Adidas Officially Joins The “Toe Shoe” Barefoot Movement

After Fila launched its own version of “toe shoe” called the Skele-toes a while back I knew it was a matter of time until the big names came running…pun intended.

All of the major brand players have launched minimalist lines over the past couple years. Nike has the Free, New Balance has the Minimus, and Merrell came out with the Glove line. Those all have had one thing in common; they look like traditional shoes and don’t incorporate individual pockets for toes. Well it appears Adidas is making the leap this November with the launch of the Adidas adiPURE toe shoe.

I have to say the thing looks interesting enough for me to bite and pick them up at the anticipated $90 price tag they will carry. The lack of the strap and overall solid construction appearance will be interesting to test out. I’m unsure of how thick the sole will be but appears to be a bit beefier than the Vibram FiveFingers which is something I’ll hold off on passing judgement on until I test them and can see if it impedes the whole point of being near-barefoot.

A tough road ahead? Will this thing actually hit the shelves in November may be the biggest question left. Vibram has a much publicized lawsuit pending against Fila for the Skele-toes claiming patent infringement. I’m assuming the patent they are most rigorously defending is #20100299962 for the toe segmentation piece. I also think that Fila’s main argument will be their shoe clearly has a 4 toe design and does not directly copy the 5 toe separation that Vibram has created with the FiveFingers. If that is their argument I’ll be curious as to how Adidas plans to defend itself against the almost certain suit coming their way from Vibram…

In the end, I’m not sure how to feel about the whole patent issue. I mean, it’s a shoe. What if Nike laid claim to the modern day running shoe and they were the only one that could make a running shoe…? Who knows what could happen in a world where we’ve allowed companies to patent food crops…