[Racso]

BTW, can we acknowledge there is a difference between running and sprinting? I think that is the big difference here. Sprinting uses a different technique than just regular running, and if you use the sprinting style to run, you may use more energy while burning the same calories, however if you use the proper running style to sprint, you lose valuable speed.

[h0ya5axa]

Originally Posted by Racso

you may use more energy while burning the same calories

Sorry man, this doesn't make any sense. Calories are units of energy. A sprinter's gait and a distance runner's gait are different, but not for this reason.

Look, here's the deal on these shoes. They allow your body to run the way nature intended your body to run. However, if you have been wearing shoes your whole life, the muscles needed to run barefoot will have atrophied, or diminished to such a degree that they are essentially useless. Switching to barefoot running takes time and patience, and if you do it right it can be amazingly rewarding. I no longer experience joint pain during or after running, my balance has improved significantly (though this can be partially attributed to barefoot slacklining, which I also recommend), and I actually enjoy running again.

As far as playing paintball in FiveFingers, that is entirely personal preference. I do not, because I find that the risks of injury from making fast cuts and rapid changes in speed outweigh the benefits of running as naturally as one can while still wearing "shoes." That is not to say that I am "right" or that those who play in FiveFingers are taking "stupid" risks. Hell, walking out your door in the morning is a risk. We all decide what risks to take for ourselves, and if you want to play paintball in "minimalist" shoes, more power to you!

[Oedipus]

If I try to run barefoot, I always stub my toe. That makes me violent.

[PainMaker666]

Just get some Tabis with some traction on the souls. Ninja up and down the field. / thread.

[Open_Truth]

I wear them, and have been for a while. Honestly, about a year now. I have several pair of the shoes, not intending to get as many as I do have. I started with a pair of KSO's and KSO TrekSport's. The KSO's to wear around normally, and the KSO TrekSport's to wear on the field. It has evolved to a couple of pair of KSO Trek's, which I pretty much only wear to play paintball in, a pair of FLOW's for colder/wetter weather, and a pair of Speed's (When they were only available in Europe) for other casual wear. I recommend getting two pair of the shoes, one for normal wear, one for paintball. Because only wearing the shoes on the day that you play is going to mess you up. So get used to them with wearing shoes of the same type before you play. Yeah, you can get just one pair, and wear them all of the time, but like wearing cleats all of the time, even when going to McDonalds after playing?

So yeah, you end up learning to rewalk. You end up learning to land more on the ball and toes of your feet rather than the typical land on your heel. At first, this will feel weird, but your muscles will get used to this. Actually, this is what those Sketchers Shape Up shoes do, but with the built up sole, make it easier of you to do.

For paintball, regardless if you play in the woods or a well manicured grass speedball field, or even on a turf field, I recommend playing with the Trek's, TrekSport's, Trek LS's, or even the Bormio's. The tread design, other than being 1 MM thicker than the rest, is the most aggressive pattern available, pretty much closest to a cleat. This will give you great traction, and still light on your feet.

And speaking about light, if you look around the various forums, you see stuff from people asking what the lightest HPA tank is, or the lightest hopper, or the lightest marker. Sometimes, even the lightest pants or the like. If you look on Eastbay, there are a number of football cleats, and I imagine that you could find soccer and baseball cleats, that are under 10 ounces in weight. These retail from $64 for 9.9 ounce cleats (That's per cleat on a seeming closeout model, and the weight seems to be the average for all of the different cleats but one) to $100 for the 6.9 ounce Adidas AdiZero 5 stars. The Trek's are $125 for 6.7 ounce per shoe, or TrekSport's are $100 for 6.5 ounce shoes. That's the same price as the lightest football cleat, with .8 total ounce savings in weight. Also, Vibrams last. I have seen people talk about running in theirs X number of miles a day, and racking up something like 1000 or even 1500 miles in their shoes and still going strong. How often do people with cleats have to replace their shoes? I know that I replaced my cleats every six to eight months.

For a bit more info from light to heavy Five Fingers users, check out these two links: http://birthdayshoes.com/what-are-they, and their forum: http://birthdayshoes.com/forum/

[Enderle]

FEET DON'T HAVE FINGERS

[dontflamemeplox]

on the cross country team at my school quite a few people train in them

[Racso]

Originally Posted by h0ya5axa

Sorry man, this doesn't make any sense. Calories are units of energy. A sprinter's gait and a distance runner's gait are different, but not for this reason.

Sorry, went for a slight tangent of the exercise running vs walking where it is often more beneficial to walk instead of run. The reason being that while running will burn more calories, you will tire faster, and thus stop exercising faster. The other side is that if you walk, while you don't burn as many calories, you exercise longer and then you burn more calories.

My point is that the standard running technique is like a slow sprint, where these shoes allow you to use a less stressful technique.

[YeloSno]

Originally Posted by Racso

If he is not sliding far enough, which he says is related to these shoes, that means he is not go as fast into the slide as he was when he was wearing cleats, meaning these shoes aren't getting him the same speed.

No, they are, but I'd slide earler with cleats so I had time to slow down before I jam my foot into the ground to popup. Call me retarded, but that's what I do.

With the KSO Treks, I'll slam my foot wherever the fork I want and still have my ankle in tact.

Now onto the one thing I personally would fear by wearing them: no toe protection. How many times have you kicked a bunker tie down? Now kick it with your almost bare toes! Or a root. Or a rock.

Happened before, not bad at all.



BTW, the soles are the same on all KSO models. ALl that changes is side and top coverage.

[patrioticpb]

Sounds to me like if your having pain and discomfort from wearing your cleats, it might be your arch support in them. Are you flat footed? I am, and when I wear my Nike T90 soccer cleats, (which have a high arch support in them) my feet hurt like H E Double Hockey sticks, but they are so much lighter, and I can sprint faster in them compared to my Nike LandSharks (which have little to no arch support in them). They are more comfortable, and my feet don't hurt at the end of the day when wearing them, but I feel like they are heavier and more bulky, which I think slow me down just a tad bit, but not much.

just my $.02, but you should really check out your feet, and what kind of arch they have. Find one of those Dr. Schols foot readers at like Walmart, and invest in some new insoles for the cleats you already have.

[Open_Truth]

Originally Posted by YeloSno

BTW, the soles are the same on all KSO models. ALl that changes is side and top coverage.

That would be incorrect. The KSO, Flow, Classic and Sprint (Men's line) all have the same soles, all of them are 3.5 MM thick. The Komodo and Komodo LS use a new for this year 4 MM thick sole. The Bikila, Bikila LS, and Speeds use yet another 4 MM thick sole that is different from the others (They also have the thickest footbed, and are specifically made for running, often on harder surfaces like pavement). And finally, the KSO Trek, Treksport, Treksport LS, and Bormio have the 4 MM thick sole that is the most aggressive tread pattern, great for paintball actually.

I wore my KSO's to an indoor field recently, and kind of slipped around a bit on the turf. When I switched to my Trek's, no more slippage, and I got great traction for the start of my games.

[korchak10x]

i have found that none of my fivefinger models (kso, komodosport, and bikila) don't grip that well on the turf at my local fields (very short, and somewhat slimey from the paint) as well as when i wear my soccer shoes

[QUEST_FIXER_UPER]

bear feet are the ****...

[Orvis09]

Originally Posted by Enderle

FEET DON'T HAVE FINGERS

I laffed.

On topic: Don't cheap out on cleats. I'd say the CHEAPEST cleat you'd want to go with is calf leather, and those run $80-$100. When I played tournament soccer I used kangaroo leather, and the cleats ran $150+ but it made all the difference in the world. Vibrams aren't comfy, they're training shoes. You will twist an ankle, trip on your pants, or other painful experiences. If your cleats are too big, your feet will hurt. Also, check out baseball or football cleats. They're like high top basketball shoes.

[Open_Truth]

Originally Posted by Orvis09

I laffed.

On topic: Don't cheap out on cleats. I'd say the CHEAPEST cleat you'd want to go with is calf leather, and those run $80-$100. When I played tournament soccer I used kangaroo leather, and the cleats ran $150+ but it made all the difference in the world. Vibrams aren't comfy, they're training shoes. You will twist an ankle, trip on your pants, or other painful experiences. If your cleats are too big, your feet will hurt. Also, check out baseball or football cleats. They're like high top basketball shoes.

I have to completely disagree with you there. They are the most comfortable shoe that I have. I actually stopped wearing almost everything else and just wear my Vibrams now. But, that being said, you also have to walk in them correctly. If you are walking and landing on your heel, then rolling to your balls of your feet, it is going to hurt. Your knees, your heels, your lower leg, are all going to hurt. But if you land with your balls of your feet, you are going to have some sore muscles for a bit (How sore is how much you wear them until you are comfortable with them), but everything feels so much better.

They are also shoes that you can do everything with. Run, job, walk around, go to the mall, rock climb, you name it. The Komodo's were specifically made for people that wear shoes and do martial arts (You can see the point on the outside of the ball area for spinning on and still keeping stability).

[QmarcesQ]

I didnt have the money to invest in a super expensive pair yet, so i just bought some 15 dollar bravia shoes which holy crap the difference over playing with running shoes is amazing.
added to the fact that that it rained a lot on the day i played i never slipped once with cleats.

[paintball-kid0811]

I'm not too sure about the 5 Fingers, but if you want a good alternative for cleats, you could try some lacrosse cleats. They're usually mid/high tops with great ankle support but are light as hell and have great insoles. Warrior and Nike both make great pairs and I've owned both while playing lax for 4 years with no problems! As long as you're not playing on astroturf, they should be perfect!

[greatmrkyle]

I have a pair of KSO trek's if your interested in trying them.

[Gekgo]

I'm OLD! and have had my share of ankle issues.. I wear my Komodo's in all the time playing whoods ball.. "Regular" shoes have a thickness to the soles that, when they make traction, can cause your ankle to roll. The flat soles do not do that.. I''ve had ZERO ankle issues with my five fingers..

That said.. I've broken 2 toes! In the true spirit of playing.. I can play with broken toes.. broken and sprained ankles are show stoppers... I broke those two toes the fist couple of months I had the shoes. The last two seasons I have been injury free..


PS Winter time and 5 fingers = cold feet.. If you aren't wearing boots, I HIGHLY recommend Saucony Razors.. they look funky.. but great woods shoe.

[Gekgo]

Originally Posted by korchak10x

i have found that none of my fivefinger models (kso, komodosport, and bikila) don't grip that well on the turf at my local fields (very short, and somewhat slimey from the paint) as well as when i wear my soccer shoes

They don't make a five-finger design I've found yet with the perfect sole.. I've had bad experiences in the woods with cleats and rocks.. and I've had bad experiences with zero traction with five fingers on hard mud, It was like ice skating... in bare feet.

Shoe selection is really a very personal thing. It all depends on how you play, where you play, and even how your body mechanics work.. Thats why there are 5000 differnt styles of shoes out there in the first place!

Bad ankles.. either get off the stilts.. and go near barefoot. or get something that will support your ankles.. low rise cleats assure you will hurt yourself. Traction and no support is the enemy of your ankles.

[skunk_13_2005]

I ref PSP in the Komodo's