I’ve been VivoBarefoot-obsessed for a few years now. Ever since I switched to barefoot shoes for running (and for most of my day-to-day life), Vivo has been my go-to, because a) they fit like a dream, and b) they have offerings for everyday life, like sweet leather high-tops, but they also have amazing running shoes. Lately, my favorite has been the Stealth II SWIMRUN shoes, and not just because I’m now obsessed with SWIMRUN as a sport after interviewing World Champ Maja Tesch on The Consummate Athlete Podcast.
First of all, let’s talk about how fly these shoes look. They’re super classy, rad sneakers in all black on the top, but then with a sweet pop of bright orange on the sole. I love it. The upper is made with funky hexagonal webbing that stretches with your feet, but also just looks kind of rad. They’re designed with SWIMRUN in mind—that’s right, a sport where you swim in your shoes!—so they drain crazy well, without freezing your feet in the process.
They come with a removable thermal insole, which I am loving in the cold conditions I was running in while we’ve been in Europe and in Canada. Now that I’m in Cali for the week, though, I took them out, and the sneakers are just as comfy with or without the insoles!
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I’m a huge fan of that #barefootlife, not just barefoot runs, so I was stoked that these don’t make me feel like a dork in the real world—they just look like cool sneakers. (I love Vivo for their lifestyle shoes as well, but I use these for most of my runs and walks at the moment, so they’re my top pick!) Barefoot expert Katy Bowman talks about this all the time: you can’t just run barefoot, you need to walk first, and slowly add in some barefoot runs. Even the Vivo staff will tell you that they all took years to transition to running in barefoot shoes all the time, and some of them still use shoes with a bit more padding for long distances.
RELATED: Minimal Minimalism, Minimally.
These are the most comfy of the barefoot running shoes I’ve tried over the years: they have a slightly thicker sole than the ones I was running in before, so for trails and for hard roads, they’re a bit more forgiving. I’ve been in them for three months now, and they’re still in perfect shape! (The only downside is if you run in a lot of mud, they tend to get smelly, but they also wash really well—probably since they’re made to get wet!)
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Check them out here: right now, they’re on sale for $105, down from $150, so they’re a SWEET deal! I’ve turned a lot of people onto VivoBarefoot over the last few years, and it’s one of the few brands that I genuinely recommend to everyone. Let me know in the comments: have you switched to barefoot at all? Thoughts?
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