Customer Reviews Merrell Barefoot Vapor Glove

I am giving this a positive review even though I sent mine back. I loved the fit, the lightness and how thin the sole is. My problem was that a hole wore in the side of the mesh on the shoe. No idea how or why, but they are just not as durable as some of the other Merrell barefoot shoes. Trail Gloves are indestructible. If you are particularly tough on your shoes, these may not be the best for you. If you just want something that disappears on your feet, these are terrific. If they were a bit more durable on the sides, I would have got another pair, but I am going to have to go back to my trail-gloves for every day and seek a super-minimal shoe elsewhere, even if I have to spend more money. I simply need tougher shoes than these.

The Merrell Barefoot Vapor Gloves are the lightest, thinnest shoes I have ever found. I just weighed my size 8 shoe and it weighs in at 4.85 oz and has a 5.5mm inner and outer sole total thickness, I put a Havaianas flip flop on the scale and it weighed 6.8oz and is 10.5mm thick. The Vapor Glove sole is so flexible you can roll the shoe up in a ball plus the tread is very good on wet surfaces. The mesh is almost sheer it is so thin. Very airy. Also notice the way the lacing is handled, a very wide, squared open tongue area doesn't double up a lot of layers on the top of your foot I have two other styles of Merrell Barefoot shoes, Trail Glove and Sonic Glove. They feel clunky after wearing the Vapor Glove. I also wear 8.5 in the other styles but 8 in the Vapor Glove, these seem slightly longer. These give the wearer as much of a naked foot experience as one could get while protecting the foot itself. You can feel every rock, groove and bit of terrain texture wearing them. Wearing socks would ruin that effect so get these only if you go sockless. Every color Merrell makes in this line I will get. Please note I have an obsessive compulsive problem; I can never wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row - seldom twice in one week, hence my shoes last forever but I have over 50 pairs of sneakers, flip flops, loafers, cowboy boots and others to accommodate my obsession.

Shoe companies take note: this is how a shoe should feel! Nice wide toe box and secure around the mid foot and heel. The outsole has very good traction. I bought these shoes for parkour and weightlifting. The shoe works very well for these purposes. The only complaint I have is that the shoes screech when performing dynamic changes in direction or in situations when's great deal of friction is necessary. However, with that said, the shoes DO provide the friction to move sure-footedly up and down wall as well as over wet and dry surfaces. The mesh upper allows you to feel a breeze through it while walking and running, but seems to stand up well to the multidirectional stresses of parkour. Merrell, the respect for the anatomical shape of the foot and the importance such shape plays in foot health and the prevention of long term lower extremity maladies has earned my continued patronage. Zappos, as always, you set a standard of customer service in a league all is own. Keep up the good work.

An excellent minimalist shoe. Much thinner and less stiff than other models in Merrell's Minimus series. If the high arches of other Minimus shoes bother you but your feet aren't too wide, this is a good option to consider.

These are true barefoot style shoes. They have no cushion at all. The grip is phenomenal and the they have held up to the abuse of trail running through the German and Swiss Alps. I haven't tracked the mileage on them over the years but they still look new and I have put them through their paces. I still have people ask me where they can get these shoes, and of course, I point them towards Zappos.

Having had the good luck to discover the original Vapor Glove shoe (which preceded the new #2 version), I hope never to have to return to using traditional footwear. After learning my lesson about discovering products that are just right, I fully expected them soon to be no longer available, at least not in plain (unobtrusive) black. So I scoured the internet for all I could find. (It does indeed appear the black ones are now gone forever.) I now feel fortunate to own four pairs in black, and one pair in the least flashy style I could find. (For some reason Merrell thinks people want to show of their footwear with fluorescent styles. I don't get it. But I am an old guy.) I do not run in these shoes, but wear them for everything else. I especially enjoy roughly textured asphalt for the sensory treat it offers the soles of my feet. Almost like wearing slippers, the Vapor Gloves thin soles encourage a more mindful footfall, thus less shock to the structure above, not to mention greater pleasure in the routine miracle of walking. Zappos is a great company. I hope they would have enough influence to convince Merrell to consider producing shoes for customers who have no need to show off their feet! At size 14, mine are big enough to notice without adding blinding colors. I normally wear 14, but my Vapor Gloves fit well in size 13. I do add the green Spenco inserts to each pair for a slight bit of cushioning. It will be interesting to see how long my five pairs last me. After that, I do not know what I will do.

Absolutely love it. Plenty of room in the toebox despite not being specifically designated as "wide." I needed to size down 1/2-size from my "normal" size. This shoe is the thinnest I've found. As thin as the VFF SeeYa.

My favorite minimal shoe. Light and flexible. Durable. Fairly wide toe box. Rubber sole comes right over the toe. Combined, these allow for the most mobility and freedom of movement of my toes compared to any other minimal shoe I have tried.

Picked these up after reading a few reviews online on barefoot walking /running. Despite having to exchange for a smaller size I've been extremely happy with the fit, quality, and performance of the shoe. As close to barefoot as you're going to get!

Tried these as an alternative to Vibrams (which I use and like) in lieu of getting a replacement pair. I haven't run in them -- just use them as general walking-around shoes. The fit's good, price is good, look is okay, and like Vibrams they're ultra-lightweight and packable.

My husband and I love these shoes. We are each on our third pair. I am a personal trainer and recommend these to my clients. They are great for calf strength and balance.

I remember how my feet felt when I first got my Trail Gloves, another show by Merrell which is excellent. This shoe is another step in the direction of "no shoes" and it took another breaking in process for my feet to get used to this. These shoes are crazy light and more like socks than shoes which is awesome. If you're looking to get as close to barefoot as possible without walkin on hot concrete this is a good choice. The toe part of the shoe is very wide and long compared to the same size in Trail Gloves so I had to exchange for a smaller size. Even when the shoe is too large though, I wore it for a week since they are so light and flexible.

Watch for sizing as I felt these ran large. Great shoes for a bare foot feel. I run in them (short distances currently) and do WODs in them without issue. I feel my feet getting stronger from having a non-supportive shoe. I d highly recommend these shoes. Again just be aware of the size and measure your foot if you are unsure.

Love these. Bought them for travel and working out in hotel gym. Lightweight, and roll up to take up no space. I'm a size 15 so this is a big deal for me.

Love the flexibility. Very light weight. Good product quality. Not as wide toe box vs Vivobarefoot. Great shoe. Styling could be better.

I love these shoes. I travel a lot and have size 15 feet; sneakers take up a LOT of room in my bag. I bought these so I could work out on the road and still have room in my suitcase. They take up almost no room and could even roll up if I wanted them to. I love these shoes. They are perfect for me in the gym, comfortable as hell, and I sometimes find myself wearing them out. They are fine on cardio machines in the gym, including the treadmill, but for me, not enough support or cushioning for running outside - but I'm not a huge fan of barefoot/minimalist running.

These shoes are extremely comfortable. Also it helps me feel the road. I use them when biking, walking or doing exercise. Please note these shoes run large. I wear them with socks and I had to get half size smaller than my regular size and still have some room to spare. If you wear without socks, I would get at least 1 size smaller. All in all a great pair of shoes and seem to be built well as well.

I cannot peel these shoes off of my husband's feet. He loves them. He never loves the shoes I buy him, and he really loves these. The styling is not so "in your face" that someone would notice if he accidentally-on-purpose forgets to pack other shoes for a trip. He's an 11D and has trouble finding comfortable shoes.

This is the shoe I've been waiting for: a visually unobtrusive (the black ones, that is), truly minimalist shoe. Fantastic ground feel. Perfect for tai chi, not to mention everyday perambulations. (The Vapors are even lighter than Chinese kung fu slippers!) If you have an unnecessarily heavy footfall, these very thin-soled shoes will inform you of that pretty quick. Hoping to keep my feet and awareness nimble well into old age, I consider these shoes a gift to my lower extremities, in that they enable "26 bones, 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons, and ligaments" to move the way they were meant to. What a concept. With the Vapors, one size smaller than usual works for me (13/47 vs. 14/48).

These are perfect barefoot shoes except for the sticky tag on the tongue inside - this makes me wear socks with them. They are so comfortable otherwise. I have not been running in them but use them for my weight workouts and for casual wear. Plenty of room for my narrow feet to spread out. Merrell is my go to brand for barefoot shoes.

I always hated the way the shoes with the individual toes looked and felt. This shoe is very comfortable and looks amazing. I don't wear shoes in my house but when I wear these I often forget to take then off as they feel natural. They are sporty and look great walking around the city or just walking my dogs in the neighborhood.

One of if not the best minimal shoes available in the past few years. Merrell did (almost) everything right on this one, and if you look around you'll see that people agree. I found them to be a bit narrow at first. The problem, I think, has a less to do with the actual shoe width and more to do with lacing. Because they have so little structure, it's hard, if not impossible, to lace them loosely. I found that even if I tried hard, I still ended up with them too tight. The fix is easy, and has a few added benefits. Ditch the laces and put on Lock Laces. This will a) make them fit looser but still keep them on, b) essentially make them a slip on shoe which is great for switching it up with your barefooting (which you are doing, right?) because you can bring them along and throw them on when you need a little more protection, and not have to untie/tie. It's a cheap option, and easily reversible if you don't like them.

I loved these shoes--the chic design, the flexible construction, and the grippy Vibram soles (though I know these sometimes lose their grip somewhat). I would have kept them but the shoes are way too narrow for my wide feet. I had to go with my Vivobarefoots, which are much more spacious in the toe box. Otherwise, they felt amazing!

My husband loves these, I convinced him to buy them since I have the ladies' version. Very comfortable, took a couple of runs to get used to the Vibram drop-soles, and very worth it. He couldn't be happier with them.

I am an admitted minimalist shoe junkie. I have arsenal of Vibram Five Fingers, Vivo Barefoot, and Merrell Barefoot, and New Balance Minimus shoes. These are true minimalist shoes, no support whatsoever, and the ground feel is phenomenal. For those familiar with the Road Glove, the Vapor Glove is the opposite. I find the Vapor Glove to be the one shoe I can wad up, throw in my daypack, to sneak in a workout, day hike, quick run, pickup game of Basket Ball, or bum around town. I still would prefer the Trail Glove for rocky terrain, but so far the Vapor Glove seems to be pretty durable, and have not had the wear or sole separation problems other reviewers have reported. They are easy to care for: Just throw 'em in the wash, blazing fast air dry. Flexing the soles generally releases most of accumulated dirt or debris.