About a year ago I read a lot of stuff about how running barefoot or minimally booted could, potentially, help me to avoid injuries and typical running ailments. At the time I seemed to come back from every run with a different problem which was often serious enough to force a lay up for a week or two. It would have been easy to blame my budget shoes, but I still think that they were good shoes, just the wrong ones for me.

Fortunately I don’t suffer from shin splints – I don’t even really know what they are. I was, however, suffering terrible knee problems and achilles problems. Enter Vibram Snakeoil. Yes! Vibram Five Fingers look cool and they’ll cure all of your running ailments! And they look cool! And they cost loads but they look so coool!

Don’t buy the fake Chinese ones though because they’re inferior copies and nowhere near as good as the real thing. Even if they look cool. Vibram are so worried we’ll buy the wrong ones that they have a whole section on their website devoted to counterfeiting and even a special page to aid identification.

Sorry Vibram I’m not that easily fooled. I checked a few reviews and found that the ‘fake’ shoes are identical to the ‘real’ ones, that sometimes the ‘real’ ones have manufacturing faults. It would seem that all of the fakes are coming out of China. That’s where VFFs are made, so my thinking was that the fakes were actually coming out of the same factory as seconds or ‘extra production’ or perhaps just locally priced genuine stock. Companies have their stuff made in countries like China because the workers get paid shit and work all of their waking hours so like good communist capitalists they try to earn a few extra yuan however they can. Anyway I bought a pair of Bikilas off eBay for a quarter of the shop price.

After a week or so I received my new shoes which, if they were fakes, were very well made. Who would go to the trouble of faking VFFs? Sadly, the shoes were the wrong shape for my feet – the line of my toes is quite sharp and my big toe is, well, bigger than my other toes. The VFFs expect the line of your toes to be much nearer to square across your foot and your big toe to be smaller than mine. “That’s what happens when you buy fake stuff!” I hear you screaming. Not so – a colleague bought some VFFs and I checked them against those and also official stock in running shops. Mine were real. Maybe not strictly legit but real nevertheless.

At about this time SportPursuit, a UK website that sells expensive sports stuff cheap, had Vivobarefoot (sometimes known as TerraPlana) shoes at less than half price. I promptly bought a pair of Breathos – one of their trail designs – for £29, about a third of their retail price. It took a while for them to arrive because you have to wait for the sale to finish, then they bulk order, blah blah blah. The VFFs went on eBay and sold for more than I paid for them easily covering the cost of the Breathos.

I should point out here that I tend to buy trail shoes because I run on mixed surfaces (I hate road running) such as loose gravel, earth, wood(!) and, unavoidably, tarmac (sometimes known as blacktop). And where I live if it’s not raining it’s going to.

So, a bit long winded I know – and if you’re still here thanks for your patience, my shoe pile now contained a pair of bright yellow Karrimor trail shoes, replete with gel and padding, and a pair of Vivobarefoot Breathos that were so thin I could roll them up and smoke them.

My everyday running track is a lakeside path that measures 2.15km (1.34 miles). It’s mixed surfaces: gravel, earth and tarmac. I decided for my first run, rather than carry my yellow Karrimors and run half way round the lake then change, I’d run half way and walk the rest. Easy, no problems and my legs didn’t fall to pieces. Next time out I ran a full circuit – still no problems – I could still walk, drive and kick dogs & kids. Then I put the Karrimor shoes in a dusty box in a dark corner. I’ve been using these shoes ever since with the exception of my Evos which I’ll talk about later.

Within what seemed like days – probably two weeks or less – my knees had no pain, my heels had no pain and I’d increased my distance to 5km or more. At this time my long runs were only about 6km so I suppose the shoes grew with me.

In January I decided I was going to enter the Great North Run – the biggest or second biggest or whatevever half marathon in the world. Naturally my weekly mileage would increase and I’d be doing a lot more road running. I was worried that so much non-trail work would wreck my Breathos and tear the lugs off so I started looking around for a pair of Vivobarefoot Evos. By chance a budget sports store had bought up a bankrupt not-so-budget sports store and they were selling Vivo shoes at flood sale prices. I picked up a pair of nice red Evo IIs for 25 quid.

So now I had two pairs of minimalist running shoes and something to use them for. To date these two pairs between them and I have logged almost 600km. And how did we fare? Well, read on…

Vivobarefoot Breatho

The innersole is removable for extra barefoot feel, but I’ve only used them without once. I don’t remember having any discomfort or problems, but for some reason I put them back in and they’ve stayed like that ever since. The sole is heavily cleated giving good grip on all surfaces although I haven’t had the opportunity to run in really slippery mud.

One of the good points of the VFF Bikilas was the elastic lacing system. It was so good that I fitted them to my yellow shoes, some other shoes and these. As a result the lacing is always perfect – never too tight or too loose and I’ve never had to stop to retie or adjust them, which was something I had to do every run with conventional laces.

People talk a lot about barefoot feel, but rarely talk about the overall sense of well-being. These shoes are light, very flexible and, thanks to the mesh uppers, very airy. I love wearing them.

The big test for me and the shoes came in June when I ran the Karrimor Great Trail Challenge. The name hypes it a bit, but it was a 12km trail (billed as 11km) over a Cumbrian fell (hill). Not a big one but still a hill – a total climb of 314m (1030ft). The surface ranged from tarmac to rough rutted mountain trail and fast, uneven descents on loose rock, earth and gravel. The shoes took it all without any fuss and my confidence in them soared. On the descent I think the feedback through the sole was key to my stability. With a numb shoe I can imagine taking the grip for granted and eventually having a spill, but these let you know when you have a poor foot placing and your brain deals with the information.

They’ve been through the washing machine a couple of times – not because they were smelly – the ventilating upper prevents that – but because they were dirty, thick with trail dust. They cleaned up well and dried quickly.

The cleats have shown little wear, but two or three of the cleats at the heel have torn off – probably as a result of walking on tarmac before and after runs. Not a problem as I don’t run on my heels.

At the other end of the shoe there is still plenty of mileage. The colour detail is a separate moulding which has become a little detached. Now that I’ve noticed it, I’ll repair it with rubber cement and I reckon the shoes will be good for another few hundred kilometers.

All in all a great shoe, fantastic value for money even at full price. When I need to replace these, I’ll be getting the same thing again.

Vivobarefoot Evo II

Apparently the main problem with the Evo I was a tendency for the material over the toe box to crease causing toe blisters where it rubbed. The Evo II used new fabric to overcome this. The result is that the Evo II is slightly less breathable than the Evo I. There’s another Evo now but I don’t know what differences there are.

So, Evo II, what about them. As I said earlier I bought these for all the road miles I’d be doing in preparation for a half marathon. They are every bit as good on the road as the Breathos are on the trail but off road, even on relatively compressed gravel paths, I find they give a little too much feel.

The sole is quite thin and not having the aggressive tread makes them feel even thinner. This is fine while running on smooth road surfaces but I find that the balls of my feet get a bit of a pounding after a kilometer or so on rougher surfaces.

The material of the uppers makes them feel a bit more shoe-like than the Breathos and not being as breathable, they get stinky quite quickly. Like the Breathos they wash and dry easily, but they let you know when they need washing. Again, the inner soles are removable, but I always leave them in.

I’ve done plenty of long runs in these shoes and, so long as I’m on roads, they are very comfortable. When it came to race day I was split 50/50 between wearing these (I’d bought them for the race) and wearing the Breathos which, although I’d never used them over that distance on road, I thought would be more comfortable towards the end of the race. On the day – and I had both pairs with me – the weather decided. I was more confident in the ability of the Breathos to handle heavy rain and unknown road surfaces.

Again a great shoe and I will be wearing them for my next HM in a couple of weeks. The soles show no appreciable wear and after a quick wash the shoes look brand new again. I think they’ll last forever.

In conclusion, they’re both great shoes that are well suited to their intended terrains. If I had to choose one pair it would be the Breathos – if Vivobarefoot made a road version of the Breatho it would be a no brainer. Normally, though, if I know I’ll only be on roads I’ll wear the Evos. If there is any off road involved I’ll go for the Breathos.