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Are Vibram's Professional Footwear for a Massage Therapist

My school has just decided that the Vibram Five-Finger shoes are unprofessional shoes for a massage therapist and I want to know what other students, teachers, and practicing massage therapist's think

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Permalink Reply by elizabeth mount on September 28, 2011 at 8:17am

merrel now makes shoes that are vibruim soles but are closed toes.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Gillispie on October 31, 2011 at 9:18am

You might want to look into Sockwa's as an alternative. They have the Vibram sole but aren't 5 fingered. I've been wearing mine non-stop for over 2 weeks now and love them! I purchased the G2s in black and they don't attract attention. I work for myself though, so can set my own rules ;)

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on November 3, 2011 at 9:53pm

Lisa & Ricky, those do look interesting. Perhaps I could get away with those the once or twice a month I go somewhere I must wear shoes & socks instead of my sandals.

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Permalink Reply by Allison Courville on November 4, 2011 at 7:44am

Thanks Lisa - those do look great and like Ricky said, less money than VFF's!

I like them!

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Gillispie on November 4, 2011 at 7:54am

Glad to be of help!

Just returned from my morning walk in them. It's a little chilly this morning & I can see that walking outdoors during winter (I'm in Ohio) might be a little cold for the feet. I can fit my wool socks under them though, so hopefully that will help until it snows & I resort to boots ;)

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Permalink Reply by Rajam K Roose on November 6, 2011 at 3:38am

So, whatever your school tells you to wear for class you should go by. Vibram soles have been around since around 1935, which you can check out here- http://www.vibram.us/products/default.asp

Personally, I would only recommend Vibrams in private practice if you already are barefoot or used to being barefoot, otherwise you can be prone to injury if you wear them for too long without any experience being barefoot. If you want to give them a try with no prior experience, I recommend just an hour or so daily and slowly work yourself up to it.

That being said, if you're a "Barefoot Maven", here's the type I wore for two years -- http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Sprint-Women...

The Sprint is light and those were given as a gift before I realized there were other choices. Those lasted about two years and began to fall apart. I just recently purchased these- http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-KSO-Trek-Wom... and am extremely happy with them thus far.

Oh yeah, and all the Vibram shoes I chose were black, although the links show different colors.

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Permalink Reply by Frank J on November 7, 2011 at 10:16pm

as long as you dont have ronald mcdonald shoes you are good on the professional thing. I am not a barefoot person myself but I do believe some of us are genetically predisposed to be comfortable do activities barefoot and I am not one of them. I prefer tennis shoes myself. Me and the barefoot thing are friends at all.

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Permalink Reply by robert j mulcahy on November 20, 2011 at 6:39am

Minimalist footwear is beneficial.The ABMP group on Linkedin has posts on this started by Jesse Retherford.

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Permalink Reply by Tiara L Catey on November 21, 2011 at 5:10pm

I have the five toes and wore them quite a bit initially. I like the traction of the soles. Ultimately, I started to feel a little weird in them, along the lines of being unprofessional, but I mostly just felt goofy. They can get really stinky. I started handwashing them, putting them in the freezer to kill of the bacteria, using cornstarch. They are a lot of work.

I do have my own practice and only on rare occasion will I massage in my bare feet. I enjoy giving massage in bare feet. I believe it is beneficial in terms of being grounded. However, I have thought, in the back of my mind, that it looks a bit unprofessional. And often, although not always, the therapist that does massage bare footed will have stinky feet or a stinky rug.