You've got to remember: Vibram is in the business of selling soles to shoe manufacturers. Vibram FiveFingers were a little sideline for them, an experiment, that took off beyond their wildest dreams.
Apparently Wolverine (the company that makes Merrell boots and shoes) is one of their bigger customers. The new Merrell Barefoot line of shoes is being comarketed with Vibrams.
My local outdoor store said Vibram and Merrell are coming together next week to show the new lines: FiveFingers and Barefoot, side by side. A complete solution.
You want toes? Vibram Fivefingers. You want barefoot-style shoes without toes? Merrell Barefoot, with a Vibram sole.
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| NB Minimus |
Vibram offered the five finger concept as a sole to all of their existing customers (the shoe manufacturers) and they all turned it down. That freed up Vibram to create it. They won't compete against their shoe manufacturer customers, however, so all the "shoe" versions of Vibram's concept are going to come from traditional shoe makers.
Vibram clearly can't meet the manufacturing requirement for these kinds of shoes. They're trying hard, but you can only ramp up so fast. Wolverine and New Balance already have the capacity, on the other hand. It's pretty brilliant, I think. A nice win-win situation.
What will be interesting to see is how Vibram will respond to this. It's pretty clearly a patent violation, IMHO.
UPDATE: Follow-ups here and here.
Agreed, great business move by Vibram. Soles is their core business. I'm not so happy with the continued move by companies like NB to provide so-called minimalist shoes with heel differentials. In my opinion, the baseline to qualify to be a true minimalist shoe is no heel build-up and a complete zero drop from forefoot to mid-foot to heel. Any heel build-up is akin to running in high heels, with some more elevated than others.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great posts.
HHH
Interesting post, I agree with HHH too, a lot of brands are jumping onto the barefoot band wagon without staying true to it.
ReplyDeleteFYI the inov8 do not violate Vibram's patent as it specifically restricts the sole coming up and over the separate toes not the toe separation itself.
I have tried all other available contenders from evo to feelmax and after barefoot the FiveFingers are the only thing that come close.
keep it real!