Legal Footwork, Hidden History, Tasty Science, and Some Really Good Ideas

It never ceases to amaze (and impress… and confuse) me what people get passionate about.

The big story in the feed today was about the Vibram Five Finger toe shoes class action settlement. Vibram is paying out a pretty penny to a lot of people due to some unsubstantiated claims they made in their advertisements for their “shoeless shoes”… and seem to have done so in order to help quell some noise being made about their footware doing exactly the opposite of what they were saying it can do.

Needless to say, there are a lot of articles out there that lead with the sensation, snarky headlines. (Because, let’s face it the shoes look odd and the people who wear them most are not the most mainstream most of the time… plus, no better way to get traffic than to get people pissed at you, right?) But, almost amazingly, most of the discussion I’ve seen in the FB comments where those articles are shared is both impassioned and calm. A rare combination if there ever was one on the Internet.

There are a lot of examples on both sides–a lot of them personal anecdotes–that people feel strongly about. For every person who had a bad experience, there’s one that had a great experience. And they’re actually discussing their differences instead of just outright shouting one another down.

The bottom line seems to be that, no matter what, nothing is going to work for everyone. But, Vibrum is changing its course a little and doing what it can to keep those bad stories from coming out and ruining it for those who do use and enjoy their product. They’re handling it sensibly (from everything I’ve seen, at least) and the public seems to be responding in kind (some online gossip/clickbait articles aside).

That’s good to see.