My FiveFingers

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FiveFingers And Socks?

by Tyler Hurst » on Apr 16, 2011 12

I’ve never been much of a sock fan. They make my toes mush together, do a poor job of ever really drying and make laundry way more complicated. When I got my first pair of FiveFingers, the last thing on my mind was what kind of socks to wear.

No sock for you!

New shoes, old socks.

And wear them I did not. I ran my first three races and did all of my training sockless. I wore Injinji socks a few times in NYC and Chicago when temperatures dipped below freezing, but never unless the environment absolutely demanded it. But then I took a closer look at the wear on my feet after a five-plus mile run, and discovered that socks were exactly what I needed.

Socks combat old age

On runs longer than my typical four to five miles around the block, I noticed that my feet began to have odd rub marks where the seams in the shoes were fitted together. This definitely hadn’t always happened, but as my Sprint FiveFingers age, stretch, and are slowly destroyed by the washing machine, the fabric is pulling in a way that increasingly bothers my feet.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Some days it will rub on the outside, others on the arch, and every so often, the heel. These “injuries” don’t hurt at all, but they’re annoying. I didn’t like the slight pinch I felt when they were happening and I longed to learn how to fix it.

Sir Sweats-A-Lot

Turns out, I sweat too much. And when I say too much, I mean I’ve ALWAYS sweated like a huge fat man. Whether I’m 165 or 215 lbs, my sweat glands are always working really hard. This is likely because my heart rate shoots way up when I exercise, but because it’s always been like that, I’m not going to worry too much unless it causes light headedness, which it doesn’t.

Slippery slope

Nerd alert! Nerd alert!

When I sweat, my feet get slippery. When they get slippery, I have to tighten the hell out of my Five Fingers. When I tighten my Five Fingers, they pull a bit at my toes. When my Five Fingers pull at my toes, it hurts my always-there ingrown toenail.

New kicks, new socks

So when I bought a new pair of Sprints, I bought them one size too big AND will be wearing Injinji socks when I run. My first attempt at wearing socks with my size 44 Sprints went okay, but because I’ve dried my Five Fingers more than once (they do say not to) mine have shrunk just enough to make wearing the socks uncomfortable.

I am what I am

So now I have socks. My god, I used to make fun of people wearing socks with Birkenstocks. Am I worse?

Submitted Comments

  1. Dan says:

    Socks with Birkenstocks are bad.. Not so sure yet on Fivefingers & Injinis.. But you maybe in trouble.

  2. Steve Dinn says:

    I wear them when running in my KSOs and TrekSports, because they help me avoid blisters on one particular (but different) spot on each foot where there is some friction. I don’t know if I could wear them with Sprints though…too much like socks with Birkenstocks :P

  3. Tyler Hurst says:

    I only wear them with jeans when it’s cold or when running 5+ miles. Going to have to get a better color than black, though.

  4. Andrew Moore says:

    I wear my Injinjis only when I’m wearing pants. And then only if it is cold enough to warrant socks. Shorts? No socks :)

  5. Shawn Dancy says:

    Well for me, I only wear socks(Injinji) when its colder out, anything other than that I’m barefoot in my fivefingers. It just feels better barefoot and that equals very happy feet! :-)

  6. Francisco says:

    Shocks for some reason make me feel uncomfortable on my VFF. The whole point of VFF is to be more in touch with natural movements, shocks in some way restrict my mobility, besides I feel more friction between toes and my VFF.

  7. Christine Skelly says:

    Socks in VFFs definitely help in the cold, but otherwise, i go sans socks for FiveFingers. I also noticed when I wore Injinis with my Sorel winter boots (being sensitive to the cold I had to take a vacation from my FiveFingers in winter :[ ) that I still retained muscle tone in my legs and glutes for most of the winter months as if I was wearing my FiveFingers instead of huge winter boots. I knew toes socks promoted circulation, but that was downright impressive.

  8. Jesus says:

    i wear my KSOs with socks whenever is too hot or i think i’m gonna sweat a lot, although at the beginning i felt weird using them without sock, but after a couple of weeks using them sock less i kinda get used to them and as i told above i just use them with socks when is too hot (that in texas is almost everyday during spring and summer and even sometimes on fall and winter)

  9. Chris says:

    I really like these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00847OS8Q. I also have monstrously sweaty feet and live in Phoenix, so trying to wear Vibram FiveFingers in summertime is really sweaty and uncomfortable, even with socks. These actually do a great job of controlling my foot sweat and they seem to help protect my feet against the radiant heat coming up from the pavement, which is insanely hot in the summer here. They’re definitely worth a try.

  10. Tyler Hurst says:

    That’s AWESOME.

    Thank you.

  11. Cal says:

    I had trouble with foot slippage from sweaty feet during hot runs and workouts. A gal recommended the Injinji socks. Sized up to allow for the socks. No more swamp foot feeling.

  12. Perry says:

    Heh … people crack me up with having to buy fancy sounding shoes and socks.

    For exercise, I walk about 3 hours a day, and I wear $10 beach shoes. Every now and then I have to wear socks because of rub burns. Just regular ol’ socks that don’t hug the feet too much.

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