Are you a runner who shelled out $100 or so for a pair of those funny-looking barefoot shoes, the ones with the individual toe-holders? Were you swayed by claims that your shoes were scientifically proven to “make your feet stronger” and healthier”?
The bad news: you were duped. The silver lining: you’re entitled to a partial refund.
Vibram, the company that manufacturers FiveFinger shoes, settled a multi-year, class-action lawsuit brought by customers who were, to put it mildly, dubious of the company’s claims that barefoot running shoes could improve health. The shoe manufacturer will pay out as much as $3.75 million to anyone who purchased a pair of their finger-shoes since March 2009.
Perhaps more significantly, Vibram will have to hugely dial back the health claims it’s made for years about the benefits of running in its minimalist shoes, which are meant to mimic running barefoot.
“Vibram will not make…any claims that FiveFingers footwear are effective in strengthening muscles or preventing injury unless that representation is true, non-misleading and is supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence,” the federal settlement says.
The reliable scientific evidence they require? For Vibram’s barefoot shoes, it doesn’t exist.
Americans have purchased more than 70 million pairs of barefoot shoes
Sales of Vibram’s shoes have skyrocketed lately: one court filing notes that the company has seen an average of 300 percent annual sales growth over the past six years. In 2012, total sales of their FiveFinger shoes were approaching 70 million.
Some of that growth was likely driven by a book that came out in 2009 called Born to Run. There, Chris McDougall wrote about a little-known Indian tribe in Mexico who seemed to have an unusually strong ability to run exceptionally long distances. They also happened to run without shoes.
Thus McDougall’s book became a so-called “barefoot manifesto” for runners — although he now says that wasn’t totally the point. “People refer to it as a ‘barefoot manifesto,'” McDougall told Deadspin in an interview yesterday. “It’s not that at all. It’s not that I’m championing bare feet; it’s just that I’m questioning running shoes — because really the burden of proof is on the running shoe.”
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