The velcros on both shoes work perfectly fine even after almost two years. I actually thought they would give up just like the velcros you find on jackets. But no, two thumbs up they are pretty good.

Let’s have a closer look at the straps. You can see quite some wear on these but it’s not much of a problem when you slip the VFF’s on or off.

The heel and ankle part hasn’t seen much wear just a little stretching which makes it easier to put the VFF’s on. The footbed material changed from bright yellow to dirty yellow and is asides from that still in good shape.

The rubber sole is worn quite a bit. Interestingly the pinky toe part has lost most of the rubber sole. I assume that happened when I started footbiking in VFF’s. Just don’t do it, you can practically see your sole disappearing, I quit using them and switched to regular shoes for footbiking. Ofcourse the same happens to regular shoes but they are much cheaper to replace.

You can fix smaler holes with bicycle patch kits as seen on the next picture on the second toe. It won’t last forever but you can keep your VFF’s a bit longer.

I’m more of a forefoot striking person while running, therefor the front part has been used a bit more than the heel part of the sole.

And one more picture of the space between the toes. You can see that the glue dissolved and the sole is not firmly connected to the upper material. Note also the color difference between the toes and the upper material.

Well, all in all the Five Fingers KSO are some pretty tough shoes and have lasted a long time. I usually have only one or two pair of shoes and wear them almost every day. A pair of shoes don’t last much longer than two years for me.

I certainly will stick to the VFF’s as they helped me to improve my foot muscles and overall balance.