Winner! FiveFingers Contest

With more than 1,000 responses to our latest ‘SPOT the Holiday’ contest, which gave away a pair of Vibram FiveFingers shoes, we were somewhat overwhelmed with deciding upon a winner. The contest, which continues this week with FiveFingers giveaway No. 2, asked Gear Junkie readers to answer the question Why do you NEED a pair of FiveFingers shoes this winter? More than 800 of you commented on GearJunkie’s Facebook page and another couple hundred on Twitter. We sifted and broke it down as best we could.

We read pleads, poetry, sob stories, true tragedies, inspirational tales, anecdotes, and quite a few stories about dogs eating the toes off FiveFingers shoes! Quite a few commenters noted needing new VFFs to replace existing, worn-out pairs, like this guy, as example: “I need a new pair of Vibram FiveFingers because my Bikilas have 300 miles on them and I’ve worn a hole in my sole! That was a common theme. Some answers got religious on the barefoot-running movement — “Thou shall not heel strike, forgive my bad posture, my knees & lower back are screaming for VFF, heaven please send me a pair!!” — while others were just plain odd (“I need Vibrams because my Halloween training to be a ninja requires a minimalist approach to kicking ass. . .”).

Our winner, Ann Adair, is a 43-year-old woman from Tampa, Fla., and a thyroidectomy survivor on a mission to eat right, lose weight, race triathlons, and get her fitness and life changed and in forward momentum. Her answer to the “Why do you NEED a pair. . .” question:

“I NEED A PAIR OF VFFS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONLY SHOES THAT HELP MY PLANTAR FASCIITIS. LOST ONE OF MY VFFS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.”

I mean, come on! Plantar fasciitis help, a lost shoe in the ocean, the motivation to change her life (and have these shoes potentially help along the way). . . Ann is an apt person to win this portion of the ‘SPOT the Holiday’ contest. Congrats Ann! Your VFF shoes are on their way.

But dear readers, don’t fret! We’re running version No. 2 of the contest this week. Our ‘SPOT the Holiday’ promotion continues, and this week’s winner will pick from the latest FiveFingers TrekSport or Bikila models. Go to http://gearjunkie.com/spot-holiday-fivefingers-giveaway and follow the instructions to post your answer and try and win again!

MORE BAREFOOT RUNNING ARTICLES ON GEAR JUNKIE:

• Vibram FiveFingers review

• Feature Story on Barefoot Running

• Kigo Minimalist Footwear

• Merrell’s barefoot-type shoe

• SHOP: Vibram FiveFingers Running Shoes