http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

I ran into a guy here on base who was wearing a pair of these he got down in Pordenone, Italy which isn't too far from Aviano here. He told me what I had already guessed about how, when he started using them, the muscles in his feet felt tight after running because he no longer had all the padding in the normal running shoes which takes the muscles of your feet out of the equasion.

I have been running with the Nike free 5.0 and noticed at first that my feet muscles were pretty sore after running. Still no impact injuries. Now I run 10 miles or so and feel no point in my feet now that the muscles are built up. He said he was the same way and is now running 10 miles every other day with no pain or soreness due to the fact that he has now built the muscles up, and he even hikes in those shoes that i linked above. He said he loves them and has even ran 3 miles just for the hell of it barefoot with no pain at all.

Just wanted to throw this out there to let you know at least 1 person out there had them work for them enough to continue to wear them everywhere he does a workout. I'm planning on getting a pair now as well to try it out.

Advice to anyone who is thinking about getting a pair though. Do not run your yourself to death at first or your will probably kill your feet since they are not used to it even though you may have ran 10 miles a day with regular shoes. I was stupid and ran a 4 mile as soon as I switched from normal shoes to my nike free and my feet were killing me for about a week.

If you do not want to spend the money on a pair of minimalist shoes, watershoes from walmart will work fine. Point is to protect your feet from the ground. www.barefootrunning.com

Recommend this website:

http://barefootted.com/

and this book:

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

I've been using vibram five finger shoes for about 4 months now and I can say they are the best physical fitness investment I've ever made (despite the large price tag). They solved my IT band problems and they allow me to balance better when doing squats in the gym. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to them because they rely so much on your calve muscles. The only complaint I have is their durability. I have already had to repair one seam but this really isn't that bad since I run and lift wearing them 5 times a week. Either way I recommend them to anyone who has recurring knee or IT band pain as a way to completely eliminate this problem.

I've also got a pair of the five fingers. IMO they are great for some Workouts and not so great for others. If you're doing explosive Oly lifts they kinda suck b/c all the foot stomping hurts and they're not much fun when running over rocks.
I too have IT band syndrom and the five fingers have definitely not helped me. It wouldn't make sense either now that I think about it seeing as IT band syndrom is caused from pronation when running? Thoughts?

Just bought a pair and I love them already.