If I were a Ninja, I'd wear these shoes

I wore my vibram five fingers to set yesterday. By set I mean working on a film, television or commercial set where filming is involved. (When prepping a production, we usually call it prep and reserve set for the filming location.

Anyway, I worked on a commercial yesterday, and decided to wear my black, KSO five fingers to set.

I was a boom operator yesterday, and though this position is relatively new to me, I knew the five fingers would do me well because it’s very easy to move stealth (quiet and soft) in these shoes. Also, my feet were tired the first day because I wore some sneakers and by end of day my feet were sore. Ever the physical explorer doing experiments on myself, I decided to wear my five fingers to see how they compared to normal shoes.

Generally, we who work on set often don’t have a lot of time to chit-chat. This is not to say there isn’t down time, which usually happens depending on department so most people tend to bond with their own department - both from working together and from not working together. But most people working on a commercial, especially on a two-day shoot like we were on yesterday, are focused on their jobs, so they don’t comment on each other’s clothing, style or jobs unless it pertains to getting the job done (wardrobe virtually talks about clothing all day long). But yesterday, on a crew of about 30-40 people, at least 20 people stopped what they were doing (when they could) to ask me about my shoes. Now I admit, I knew a few people would ask about them based on reactions to the shoes when I’ve worn them out in public, but it was way beyond my expectations.

So, I’m blogging about these shoes again and answering the most popular and funny questions from yesterday. Also, there’s a video below that talks about what I most often explained to the people who stayed around for more than 2 minutes to talk about my shoes.

Q= Question (obvious, I know)
SA= Short Answer (or Sassy Answer, depending on the questioner)
LA= Long Answer (which happened when people gave me that look – like they wanted to know more)

Q: Are they comfortable?
SA: Yes.
LA: Yes. But I had to get used to them because they’re very similar to walking barefoot, but with a little extra foot protection. But after a month or two the muscles in my feet adapted and I don’t get too sore anymore. Also, I tend to walk more gently, sort of from the front-side of my feet because it’s too much impact to walk heel-toe. Also, I’ve found that they’re more comfortable if I wear them with toe-socks because there’s less abrasion.

Q: What are those shoes?
SA: They’re called vibram five fingers.
LA: They’re supposed to be as close as possible to being barefoot. For 150,000+ years humans did everything barefoot. We evolved that way, and there are theories that a lot of our injuries today are due to the weakness in our feet from over-padding and –protecting them so that we have bad form (and put undo stress on our feet, knees and hips) and compromised feet and leg muscles. If you’re interested in this kind of thing you should read Born To Run by Christopher McDougall.

Q: Can you wear those for surfing?”
LA: Yes, but they have other styles that have neoprene that are better for water sports. These are mesh so water would get into them so they probably wouldn’t work well for keeping your feet warm.

Q: Where did you get those?
SA: Adventure 16
LA: Adventure 16, but you can order them online too. But I’d try them on first to check for size.

(At the end of the day)

Q: Are your feet sore?
SA: Actually, no.
LA: Actually, no. My legs are a little sore from standing all day but my feet feel pretty good.

Q: Are you a ninja?
SA: No.
SA#2: Not exactly, no. But I can kill you with my feet.
SA#3: Ha. No. But I do martial arts in these shoes.
SA#4: If I were you wouldn’t be able to see me, so no.
SA#5: No, but if I were a ninja, I'd wear these shoes. (And I certainly wouldn't be working here...)

So all of this attention on set made me want to blog about it. But I must say, though I was mostly happy to talk about these shoes and how I think they are great and ultimately really great for our bodies, I was slightly shy at time about the attention. When I'm on-stage, it's different. I'm prepared mentally and emotionally for all the attention. I enjoy it even because I understand that my role is to entertain, receive attention and share my gifts with people. But my mode on set is more utilitarian. I feel like it might be further evidence that, even though it was shoe-induced, I should be doing something else besides being a worker-bee on a commercial/television/film set.

A note about procuring a pair of vibram five fingers. It seems these shoes are more popular than vibram anticipated and they’re currently out of stock in a lot of sizes and colors. Supposedly they’re manufacturing more. Also, when I blogged about these shoes back in December, I’d been wearing them primarily without socks and commented that the friction-generated heat during my martial arts training was unpleasant and that my feet would sometimes get cold during cold weather. Both of these issues are virtually eliminated when I wear toe-socks with the shoes. I didn't wear these in extremely cold weather (nothing below 45°), but they were fine with socks for moderately cold weather. If you plan on wearing socks, please keep that in mind when you decide what size to get or try them on (most stores that carry them should also carry toe-socks). With the KSOs, they seem more flexible so the same size is just fine with or without socks. With the FLOWS (neoprene-upper), I’m not sure you’d want to wear socks, but the fit seems more snug. Anyway, toe-socks made already great shoes even better for more active-wear. I’m considering the performa because I want to wear these with outfits where I don’t look like a gorilla or ninja, and the performa seem a bit more feminine. I’m going to go try them on today or tomorrow, but it's worth noting that I don't plan on wearing socks with the performas.

Please post a comment if you have any more questions that weren’t covered by my cohorts on set.

More Interesting Katie Strand World Posts

• How my friend Sally became the new First Lady
• My Boyfriend has Autism...Maybe
• Raw Primal Papaya Custard - The Nectar of the Gods
  
• And All the Cows Said Moo!
• If you were John Mayer, you would too
• Tiredness - Varieties of and unforeseen side-effects
• Foreplay is overrated
• Food should be As God Intended or Why isn't everything we eat organic?
  
• Yelling - One of the Highest Forms of Compassion
  
• The Cove - Louie Psihoyos' Oscar speech & a guide on how to create change...
• My Favorite Things...Arrabiata Recipe - Fresh, Organic, Vegan or Primal
  
• My Favorite Shows on Television...or how David Duchovney & Jesus are likely Good in Bed
  
• The Hawaiian Islands and Washington D.C.’s sand-paper circle-jerk about Health Care
  
• My Buddha has Termites...A Lesson in Infinite Joy
• The One-Date-Wonders!
• I had to learn SIGN LANGUAGE when I moved to Los Angeles
• Guys can make a game out of anything
• Hello? The power of CONNECTING and how technology has changed things
  
• Popping the question is better than porn!
• Bravo, Stephen Colbert & Co! and your Olympic Vancouverage
• Songwriting is like SEX
• Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - Inspiring a inspiring all of us to be more in the FLOW
• A moment of silence for all the plastic surgery ca...
• Ricky Gervais should be the new Simon on American Idol
• Muscle SURPRISE! The key to physical, mental & emotional fitness
• I think my boyfriend's a snake...
• Release... Sweat & Power
• MY FAVORITE THINGS! - Vibram's Five Fingers
• Dick Morris... How do you sleep at night?
• Rusty DePass, Gorillas, and Obama, oh my!
• Michael Jackson - Troubled Genius

New Music
&
Posts
at
Katie Strand World

• Please Don't Leave Me
• Going To California
  
• Come Back
• Home