Five Toes Gloves

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Fletcher

Trad climber

The great state of advaita

Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 9, 2013 - 11:45pm PT

The Adventurey Report: ‘Bare-Handed Climbing’ Booms After Vibram Introduces Five Toes Gloves
BY STEVE CASIMIRO SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Can Vibram catch lightning in a bottle twice? After its worldwide success capitalizing on and helping spark the so-called barefoot running revolution with its Five Fingers “shoes,” the innovative brand is making a major marketing, advertising, and social media push with its newest product initiative: Five Toes gloves.

The concept is similar — well, identical — to Five Fingers, except you wear them on your hands.

“It was one of those eureka moments,” said Vibram’s Justin Leahy. “One of our sales reps was working a project on a hot summer day in the Gunks and no amount of chalk could keep his fingers from slipping off the holds. He pulled his Five Fingers from his pack, slipped them over his hands, and sent ‘er!”

Despite the massive online controversy that broke out in climbing forums about whether this constituted “fair means” and a legitimate first ascent, the rep claimed the route, brought his story back to Vibram, which developed a first prototype (seen in spy photo obtained by AJ), and, after a few months of development, began seeding prototypes to key influencers in the climbing community.

“At first, there was reluctance. You know how these things go,” said Leahy. “But people were suddenly climbing two and three grades higher. And there was that manifesto in Climbing magazine that argued this was really no different than dry tooling…and when Chris Sharma was seen testing a pair, bam!!”

After an initial launch in speciality climbing stores, Vibram will expand the retail distribution into big box retailers and beyond. The company is already targeting other markets, he said, including gamers, slot machine players, and people who have a tendency to drop their Super Big Gulps.

The Adventurey Report is almost certainly not true.

http://www.adventure-journal.com/2013/09/the-adventurey-report-bare-handed-climbing-booms-after-vibram-introduces-five-toes-gloves/

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

Sep 10, 2013 - 12:52am PT

You've got to be kidding....

The funny part? "Bare-handed climbing ...", with gloves.

patrick compton

Trad climber

van

Sep 10, 2013 - 07:58am PT

could be useful on very easy pitches with sharp rock, but useless without rubber on back to jam with... and would need better wrist support to keep glove from slipping.

hooblie

climber

from out where the anecdotes roam

Sep 10, 2013 - 08:36am PT

this will open up the world of massage therapy to the most under treated of clientel groups,
the snowmen and women serving stoicly in front yards all across the higher latitudes

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Sep 10, 2013 - 09:08am PT

Genetics promises multi-limbed creatures like roaches will be around longer than we four-limbs.

But what does an insect know about the coefficient of friction?

For that matter, what do YOU know about it?

I've heard that phrase since Dave Bircheff taught it to me, but didn't bother to tell me what it involved.

Then the UC students at Berkeley started in with "Well, it's a function of the coefficient of friction, that's all climbing is."
[Click to View YouTube Video]

This glove sounds like it's generated by the coefficient of fiction, q.v., as Casimiro suggests.

The Lisa

Trad climber

Da Bronx, NY

Sep 10, 2013 - 09:15am PT

This reads like an Onion article.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Sep 10, 2013 - 10:42am PT

Indeed!

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Sep 10, 2013 - 10:55am PT

Technical detail, Lockyer.

Re-palming, not re-soling.

Finger it out and I'll buy a five-finger and one forum-fitting four-finger model.

Would there be a substantial discount for being one of the Campfire People?

Marketing slogan: The sound of one hand slapping.