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In a perfect world, I’d run naked. That not being possible, I wear only what I think is necessary. Over the years, I’ve come down to a pretty minimal list – ’cause that’s the kind of guy I am.

Here’s what it takes:

Running kilt

Except for running barefoot, my running kilt, from Scott Schneider of runningkilts.com, is the most comfortable way of moving I’ve found. (See my inital review of the kilt here.) Once I got over being self-conscious about being seen in public wearing a skirt, I never looked back. Unless it’s cold enough for tights, I now wear my running kilt on all my runs. I can’t understand why more men don’t wear these.

Garmin 210

For years I ran gadgetless. No iPod, for sure, because I don’t listen to music. But not even a watch. Then I bought a Garmin, and became a data junkie. I still make sure that I run Garmin-free on a regular basis, but the numbers have been good to me.

Soft Star Moc3s

It’s a hard thing for a hardcore barefoot runner to say, but I love my Soft Star Moc3s. Actually, it’s not really that hard a confession to make – because these are, without any doubt, the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn. With them, I can run farther, on more different surfaces, and in more varied weather conditions than I can barefoot, and without losing any of the barefoot form that I love so much. They’ve even enabled me to run trails, which I’ve longed to do for some time. I’m a convert (though I still run barefoot whenever I can).

Buff

I started wearing Buffs in my ultra-distance cycling days, under my helmet. I re-discovered them when I began running. A Buff is simplicity itself – a tube of microfibrous fabric that, with different arrangements, can be worn as a scarf, bandanna, headband, beanie, face mask, tube top, helmet liner, wristband, cap, pirate, Sahara style, and other variations. They’re made on a specially-developed tubular loom, so the finished garment is seamless. And they come in about a bjillion colours and patterns.

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It goes without saying that above gear list is for warm weather. And I should add that I regularly trim the list down to the barest essential, i.e., just my running kilt.

In the winter? Well, in the winter, I run on my treadmill. Naked.

My Soft Star Original RunAmocs arrived in yesterday’s mail. I’ve been looking forward to this!

I ordered them because I was really impressed with my Soft Star Moc3s, and wanted something similar to wear as an everyday shoe. (In some situations, the cheap flip-flops I usually wear just don’t cut it.) The Original RunAmocs, though they were developed and designed as running gear, look very much like “regular” shoes, but adhere to the same design philosophy and quality as the Moc3s.

Specifically, the RunAmocs offer zero drop (a no-brainer, and an absolute for anything I wear on my feet), a 2mm Vibram sole, a solid (i.e., non-perforated) leather upper, and a nice wide toe box. Unlike the Moc3s, which fit like elasticized-sized slippers, the Original RunAmocs feature an integrated lace/elastic ankle closure. The leather uppers are formaldehyde-free, which fits into Soft Star’s overall ethos of using natural, harm-free products.

I really like the way these shoes look. More importantly, I like the way they feel. They’re not quite the “ghost shoe” that the Moc3s are (read my review of the Moc3s to see what I mean), but they’re pretty darn good. I’ve already worn them around the house, to do some yard work, and to walk the dogs. Of course, I’m going to try them out on a couple of runs, too. Another win from Soft Star!

I’ve recently started running on the track at the local Y. I’d wanted to for some time, but the Y folks wouldn’t let me do so barefoot. The solution? My Soft Star Moc3s, of course! The Moc3s are absolutely perfect on the painted concrete indoor track.

I’ve never run on a track before, and I’m surprised that I like it as much as I do. Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised, though. After all, I’m one of the rare runners who likes running on a treadmill. The track is just a different kind of focus, that’s all. Round and round on a short course (the track is only 200 meters in length) isn’t as bad as you might think. I can get to, and hold, a very decent pace, and can “zone in” to a nice focus as well. With such a short track length, though, getting the distances I want requires quite a few laps. And that means I’ve got to count.

So far, I’ve gotten by using fingers and knuckles to count the laps. But I want to do longer distances, and I know that’s not going to work for long. So… solution #2.

The Sportcount Lap Counter is a nifty little device that one wears like a ring, and that offers a simple, one-button use to keep count. A bonus is that it’s waterproof, which means I can use it in the pool as well. That’s a good thing, as my training for the Vulture Bait 50K Trail Ultra, which begins on July 1, involves twice-weekly swim sessions.

The wee beastie tracks up to 9,999, so I think it’ll keep me in laps for a while.

I’d like to introduce you to a brilliant piece of technology – the Soft Star RunAmoc Moc3s. Like all really good technology, they’re very simple in design and very effective in practice. Two thumbs up, five gold stars, and stuff like that. The Moc3s are winners!

I’ve had my Moc3s for a couple of weeks now, and have used them for everything from everyday wear to road and trail runs. I’ve even tried them with socks, an unusual piece of kit for me. They’ve performed well, felt good, and held up well. I must say that I’m impressed.

The idea behind this review, as I said in my previous teaser post, is to look at the fit, comfort, and feel of the Moc3s, and assess them accordingly.

The Shoe

For all that the Moc3s look like slippers, and fit with a somewhat loose feel, they stay on – all the time, whether walking, running, or climbing and descending hills. At the same time, they don’t bind at all, anywhere on the foot. The elastic bits on the each side of the shoe are just tight enough to allow for a very comfortable fit. The front and back of the “mouth” of the shoe keeps it from slipping off. As for seams, well, they’re unnoticeable, even without socks. There are only two seams inside the shoe, one along the length of the inside of the upper (along the top of the foot) and another, short one at the back and bottom of the heel.

The Moc3s are exceptionally flexible, and offer remarkable groundfeel. Neither my VFF KSOs nor my Xero Shoes huaraches come even remotely close. To find out exactly why, well, I ran on as many surfaces as I could find, and paid a lot of attention (even more than usual) to my form, my posture, and how close the ground actually felt. The results were literally amazing. Not quite barefoot, to be sure, but very, very close.

To find out why, I asked the folks at Soft Star to tell me more about the composition of the Moc3 sole.

Turns out that sole is really a composite. There’s the 2mm thick Vibram rubber, of course. Behind that, though, is a 0.7mm thick layer of abrasive-resistant and scuff-proof Toughtek, to which the Vibram sole is glued. The side of the material facing the outside of the shoe is coated in a very thin textured specialized neoprene rubber. The other side is a100% polyester stretchable knit fabric. Next is a 1mm thick natural suede innersole. Total thickness of the three-layered footbed is ~3.7mm.

Now comes the real magic!

The cutout shape of the 2mm Vibram sole is sorta kinda like the imprint the sole of your wet foot would leave. It’s designed to give the foot as much natural movement as possible. The specific cuts and openings in the sole are in places that would allow the feet and toes to bend the most, so that the foot can roll naturally through landing and liftoff. As Mike Friton, the Moc3s designer, has said, “Your foot doesn’t mold to the shoe, the shoe molds to your foot.” That makes me a very happy runner. The reason I run barefoot is that I want to feel the ground. The Moc3 offers almost the same feeling.

The Moc3 uppers consists of a layer Soft Star’s LITE perforated leather, for protection and breathability. My Moc3s are black, as you can see in the photos, but they’re also available in blue, red, white, brown, and fuschia. Black and blue are stock colours. The latter four colours are custom, and come at a slightly higher cost. Behind the leather is a Breathe-O-Prene liner, which provides a moisture-wicking and odor-resistant interior.

The overall result is something very light (5 oz or 141 gms – I know, because I weighed them myself) and almost unbelievably flexible.

Wiping the Moc3s with a wet cloth got them mostly clean, even after a couple of muddy trail runs. I wouldn’t put them in a washing machine, but you could probably hand-wash them and let them air dry.

I’ve worn mine every day for the past two weeks, and – quite remarkably – they still smell like new leather. I know that’s because of the tanned, perforated leather and the Breathe-O-Prene stuff, but it still seems like magic.

Anyway, I’m happy to live with the result.

Testing

Everyday Wear

As mentioned above, I’ve worn the Moc3s every day since I got them, barring a couple of days when it’s rained heavily.

That means almost all the time, all day long. I’ve worn them at work, and I’ve worn them when I’ve done errands. I’ve worn them inside the house, and I’ve worn them outdoors. I’m almost always barefoot at home, but I’ve found myself forgetting to take them off once I got home from the office, from grocery shopping, from a visit to the local Y. That’s how comfortable they are.

And they still smell new.

Road and Track Running

Running is what I wanted these shoes for, and running is what they’re designed to do. To make a long story short, the Moc3s did the job, and they did it brilliantly. I took them out on a number of my usual routes, which means suburban streets and sidewalks. Some of those surfaces are older than others, so my routes give me a lot of surface variety – fairly new (and smooth) asphalt, some chipseal, some old, gnarly sidewalks, some sidewalks with twigs, small stones, and even a little rock salt left over from the winter.

How did that go?

Extremely well, thanks! Lots and lots of groundfeel, all the natural foot movement I could want, and just a little bit of protection. 2mm of Vibram sole isn’t much, so I still found myself picking through the debris when I had to – but that’s partly just barefoot habit. (As I found out when got to the trails, I needn’t have worried.)

I also took the Moc3s to the indoor track at my local Y. That was a real treat. I’ve wanted to get on this track for a while. It’s short (200m), and it’s painted concrete rather than Tartan, but it’s a nice track, with cool little banks on the turns, and nice views of the outdoors at each corner. But the folks at the Y, in all their dubious wisdom, won’t let me run barefoot on it. “Hygiene concerns,” they say. “Safety concerns,” they say. So it didn’t take me long after getting my Moc3s to spend a couple of mornings doing track time. And it worked brilliantly. As I’d found before with my huaraches, I got some real footslap sounds with the Moc3s when my form was off. But that’s a good thing, because it means I could use sound to modify and improve my form. Having done that, I found I was moving very nicely around the small loop. In fact, on one of my Moc3 track runs, I found myself doing a tempo pace that was unusually quick. Checked the lap count, checked the watch, calculated again, and decided that I’d run more quickly and smoothly than I normally do. Check another one up to the Moc3s!

Trail Running

Now, this was new to me. I’m a pavement guy, and always have been. Until I got the Moc3s, I’d never run a trail at all (though I’ve done lots of hiking and trekking, here in southern Ontario, in the Canadian Rockies, and in the Himalayas). But I’ve had a burn to run trails for a few years now. So I took me and the Moc3s to a local conservation area trail for a couple of runs, and I got trail. Gravel, hardpacked dirt, big stones, little stones, puddles, and, on one run, lots and lots of mud. I ran flats, I ran climbs, I ran descents, I even ran some gnarly technical bits. And it was splendid.

I got wet and muddy, the Moc3s got wet and muddy, and I finally got a glimpse of what my trail-running buddies having been raving about for years. Once home, I wiped the Moc3s off with a damp cloth and set them out to air dry. A couple of hours later, they were completely dry. Not only that, they held their shape. And they still didn’t smell!

In these past two weeks, I’ve kept up my barefoot runs as well as testing the Moc3s. That’s partly because my feet need to feel the ground, and partly because I’m training for a half marathon that I’m going to run barefoot on May 5. But I’m keen to get back to the trails. So keen, in fact, that I’ve registered for my first trail ultra, the Vulture Bait 50K, which takes place on October 19. I’ve also scouted out some longer and more challenging trails I want to get to, and which I’ll try as the summer progresses. I wouldn’t have done any of that were it not for the Moc3s. That’s a big move forward in my journey as a runner.

What Next?

What does the future hold for me and my Moc3s? As indicated above, more roads, more trails, and my very first trail ultra. (For everyday wear, I’ve just ordered a pair of Soft Star Original RunAmocs for that.) I can’t think of any better ways of saying “I like the Soft Star Moc3s. I like them a lot!”

The Moc3s cost US$94.00, with optional colours, as I mentioned, coming at a slight premium. That’s good value, in my opinion. I’ve got a pair of beautifully designed, hand-made running shoes that work on the roads and the trails, and that also double as excellent every day footwear. Doesn’t get any better than that.

I’ll follow up with another review of the Moc3s, which will look at how they’ve done in the long run. (Yes, I know. The pun was intentional.) Stay tuned!
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The good folks at Soft Star Shoes have sent me a pair of their Moc3s to review. I’ve just received the package, and am going to put them through their paces.

I’ve got to say that the first thing that impressed me was the packaging of the Moc3s. No plastic at all, just some paper around the shoes, inside a plain cardboard box. Seems that Soft Star is serious about their “light footprint”!

I don’t often review footgear. That’s because I very hardly ever run in anything but my bare feet. I’ve worn VFF KSOs (but not for quite a while), and Xero Shoes sandals (but only a couple of times a year). For me, nothing – but nothing – works as well as skin to ground.

But I’ve been looking with interest at SoftStar’s RunAmoc models for some time. That’s because these people seem to be creating footwear the right way ’round. Instead of “minimizing” (in other words, trimming down) the traditional cushioned, supportive running shoe so they can flog the result to the masses, SoftStar has chosen to build from the ground up, with very minimal soles and footbeds and light, soft uppers that simply drape around the foot. Obviously, that isn’t going to work for everyone. But it makes sense to me, so I’m going to give the Moc3s a try.

Here’s the plan…

I’m going to 1/ wear the Moc3s as daily footwear, at the office, for grocery shopping, etc.; 2/ see what they’re like on my treadmill; 3/ run on the indoor concrete track at my local Y with them; and 4/ take them on my usual training road routes, maybe even some trails. I’m going to look at fit, comfort, feel, and durability. I’ll take some photos, do some background research, and post the results in two reviews, one short-term and one with a longer view. (And I promise never to use the dreadful term “barefoot shoes” when I’m talking about the Moc3s.)

To whet your appetite for what’s coming up, have a look at this short video of Mike Friton, the designer of the Moc3, explaining the ideas behind the shoe’s design.

Moc on!