I bought a pair of the original Vibram Five Fingers while living in London, 2007/2008. It was more out of curiosity than anything. They were displayed in a shop window in Spitalfields and looked bizarre in an appealing way.
I was never a runner/jogger. But I do walk a lot. Especially in summer. For example, if something is 20 walking minutes away and public transport takes 15, I walk.
I wore the Five Fingers all summer, every summer, ever after.
I never had any sore feet when wearing these. And what's more, I have exceptionally strong feet and I attribute it to these shoes. I only found this out when I started tango dancing and several of my teachers told me.
My first pair from London disintegrated, a decade later, in 2017.
Every pair of five fingers I bought after that lasted a maximum of two years.
As such they're both an example of a great product as well as great example of enshittification.
> I have exceptionally strong feet and I attribute it to these shoes.
It’s probably more because of this:
> But I do walk a lot. […] For example, if something is 20 walking minutes away and public transport takes 15, I walk.
Maybe it's indeed just the walking.
The shoes I wear most other times are oxfords, monks or brogues however.
These kinda lock your foot in place, metatarsal and arch of the foot are not 'exercised' as much because of the rigidity of these shoes.
I do use more feet muscles in my Five Fingers for the simple fact that these shoes allow me to do that.
You can kinda flex your feet and e.g. choose to land only on the metatarsal and feel safe.
Exact same experience—first pair from 2008 lasted over three years of heavy use (running on mostly pavement) and each replacement has barely survived one or two years.
Shop window in Spitalfields - that didn’t happen to be a personal training gym called The Foundry, did it?