After reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall about a year ago, I decided to give minimalist shoes a try. As I was not willing to enter the zone of the uber-ugly (toeshoes), I chose these because, I confess, they were so small and cute. Instead of gradually increasing my mileage, I went out and ran a bunch of miles, which felt fine. This was quite the change from what I'd experienced in the past with new (traditional thick-soled) shoes, which usually made my feet cramp after a few miles. Oblivious as I was when I bought them, I used them primarily on the road, and ran a half-marathon in them a few months later. Although I loved the minimalist feel, I noticed that my feet were sometimes sore after wearing them (but then, I always think of being sore as a good thing, so it didn't bother me). The shoes' two negatives (1) they are not waterproof so if it's raining (which it often is up here in the PNW), you end up running with wet feet and (2) the soles are so thin that if you run on gravel, you really feel it especially along the arch of your foot, which can be kind of painful. After months of road wear, the soles finally started to thin out, and I went back to buy a new pair of shoes. I tried several (traditional and minimalist) and ended walking out of the store with the EXACT SAME SHOES. Entirely illogically, after a year of running on roads, I finally started trail running in these shoes and found that running over medium-sized embedded rocks and tree roots was kind of uncomfortable. In spite of that, I've never looked back. The thin-soled shoes really let you feel the terrain and keep your balance (no pun intended, really). I have since recommended minimalist shoes to several fellow runners, always starting with, "Have you read Born to Run"? Truly, a book led me to these shoes.