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Where is My Vibram Store (in the US)?

by Brian Patterson » on Jan 18, 2012 10

You may have seen the photos we posted a few days ago of MyFiveFingers.com reader Maricel Ivy Pono-Woods wearing FiveFingers while riding an elephant (here and here).  Pretty cool pics.  In my emails back-and-forth with Maricel I learned that she lived in the Philippines, which I thought was cool because I’m half-filipino myself.

I began asking her some questions about FiveFingers in the Philippines; who wears them? are they popular? are there a lot of fakes? etc. She was so kind to answer everything I threw at her, and somewhere in the middle of our dialogue she mentioned this nugget:  She bought her FiveFingers from the Vibram retail store.

Vibram Retail Store? Whaaaa?

I pressed further. The thought of a Vibram FiveFingers store brought back those same feelings I had as a kid when I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – I had to know all about it.  Below are some pictures that Maricel shared and a bit of Q&A with her about the store (notice my barrage of questions – sorry, Maricel!).

Maricel at the entrance to the Vibram Store. She's got a golden ticket!

Maricel posing with a bag of goodies in front of the store. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!!

FiveFingers retailer

The Vibram staff (note that the female employee looks to be wearing Converse Chucks, not FiveFingers).

Q:  Do they do any training or educating in the store?

Nope, I don’t think they do any training.  The only information provided for buyers/customers were the posters on the walls like the ones hanging in the front (see the 1st photo). It shows the shoe models, what activities each is good for, and the sizing difference for men and women.

Q:  Did it seem like they had every model in the store?

They seemed to have most of the models (the common ones) that are applicable to Philippines weather. I didn’t see any FLOWs and I was looking for Performa Janes but they didn’t have those either.

Q:  Were there a lot of people in the store? People who had never seen FiveFingers before?

We went to the VFF store in Trinoma Mall,Quezon City earlier on that same day the pictures were taken and there were two other customers aside from me and my husband and they were just checking everything out, asking about prices, etc.

As for the store in SM Mall of Asia, I had to wait about 10 minutes for the staff to get me the pair I wanted. The lady employee was attending to two other customers, and the store is pretty small, comfortably fitting only 5-6 people including the staff. When I was paying for my purchase, a couple came in and it was their first time checking out FiveFingers, I believe. They saw me wearing them and asked me a lot of questions.  The staff was busy with the cash register for my purchase so I showed them the poster/chart of the shoe models and what each was so they had an idea of which pair to get depending on the activities that they participate in.

Q:  The employees were all wearing FiveFingers, right?

The male staff all wore VFFs but the female staff did not. Out of curiosity, I asked them if they will got a free pair when they were hired. They said, “unfortunately… no”. They are privileged to a discount, though.

Q:  Is that a TV I see in the store? What is playing on it? Videos about FiveFingers?

Yes, that is a TV and it is playing videos about FiveFingers. The science behind the research, the foot fall graphic illustrations of the difference between running with thick padded shoes and running barefoot. There were also short video clips of interviews with people I’ve first read about in the book ‘Born to Run‘.

Q:  Do They Sell the Vibram T-shirts there?

No, they didn’t have any other products besides Injinji socks.

Q:  For sizing, do they use the big giant foot sizing tool also, or do they use something else?

Yes, they use the big giant foot sizing tool.

So, Vibram, we’re ready for some more stores.

I’m located right outside of Washington DC, so how about opening one up in the hoity-toity Tysons Galleria Mall?

And when you do, I promise me and my Grandfather will be there the moment you open.

Submitted Comments

  1. Cel Woods says:

    You really did! Thanks for posting Brian…so so much!

  2. @digitalgirl717 says:

    Are there any stores located in the USA???

  3. Brian Patterson says:

    Unfortunately no. My guess is that Vibram has to fight hard to combat knock-offs, particularly overseas, and this might be an effort to do that.

  4. Dan says:

    Tyson’s was great for Apple.. I’m sure Vibram would thrive there also!

  5. Brian Patterson says:

    One can only hope…

  6. Corey says:

    I went in to a fairly large shoe store in Oklahoma City (MetroShoe Warehouse) looking for FiveFingers. They carried ALL of them. The store employee I was talking to, who was wearing FiveFingers, said representatives came in and taught them about the shoes and gave them a free pair.

  7. Jon McEwen says:

    That is nice. When I go to Whole Earth Provisions here in San Antonio, I am lucky if one of the two employees that wear them are working. Most of the time I end up answering questions for other customers, and helping them choose a pair. I am partial to the Komodo Sport, but wear my classics and KSO regularly too. Recently I have started looking for other places around town that sell VFF hoping to find an enthusiast that I can pick their brain on the newer models and such.

  8. Cel Woods says:

    Exactly what I did when first-time customer asked me questions about VFF. As for experience, VFF shoes are intriguing and interesting at the same time, I would always end up answering questions about it. It is fine though…. I have always research about the science of all the pairs I got so it made it easy to give them the infos they wanted.. :-)

  9. Jackie says:

    I want to open one of these in the Dominican Republic where I live! I can’t wear them without every single Domincan woman telling me how cute they are, and every single guy asking where they can get a pair!

  10. kurt bondoc says:

    do they still sell kso for men in moa?tia

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