VIVOBAREFOOT Breatho Review

Proprioception…

Now I think I know what you might be thinking, and I assure you this isn’t going to be another science lecture or one of those hippie types telling you to come run with the fairies with nothing but the wind in your hair and the sun on your bum cheeks. No, this is in fact a review of the terrifying VIVOBAREFOOT Breatho Trail Shoe. 

Before I get down and dirty with the shoe review lets look at this word, ‘Proprioception’, quickly and how it has anything to do with ‘Barefoot Running’. Proprioception is basically a fancy word to say that your body is good at running itself while you perform multiple tasks. So for example a guy, contrary to popular belief, can multi-task by turning the meat on the braai, drink a beer, watch the rugby and chat to a mate at the same time without consciously having to focus on each individual task all because of a few internal nerves that provide sensory feedback to the brain. This gives your body the awareness it needs of the space around you to perform the given tasks. So with running our foot which has 200,000 nerve endings, 33 major muscles, 28 bones, 19 ligaments becomes a biomechanical masterpiece providing a massive amount of feedback and data to the brain, data that it uses to control the bodies balance, forward motion, and lateral motion (the movement from side to side). The team at VIVOBAREFOOT have set out to create shoes that help the body make the absolute most of all that data and turn it into speed, running efficiency and most importantly… fun! 

The term ‘Barefoot Running’ has been thrown around a lot lately in running circles and if you are like me every time you hear it coming up in conversation you suddenly have to leave cause you think you might have forgotten the oven on at home or the kids suddenly need to be picked up from the in-laws. I tried to avoid it at all costs, most out of ignorance, but then one golden Autumn day in Cape Town, a pair of VIVOBAREFOOT Breatho Trail Shoes arrived on my doorstep, to say that I was terrified to run in them would be a massive understatement, to put it in perspective I watched just about every youtube video I could find on barefoot running, went through their site with a fine tooth comb reading every paragraph, and ran all my runs for 2 weeks prior to receiving them on a treadmill to try nail down my Barefoot Running technique. I have my fair share of ‘minimalist’ running experience but ‘minimalist’ and ‘barefoot running’ are two very different concepts. For more information on the differences click here.

So lets look at the shoe then,

Aesthetics and Key Features:

It is safe to say the shoe is very, very easy on the eye. The design and colour scheme give it a very relevant appeal in todays world of brightly coloured and designed shoes, mine came in a light grey and racing red combination which definitely got my heart rate up before even hitting the trail. Other colour options available are Black/Grey, Grey/Yellow, and my other favourite a Grey/Blue combination. The lugs at the bottom of the shoe are what caught my eye at first, all 4.5mm of them and with the bantam 2.5mm outsole they ensure maximum sensory feedback. Apart from the brilliant grip of the shoe I noticed on the first run how the breathable mesh really allows for great ventilation around the foot. The 3mm insole sports a hex-flex moisture management system which helps to keep the feet warm in colder conditions, you can run in socks in these shoes but to me that would be defeating the point so the moisture wicking lining is a welcome advantage. One of my absolute favourite features of this shoe is the added arch protection on the side of the shoe, some other trail shoes lack in that department and I have payed for it on more than one occasion. A sharp rock into the side of your foot is not fun, especially when there is nothing but fabric between your foot and the rock. I thoroughly enjoyed not sticking a rock into the arch of my foot in these shoes.

My other favourite feature, and for the weight weanies amongst us, these shoes weigh in at an incredible 272g, I had to look down at times to check I still had shoes on my feet while blitzing along the trail. They are seriously light which make them seriously fast, if Nancy Sinatra’s boots were made for walking, these shoes were made for flying!

A wide toe box helps your toes spread which helps all the more with balance and running efficiency, nothing worse than cramped toes. If you have ever been on a 4x4 trip you would know that on soft sand and rocky sections they let a great deal of air out of the tyres to increase grip by giving the tyre a larger surface area. The same concept works here, wider toe box gives more space for your toes and a wider surface area which gives more grip which gives more speed which gives more fun… I think you get the picture.

Performance:

The first thing I want to know when considering a trail shoe is what is the grip like, there is no point in spending on average a 1000 bucks on a pair of trail shoes that’s going to have you on the floor more than on your feet. The VIVOBAREFOOT Breatho Trail Shoes do not disappoint, with their multi-directional inter-galactic lugs on the sole of the shoe you have a shoe that provides optimum grip whether you are running on a flat trail, rocky sections, steep ascent, blindingly fast descent or the moon. The lugs on the heel of the shoe face the opposite direction as the front to help keep you on your feet in those steep and slippery descents. I descended down to Rhodes Memorial on Devils Peak in the rain on a very wet and muddy trail and I only lost grip once, in this case it was in very thick mud, to say that I was impressed with the grip would be an understatement. There is something great about having peace of mind in the ability of your shoes, knowing you can take a few more risks or be a little more adventurous than you normally would all adds to the fun factor, and what would trail running be without its fun factor.

The lightness of the shoe (that’s 272g’s) really make this a seasoned racers best friend, trying to focus on an increased step turn over in heavy shoes is not my idea of fun. The team at VIVOBAREFOOT help us to adjust to Barefoot Running all the more with a seriously light shoe. Lighter shoes equals less energy spent in carrying the extra weight, helping you go further or faster with less effort and trust me an extra 100g’s really does make a huge difference when it is attached to the bottom of your legs while tackling a mountain most people wouldn’t even dare to drive their 4x4 up.

Since the outsole is a mere 2.5mm you need to be very conscious of not ‘heel striking’ on the hard pac or on the tar en route to the trail, at first my heels were a bit sensitive but as I ran more and more in the shoe I started to get the hang of the Barefoot Running technique, because of this it isn’t a shoe you can get ‘lazy’ in mid-run. I only ran once with the removable in-sole in as I way preferred the heightened sensory feedback you get without it but that also meant less cushioning so don’t be fooled, there are no gimmicks here, to run in these shoes properly you will need to adjust your technique, especially if you are used to running in shoes with standard cushioning. I can safely say that it is a massive amount of fun and after all my apprehension of the ‘Barefoot Running’ talk after 5 weeks I can totally see the benefits. I will even go as far as to say that it has completely revolutionised my approach and motivation towards running and as with any good revolution something significant has to change and stay changed. In this case it was my cumbersome ‘heel striking’, something that I could even get away with in a more minimalist focused shoe.

This wouldn’t be a proper independent review if I didn’t touch on the things I didn’t enjoy about the shoe so the first thing that I would change on the shoes is the laces, a silly and small thing I know, but they are far too long. I I didn’t tie them in a triple not they would keep coming undone as I ran. The last thing you want is to suddenly find yourself face down on a jagged rocky section because you tripped over your own laces. The elastic loc-lace type laces would be my first choice for a shoe like this, they will even get the weight down be another 5g’s or so. My other issue is on one section of trail I ran through there were smallish rocks hidden under grass patches which became very uncomfortable, the sole does an excellent job of protecting the feet from sharp objects but because it is a Barefoot Running shoe you do experience everything, and I mean everything on the trail so if you can’t see where any obstacles are you will feel them (which is the whole point of sensory feedback) but again as time went on my dainty feet began to toughen up and feeling the smaller stones was not as uncomfortable as at the start. I haven’t quite decided yet if I would use these as a training and racing shoe or purely a racing shoe. A part of me would be a bit more comfortable with slightly more cushioning for the longer ultra training type runs just because of the frequency, but then again this is a revolution, and you won’t know if you don’t try so I guess it is all or nothing for me. I will probably put the removable insole in for the longer runs, such a softie.

So my advice to you if you decide to buy these shoes is this, give them a chance. I didn’t like them much at all after my very first run, in fact apart from the great features I felt rather disappointed. I don’t know maybe I was expecting fireworks with all the hoo-ha on Barefoot Running lately but less is really more in this case, after 2 – 4 weeks they began to make sense and now 6 weeks or so into them I cannot imagine running in anything else. They really do grow on you as your body adapts and as you tweak your running technique to make the most out of them. I even secretly drew out writing this review as long as I could just to get a few more runs in them before having to give them back.

Pro’s Overview:

·         Lightweight

·         Mad grip

·         Helps your body make the most of the sensory feedback we were born to use

·         Stylish looks

·         Moisture wicking lining inside the shoe

·         Did I say lightweight?

·         Protects the arch of the foot very well (yay!!)

Con’s Overview:

·         Silly long laces

·         Not nice to run in on the tar if you have to get to the trail via tar (unfortunately            most of us don’t live in the mountains)

·         Once you get used to them you won’t want to run in anything else (think 3 year          old tantrum in the sweet section at Woolies and you will catch my drift)

My one word that sums up the VIVOBAREFOOT Breatho Trail Shoe>… Terrifying… Terrifyingly fast, Terrifyingly grippy, Terrifyingly light, Terrifyingly good looking, Terrifyingly fun (think roller coaster or base jumping), Terrifying at first but man what a jol and what is life without a bit of terror to shake us out of our comfort zones and give us a bit of fun?