opinions on vibrams

Dom

Dom

Expert
I know sneakers are frowned upon as they don't really fit "in period", but I was wondering what peoples opinions were of the vibrams 5 fingers. As my ogre, I've worn mine in game and I know other people who do as well. They're far mor comfortable than boots and I think with the right color combinations they work. Just curious of other opinions.
 
If you are asking opinions, I will share mine but it is negative.

They have far too much printing on them, regardless of color, to truly fit genre. Anyone who wears them and gets rated by me would definitely lose mastercraft points and in-genre (unless the rest of the costume was bawler). Unless, you have found some with no printing or you have altered them in some way. I have some NPCs that wear them but I discourage them.
 
I did find these with minimal printing, and that could be "blacked out" with minimal difficulty. While I love the idea, I wouldn't use them as they don't fit with my character's "look". If I were modded them with fabric paint and some foot "hair" I would love them to play a more primative race or one that just likes to go barefoot for whatever reason, because let's be honest, very very few of us want to really go barefoot in the wet/cold.

Yeah, they would require some modding first though.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/produc ... ty=outdoor
 
If you could make them look flesh-colored, you'd still be a barefoot High Orc. Practically uncivilized. Tsk tsk.


;)
 
I usually wear a brown pair of Vibram's KSO Treks as Noot. I wrap the ankle & heel in some long strips of fabric that's been tea stained to look like the whole bottom of my foot is dirty.

http://www.rei.com/product/798243/vibra ... 1b2166becc

I've never had anyone complain about them, marshall or otherwise.

I do agree that you're very limited in what characters they'd look appropriate on.
 
You could easily airbrush these (though I'm not sure how much it's gonna stick) to make them look amazing. You could use some creative staining patterns around the rubber ot make it look liek grime stuck on the bottoms of your feet too. Sure, at face value they aren't super in-character, but a bit of creative flair could easily make them into AWESOME costume pieces.
 
Honestly? Comfort and (in this case, foot) health is far more important to me than whether or not they're in-period.

If they make you happy, wear 'em.
 
I've never worn mine in game because I am prone to utterly destroyed my right ankle when I larp, and they just don't have the support I need for tripping in the woods. If it wasn't for that, I would probably wear mine in game. Though I would probably attempt to get some leather greaves to go with them. By themselves I think they look a bit out of place.

That being said, I have worn my current pair of KSOs during three Tough Mudder courses without issue and I felt awesome afterwards (I know, I kill my ankle larping but I'm fine doing an obstacle course, it makes no sense, but I'm ok with it). So I highly recommend them for running/training. I get really bad shin splints if I run any extended distance wearing sneakers, but with my five fingers I can run indefinitely without my shins seizing up on me.

~Joe
 
As shoes they are excellent. Seems like most people in the NW are sporting them these days, so they must be good.

From a rules standpoint, without modification they are out of genre and they are plenty of comparably priced in-genre shoes/boots out there that are excellent. That's the problem with a system that is at the marshal's discretion, some marshals and some chapters are stricter than others. As I stated before, if I were marshaling the armor, they would lose you master-craft and maybe in-genre. That being said, if you have a medical condition that requires a certain kind of footwear, I would pass them but vibrams don't really fall under that category.

If you do modify them to pull off the barefoot look, I would love to see a pic. :thumbsup:
 
youthculture said:
Honestly? Comfort and (in this case, foot) health is far more important to me than whether or not they're in-period.

If they make you happy, wear 'em.
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Yeah. They're as in period as the combat boots and work boots a lot of us sport for anke protection, I surely wouldn't hold them against anyone.
 
Wraith said:
Yeah. They're as in period as the combat boots and work boots a lot of us sport for anke protection, I surely wouldn't hold them against anyone.
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Leather boots have been around a long time. I think the main objection isn't the shape, but rather the construction materials. If I saw a set of these made with full leather construction, that would be weird, but awesomely "period".

Also, with very minor tweaks, they would work as part of an asian rogue's tabi slippers (Tabi... right? Or am I using the wrong term?)
 
From a rules standpoint, without modification they are out of genre and they are plenty of comparably priced in-genre shoes/boots out there that are excellent. That's the problem with a system that is at the marshal's discretion, some marshals and some chapters are stricter than others. As I stated before, if I were marshaling the armor, they would lose you master-craft and maybe in-genre. That being said, if you have a medical condition that requires a certain kind of footwear, I would pass them but vibrams don't really fall under that category.
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I generally dislike the way that I have seen shoes marshaled in the past because I feel that there is some big time prejudice against alternative types of shoes, this system operates on a fairly large amount of suspension of disbelief and the fact that shoes can ruin 6 points of someones armor just because a marshal doesn't find them high fantasy enough bugs me. Obviously a pair of neon yellow and orange vibrams wouldn't be good but a pair of leather vibrams in my opinion should not hurt someones armor values any more than getting zero points for the location. This type of discretion problem is what has led to me not bothering with armor at all because i found out that my awesome hundred dollar pair of leather shoes (Merrell Tough Glove: awesome ultralight shoes in all leather with no big logos) in general would take my armor down to the point where its not worth having someone else strap me into it. Generally I hate the fact that hiking boots and military boots seem to be generally approved while being pretty obviously out of period while other shoes which may be perfect representations of being barefooted get poopoo'd for not being in period enough.
 
Wearing ankle-supporting boots is a safety consideration, and as such do not qualify against having your costume be "in-period". (Pg 70: Modern footwear (such as hiking boots) and glasses may be used for safety reasons without being penalized.) I don't know that a claim of needing vibrams for safety purposes can be properly made.
 
Well as far safety goes they're actually an attempt to get closer to the RP reality. Barefoot characters in game are obviously just going to have bare feet, but as people with not ogre feet, we need something to protect them. So, instead of going COMPLETELY OOC and wearing boots or whatever, they can try to at least offer the illusion of being barefoot. In my opinion, discounting vibrams because they aren't IC should be the same as wearing boots for safety reasons. They're just trying to get CLOSER to being IC as they can without endangering their actual feet.

Obviously any of these attempts should bring them closer to IC rather than further away. So, bright colors or wearing pure black doesn't really count. The bright yellow or green ones would be fine for ogres or orcs, but a little bit of effort might have to go into making some flesh colored ones. And again, they could probably be airbrushed a bit to be a bit more in period.
 
To the contrary of the barefoot character concept, I'm not sure of the places other chapters are playing, but between the terrain and weather, and the possibility/likely risk for injury of another player stepping on a bare foot, I would pretty much require that players have some type of footwear for OOG safety reasons.

To the main topic, if the vibrams were sufficiently altered to a neutral or costume-coordinated base color so as to not stand out, they are fine. There are a few players in the SoMN chapter that have worn them. I think the only color I've seen them in was black. I would not base any armor decision on the vibrams solely themselves, but as part of the whole costume. If worn to be a "barefoot" Orc, Ogre, Wylderkin, etc. I would not take off armor points. If worn just to be worn as Joe Human without any attempt at alternation or to fit into a costume concept, I would penalize mastercraft and in-genre, the same as wearing Crocs or any other modern shoe.
 
Not by the national race packet, but I wouldn't think twice about seeing an Orc, ogre, barbarian or kin wearing appropriately colored vibrams to be "barefoot."

Other races might have more trouble pulling it off, but if gloves can be a stand in for dark elf skin, rather than painting arms and hands, what's the difference?

And I agree that trying to run around actually barefoot for a weekend would be very difficult, most people don't have the callouses needed for outdoor walking, and in combat would present some bad shoe vs feet moments.
 
Honestly? I don't think vibrams should be encouraged by the game as an entity. They're not going to prevent any injuries, but if they become the "trendy" thing because some players encouraged it for the next level of "look cool by doing this!" then they may very well cause injuries that would otherwise have been prevented by standard footwear.
 
Draven said:
Honestly? I don't think vibrams should be encouraged by the game as an entity. They're not going to prevent any injuries, but if they become the "trendy" thing because some players encouraged it for the next level of "look cool by doing this!" then they may very well cause injuries that would otherwise have been prevented by standard footwear.
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I'm not sure what you mean. They don't have any ankle/arch support, but neither do most 'skate' shoes that are the common casual shoe people wear these days. Heck, most 'peroid' shoes are a leather sack sewn to a flat leather 'sole'. Are you using 'standard footwear' to mean 'tightly laced above-the-ankle boots'?
 
Wraith said:
Draven said:
Honestly? I don't think vibrams should be encouraged by the game as an entity. They're not going to prevent any injuries, but if they become the "trendy" thing because some players encouraged it for the next level of "look cool by doing this!" then they may very well cause injuries that would otherwise have been prevented by standard footwear.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean. They don't have any ankle/arch support, but neither do most 'skate' shoes that are the common casual shoe people wear these days. Heck, most 'peroid' shoes are a leather sack sewn to a flat leather 'sole'. Are you using 'standard footwear' to mean 'tightly laced above-the-ankle boots'?
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True. Unless you were well off, you wore very little in the way of foot protection.
 
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