Finding FiveFingers

Honestly, I'm not a chick who cares about appearances. I go for cleanliness and not stinking, but that's where it ends. I tend to share jeans with my hubby, and I still have clothes from high school (which either makes me damn lucky because I can still fit into them, or it makes me waaay out of date...probably both).

Long before I considered running, I wanted a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. I loved them before I even held a pair in my hands. Which is completely ridiculous since how the hell would I know if they even fit right, or whether they annoyed the shit out of me? Didn't matter. I LOVED them. And I knew I had to have them.

I follow VFFs on Facebook, and over and over I read how people loved them, but many were having a hard time finding them (Why are they backordered?? I've been waiting for 2 months! The Earth is going to split apart and engulf me if I don't get my FiveFingers!").

I live in the little state of Vermont, and as far as I can tell, these suckers haven't caught on here yet. This baffles me because we love our natural hippie stuff. We can pioneer gay marriage but we can't get stores to stock shoes that look like feet?? True, we are busy caring for our cows and maple syrup, but we got all that free time we aren't spending on our teeth. (Cheap shot, I know, but I had to get it out of your system for you).

Thinking that I would be on the FiveFingers waiting list, I figured I had to suck it up and drop some cash on these babies to get my spot in line. I almost shat myself when I revisited the website and found a store that was carrying VFFs...only 10 minutes away.

I dropped everything and ran to the store (figure of speech, I still can't run) with only an hour to spare until closing. With visions of VFFs in my head, I entered.

Just in case you too have seen the VFFs and fallen in love, as I have, I shall include a bit about my experience with sizing. The website is a bit vague on width - while it states some men might fit women's sizes, and vicey versey, that's pretty much it. There is more information on proper length sizing - measuring your foot to the longest toe and finding your size in inches.

I have a pretty wide foot. Back in the day, this flipper foot was awesome for getting me through hours of swim practice. Combine that width with an arch that Mickey D's would salivate over and I rock the men's E-widths in sneakers. I had reservations about the women's sizes - no offense to women out there, you are strong and beautiful, and I love you, but your gender specific shoes are so damn small.

Knowing all this, like a good girl, I measured my foot. Apparently, Panda requires a 38. Or do I?

I held the 38 women's KSO (Keep Stuff Out) shoe in my hand and knew right away that this wasn't going to work out. There is no way in hell the mesh could stretch the required amount for my toes to fit let alone my Kilimanjaro-like arch. My heart sank. What if I can't wear these shoes? What if the foot size is right, but the toes are too long, or the toes fit, but my foot is squashed??

Darkness warshed over the Panda.

A thought crossed my mind...FUCK THAT. What actually came forth from my mouth was "I think I'll try the men's sizes."

Instead of a 38 in women's, I left with a 40 in men's. And I'm wearing them right now. Even though the recommendation is to wear them only 1-2 hours per day, I went so far as to clean them off when I got home so I could keep wearing them in the house.

In the end, yeah, they do look a bit weird. But conventional is boring and I'm up for trying something new. I'm hoping we can pound some pavement together soon!