Ogden

I'm in/near Boston and interested in MoveNat too. Do we have a quorum? We could get a meet up of some sort together and try it on our own? I bet we could get more locals from NF to show, too.

These are awesome, thanks to all for digging them up and posting them. My problem is that I need an XL Tall, and so few places make tall shirts at all, let alone cool tall t-shirts. Mybe I'll try a 2XL. Regardless, thanks again!

Six weeks ago I made the decision to be barefoot or wear minimalist shoes 100% of the time. I've had a pair of Vibram Komodosports and a pari of the New Balance Minimus for the past year or so and limited wearing them to work out, but I was going on paternity leave last month and decided that this was a great opportunity to try going barefoot and minimalist 100%. Done. No need to go back. I bought a second pair of Vibrams (KSO in brown suede) that are a little more "normal" looking that I've worn to the office since I've been back at work, and I just received my VivoBarefoot Ra's for those business occasions where I really need to have a normal looking shoe. Owning several types of minimalist shoes, I can give you my impressions on them. The Minimus is a good shoe. It is super-light, looks like a typical sneaker, and has a reasonably flexible sole and big toebox allows for a lot of toe movement. I've worn them at the gym and out in the world and I can wear them comfortably all day. That said, they do have a small heel-toe drop (4mm I think) which is something that I'd prefer to avoid in a minmal shoe. Ground feel is good, a huge improvement over a conventional athletic shoe, After a year of mostly gym-wear, they have some surface wear showing on the fabric, what looks like it might be a small tear near the toe of the show, and the soles are visibly worn, though far from worn out. I just received the RA's and they are comfy. I can't attest to any tread separation yet, but I read some complaints about stiffness of the heel cup. I haven't had any issue with them in that sense. I put them on and wore them very comfortably for the whole day without any specific "breaking in". Ground feel is good, they look like a normal shoe so they don't even get a second look from anyone on the street. Some reviewers said they felt like the toe box was so wide that they were wearing clown shoes, but I don't see it, or maybe it just doesn't bother me. Of course, I have size 13 feet, so every shoe is kind of like a clown shoe for me. The two pair of Vibrams I have are the Komodosprt and the KSO Trek which, I think, have thicker soles than some of the running models. Still, ground feel and flexibility is far superior to the the other two shoes. You will never forget that you have them on, but they move with my foot better than any of the other shoes I've tried. They are also very comfortable. I've had the Komodosports for about a year and the KSOs for about a month. The Komodosports do show some wear on the sole, and the velcro on the upper is getting a bit fuzzy, but other than that they are holding up well. The nice thing is that I can throw them in the washing machine when they get too narsty. THe KSO Treks are too new to tell, but the uppers are suede, so I have to look and see if I can wash them the same way (might be synthetic suede). The Vibrams are, far and above, my favorite. That said, I agree with alexc, above. If you are a hardcore, barefoot or moccasin wearing person that is used to having 2mm of soft leather or nothing between the sole of your foot and the ground, then yes, I agree that the Vibrams do restrict toe movement and you could argue that a shoe llike the RA or the Minimus that has a big toe box gives you more freedom to spread out. However, IMO, it's a trade-off. The Vibram sole moves with your foot WAY more than the RA or the Minumus. After wearing my Vibrams, I feel a bit like I have a plank strapped to my foot when I switch to the others. Now, it gets cold in the Northeast during the winter, so I'm not sure exactly what I'll do once the really cold weather hits. I'm thinking about getting a pair of the Vibram Lontras, but my Ra's will also see a bit more wear this winter too I am sure. Also, I would go to REI or some other store and get fitted for Vibrams if you are considering them. You don't need to purchase them there but get someone who knows how to fit them to tell you your size. I ended up a size down from where I thought I would be. Lastly, don't dive right in to 100% minimal shoe-wearing. Especially if you run in them. You need to build your foot up over time to strengthen all of the muscles that you've never significantly challenged in a conventional sneaker. Read a lot about it and take it slow. Below is a link to a recent post from Mark's Daily Apple on the subject. Mark Sisson is a strong advocate of being barefoot all the time, or as much as possible, and he has a lot of good information on the topic kicking around on his site. He is also a big fan of Vibrams. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-barefoot-backlash-are-the-naysayers-right-after-all/

I've heard/read good things about the Polar H7. It bluetooths to your phone, which is what I want. I'm interested in working to improve my Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and there are a few good apps for that but the one I am particularly interested in (Sweetbeat) only works with a few different HRMs. Luckily, the H7 is one of them..

I've had a Fitbit One since April and love it. While researching trackers, I read a few reviews that gave it high marks as being the most accurate tracker that they tested, including the Nike Fuel Band, and the Jawboine Up. I'm not sure if the Up has changed since April, but I also liked that the One would bluetooth to my phone and, at that time, the Up had to be connected by a cord to upload to the phone app. One of the reasons cited for the One being more accurate was that it was clip-on, and sat on the trunk of your body, so it didn't have to deal with any extraneous limb movement, or lack thereof. One scenario cited was that when you are carrying something, or walking with your arm resting on a shoulder bag, or in some other situation where your arm is artificially still even though you are moving, it may cause some erroneous readings for your step count. The One also has a display so that you don't need your phone to see what your stats for the day are. The latest Fitbit tracker is a writsband with a display. Maybe when my One eventually dies I'll switch to that. Oh, and I also ought the Fitbit Aria scale, which also connects to my phone and puts all of my daily stats in one place. All of that said, I know quite a few people who are very happy with the Jawbone Up, so I think that it would be tough to go wrong with either of them.