Did you know there are over 7,000 islands in the Philippines? Amazing isn’t it! And until recently the individuals living on those 7,000 islands had no access to Vibram FiveFingers. That all changed late last week when Vibram hosted a media launch announcing that they were bringing FiveFingers to the shores of the Philippines.

The event seemed to be a huge success with reported athletes and other celebraties attended to help hype up the Filipino on some of the greatest footwear available today. You can see the high level of excitement at the event from this image shown on daddyjoey.com. The site reports that the celebrity line-up included Lorraine Lapus, Corey Wills, Eric Buhain, Joseph Pagulayan, Ronald Declarador and Frisbee star Reema Chanco.

I mentioned previously that I was in the Philippines when I first realized there was something about running in bare feet. I’m really curious to see how the Filipinos accept this new line of footwear. It would be great to see huge successful Filipino athletes like Manny Pacquiao training for his next big boxing match in a pair of FiveFingers. I’m sure Vibram would love such a promotional shot themselves.

The rest of the images found at daddyjoey.com of the event show a lot of excitement and the extensive display of trade show exhibits that were setup to help promote the launch of Vibram’s in the Philippines. I must admit that I was a bit jealous when I saw the Speeds as part of the launch. The more sneaker like version of Vibram FiveFingers have not made it to wide release here in the states and I keep wondering how they’d fit into my running and training programs.

Its an exciting time for Filipinos, and its exciting to see more and more people find the joys that are offered by solid running footwear like FiveFingers.