Well hello again. Before reading any further – I do apologise for quality of videos – my first attempt and I promise to do better. Will update if I can get my son to visit and help me 🙂 Also first time uploading videos onto the blog..take it as a double treat – reading about my barefoot adventures and laughing at my technology challenges!
As promised, I had ordered some Inov8’s Evoskins, which as they were made in Hong Kong, distributed from UK, and posted to little old me in Australia, well it took a few weeks. But arrive they did.
Inov8 Evoskin- silicone product, reviews state is really sucks onto your skin, which is what I am interested in trying
Invo8 Evoskin: So first off my initial thoughts “Oh? They look so weird..”. Now I wear a UK 4 or 5 or European 37, dependent on style of shoe as my foot is small but wide. In the reviews people did mention they were tight, stuck to you like skin, and generally for any sporting shoe one does want a bit of movement. The size Inov8 I ordered was the Uk4-5 (small). The box arrived, and they look as advertised. Surprisingly this shoe, the foot sole looks remarkably like ours – no fancy grips etc, just skin prints.
The sole of the Inov8 Evoskin . I like how it very closely mimics the actual sole pattern of the barefoot human. (me) The silicone should represent the elasticity of the skin.
Taken with my new Iphone 6 – much better photos than the one on the iphone 4.. see the skin pattern?
Once arrived I thought naturally I desperately need to give them a go. To give a description of what they felt like while wearing them – have a look at this you tube clip !https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZaC6D7GUto
You will be pleased to know that now I am getting technology savvy I can add some more interesting bits to the blog. This is a video of me trying them on and walking around. To describe how it feels.
Well firstly getting them on was interesting and as reviewed on Google, definitely a technique that you will get with practice.
- My toes struggle to reach the Inov8 toes. Then I realised I had two of mine in one of theirs.
- The next challenge when I got all the little piggies correctly aligned was that my baby toe did not make it to the Inov8 baby toe. Well looking at the shoe the toes are rather large.
- I then found the shoe still rather wide, and too much space in my heel, but the cross over straps held well.
- Now try and walk in them..I did this on the kitchen tiles. Amazed as the foot sole was ‘invisible’ in connection with the floor, aside from the squeak of course, but I could feel every grout join in the tiles. Walking down the stairs I could feel each tread edge. Good – that is what we barefoot people want right? Except my brain was going into meltdown – the nerve endings compute there is something attached to the foot. The visual message says you have a bright blue thing on your foot, but the SENSORY nerves in my foot sole say “what – I cannot feel anything?” The result was my feet actually felt OVERSENSITIVE to the ground surface with the conflicting messages. Odd sensation, but this is the first few steps.
- I did NOT try and run in them. Instead I spent half an hour outside gardening with them. After a few minutes the sole felt quite good, and they are comfy. But a cool balmy evening around the garden and in half an hour did I have sweaty feet. Plus my visual senses still went into a state of shock every time they saw this bright blue silicone stuck on my peripherals.
- WHY did I NOT RUN in them? Err.. have not yet worked up the courage to go out in daylight hours in these things..will try them under the cover of dark first. Sorry, but vanity in this case is a must.. Secondly I am not actually sure they will hold up on the tar road just yet and I want to own them for a couple more days before they shred..
Next step was removing them. This was a two handed affair but I was doing a video so you see the one handed attempt. First video – how NOT to remove Inov8 Evoskins.
This video shows the correct way to remove the Invo8 Evoskin.
Please note in both video’s how sweaty & red my feet went and I did not even take them for a run! So far my verdict is they take far to long to put on, far to long to take off, and at this point I think my first run will wreck them quicker than it takes to put them on and off. I will try them in the dark on the grass or the beach and report back!
At this point the jury is still out …
a) Do not trust them yet for a run
b) Comfy around the house if I could slip them on easily
c) Would be fun with the kayaks.
d) My sense of style is seriously compromised, and until I am an elite athlete where I can set fashion trends, I have to keep with every tick box in my favour to look good on the road
e) As for the separated toe issue- well my toes did not really get in there, so still no comment.
realbarefoot 
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