You’ll probably remember my entry on my Vibram FiveFingers (VFF’s) from 4 days ago. In that post I was not sure if my VFF Speeds were real because of the low price that I paid for them, but I did make a not of them being the same build quality of my other VFF’s. When Max pver at Barefoot Inc. informed me that they were indeed fake I remarked upon the build quality positively again. At that point I had only owned them for 2 days. After Max informed me that they were indeed fake, I looked at them a bit closer and started to kind of play with the areas where the sole met the fabric in the toes.

By day 3 or 4 of ownership and having run in them three times this is what I found:

as you can see the glue is not holding up very well, and this is only after putting about 15 miles on the shoes (I took these pictures today after running about 4000 meters). I have used super glue to re-glue them together, but I am now worried about the other 8 toes, the strength of the super glue, and all the other connection points on the shoes.

My other VFF’s have had more than 50+ miles running put on each of them and maybe 100+ miles walking throughout Southeast Asia. They have exhibited no problems like this at all after many miles and 4 months of use.

Also after running at a faster pace today I noticed some other oddities about the shoe. The traction on the soles is not very good. As I was rounding a corner at a higher speed on the Happy Valley Sports Center Jogging track I felt a little slipping. I am not sure if this is unique to these fake VFF Speeds since I do not have real ones to compare to. Also this track is kind of hard and smooth so perhaps it is more a problem with the track than the shoes. I think tomorrow I will run in my 100% real KSO Trek’s and see if they exhibit the same slippage around the corners. I think the KSO Trek’s are a better comparison due to the fact that the razor sipping on the straight KSO’s give them really good traction. So we shall see.

— EDIT 11/25/2010–

After watching the video review of the VFF Speeds on Birthdayshoes.com I learned that these fake Speeds do have inconsistent sizing. Justin Owings States that he is a 43 in KSO’s as well as Speeds. I am a 41 in KSO’s and the 41 in these fake speeds are just ever so slightly too small. Not as small as a 40 in KSO’s, which I have tried, but just slightly too tight. I am still able to run and walk in them just fine. Perhaps they will stretch? or maybe they will just explode under the pressure of my massive feet (relatively massive that is).

— END EDIT —

I know that many in the US are desperate to get some VFF Speeds and they are attracted by the low price of the VFF Speeds on eBay. I was one of those people when I was in the US. Long shipping times stopped me from buying when I was in the US. I am not judging anyone for their choices (haha look at my choice). I just want to make sure that if they do their due diligence they might stumble upon this blog posting and know exactly what they are paying 60-70 USD for. I paid $65 US for these shoes.

Just remember if your VFF’s starts to fall apart in the middle of a 10-15 mile run you will DEFINITELY wish you had paid the extra money and gotten them delivered from the UK or Australia. Instead of getting cheap fakes from China.

I know that when I get back to the US I will order some real VFF Speeds from the UK or Australia. Then I’ll use these fakes as one more example of the age old and nearly universal truth “You Buy Cheap, You get Cheap.” Unfortunately for me, much of my life is spent trying to get MORE than what I pay for, which nearly always ends badly. But sometimes it doesn’t!