Making your Vibram 5 Fingers last
I noticed that after ~1000km, my V-trails 's soles tend to develop holes around the metatarsal heads area.
Wether it's due to a slight over-suppination on my part or thiner material in this particular spot, all ten pairs I owned had this particular outcome.
These have around 1200km in them ;
Clocking roughly 2500km/year, this means I wear out two pairs a year. That's a lot of money at ~150€ / pair, and more importantly, a lot of waste in the long run (pun intended). It recently occured to me (about time...) that I could do something to further increase the usability of my gear.
Custom, tailor-made, pure synthetic rubber insoles
Using a salvaged wheelbarrow innertube, I traced the shape of my feet on the rubber and cut insoles, that I was able to fit in the shoes quite easily.
I was worried the insole would fold in the shoe while running, but this did not occur during my last runs so I guess this is viable.
I expect this solution to increase usability by a few hundred kilometers. And it did