Fitness Road/Solid Solution

My wife went was referred to Fitness Road about a month ago and finally went yesterday and purchased a pair of Vibram Fivefinger shoes. She was extremely impressed with the level of service she received. She wore the shoes around most of the day getting used to them and is excited to try them out on a hike this weekend! I’m sure I’ll be in their shortly to get a pair myself!

Like just about everyone else, I found this store while searching for a place to buy my Vibram FiveFingers! I would MUCH rather spend my money here than in any of the corporate, chain stores! Mick (the owner) didn’t just sell the shoe, he knew a lot about them and was very informative! Him and his wife are quite a team! If you’ve read «Born to Run» (which is what made me want my Vibrams in the first place), this is the store to go to! They also carry chia seeds.
One thing: Listen to him when he tells you not to go running in your Vibrams ASAP. He told me to walk around and get used to them, but I was too damn excited. Patience turned out to be a virtue in this case. I figured I would be fine since I was already running around 3 miles a pop (even though he still warned me not to go out and run the same day). Well I went out and ran that same day like a fool. Five days later my calves are still ON FIYA! :)
But back to my point: Don’t spend your money at one of the big name stores where some random doofus sells you a shoe he has no idea about. Instead, come here and get a little education at the same time (and maybe even a deal on the shoes)!

When I was researching where to get my Vibrams a while ago, I saw that a local, non-​big-​box store (unlike REI) carried them in Tempe. So my sister and I quickly headed here. We were very impressed with the customer service.
The owner man was very helpful and he had a good selection of Vibrams in the different styles and sizes. What I appreciated the most was that, since my sister and I were both curious about them and not all to sure we were going to buy them, he let us hang out at his business for at least 2 hours, walking around with the different shoes and seeing how we liked them. He took our measurements and was really helpful in getting our Vibrams sized correctly. The fact that we were allowed to wear them (he told us «no obligation») around his business for however long we needed to decide was impressive. and helped us decide that, YES, we wanted them.
Fast forward a few years later and we still recommend this place — a great local business to support.
I LOVE my Vibrams. granted I’ve worn them for several years now for everything including running, weight lifting, hiking, shopping, around the house, etc, that I need a new pair. You can be sure I’ll check Fitness Road again to pick out my next pair. They introduced me to my first pair and I’d give them my business again.

I have been wanting to buy a pair of five fingers for a year or more, but never did because A) they were expensive and B) I couldn’t find ones that I loved. I finally decided I would buy a pair with some of my christmas/​hanuka money, but I didn’t really want to go to REI because the last time I went there to look at these shoes the sales people were very anti five fingers and did not seem to know much about them. Well, lucky for me, I was looking at vibram’s website today and decided to see who sold these shoes in Arizona other than REI. On the first page of results Fitness Road showed up and I looked at their website. To my surprise, they were selling five fingers for 60 $ while everyone else was selling them for 85. Further, they had a banner up that said they were having a year end clearance and to check facebook for details…40% off original prices! Are you kidding me!!! I went down there right away.
The man who worked there was a bit quirky but he clearly loves these shoes and stands behind the product. The place is like a personal training/​weight loss/​shoe store… interesting. Someone was being trained in the back and it sounded like they were really making her work… so if you’re interested in that, maybe look into this place. They had a HUGE selection of five fingers. I got the exact ones I wanted for about 50 $ (instead of 85) and I was able to support a local business. Furthermore, he gave me referral cards to give to other people who are interested so they get 5 $ off of their first purchase and if I refer 5 people I get a 20 $ gift card. For real. This place rocks so hard! I also found out that this store was the first store to sell five fingers in AZ. Pretty neat. Anyway, I wouldn’t go anywhere else to buy these shoes and if you are interested in them, I highly recommend this place for your funky shoe needs.

«What are you wearing?!?» «Are those gloves for your FEET??» «Are you going to go climb a tree??»
Those are the types of questions you will get if you go to Fitness Road, purchase the most awesome product ever (Five Finger Barefoot Shoes), and wear them out in public. so if you embarrass easy or do not like attention, stick with your boring ol closed toed’s and leave the prehistoric trekking to me.
The gal who helped me was awesome… she told me a ton about the shoes, about the running club they have, about this special stick that helps get the lactic acid out of your calves after running… I loved her.
The store pretty much just sells the shoes. but they also do other fitness/​health related things like massage, nutrition training, and I believe personal training.
I fully plan on getting a ninja suit made so that when I am sporting my five finger shoes, I can hop around, climb things, slice people with Samari swords, and disappear off into the night with one of those magic smoke balls. These shoes are THAT cool.

The world is in the midst of a spiritual awakening. An awareness and movement toward a higher path is afoot. Can you feel it? I realize I sound crazy. But I truly believe this is true with every fiber of my being.
Part of this journey is a back to basics approach to our lives. A reconnection with nature and peaceful living. That said:
This is more of a product review but, from what I can tell, this is their main product for sale so I feel like it’s fair.
Yesterday, I bought some life changers. I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers barefooting shoes.
OMG
They come from a company that has for years made rubber soles for other shoe brands. This is their first complete product and it’s totally amazing.
It’s essentially a glove for your feet. It’s the closest thing you’re going to get to barefoot with protection from heat and sharps.
I got them yesterday and immediately hiked Piestewa Peak. All of my attention-​whoring desires were fulfilled by the 20 people who either stared at me like I was Gollum or who stopped me to ask about where to get them. But more importantly they were awesome to hike with… I was like a full on monkey using my toes like they were meant to be used. I did stub a toe, which probably wouldn’t have hurt as badly with regular shoes, but I stepped on sharp rocks with all my weight with no pain whatsoever.
Do yourself a huge favor and at least go try these on. We were born barefoot and I doubt our genetics anticipated dress shoes or high heels.