These are my initial impressions of the Vivo Gobi which I bought as an everyday street shoe and have used a couple days. As they break in I will update this review.
Ground Feel: 1 out of 5.
Fails the wet pavement test - when I walk on wet pavement, it doesn't feel wet, which to me is the gold standard of ground feel. I can feel big rocks and heavily textured concrete. I can't tell the difference between the road and the sidewalk. There is a lot of stuff on top of the advertised "3mm outsole." They're equivalent to my Vans boat shoes.
Fit: 0
Apparently Vivo's idea of a roomy toebox is to use an extra-wide last and sell it as a standard D width. This is especially bad in the heel which is over 1cm too wide for me. The leather in the toe is low-cut so that there is no "room" other than the resulting floppiness of the shoe. Overall it feels like a sandal, it is clumsy and unstable.
Like most "minimal" shoes they include a cushy insole. While they encourage the owner to eventually dispose of this, the fit is designed around it and so the floppiness is even worse without it.
Toe box: 1
It's not too tight in the horizontal plane, for all the wrong reasons as stated above.
Flexibility: 2
They're about as flexible as a bicycle tire. Tire, not tube. You can bend them with your hands is the best I can say for them.
Appearance: 3
The leather upper is textured to look like canvas. This is the one instance where they took something expensive and tried to make it look cheap instead of vice versa. The leather is poorly cut, leaving huge folds where the tongue connects to the sides. This is unsightly and amateurish.
Durability: expected 3 or 4
But only because they are too thick.
Performance: 1
Loose, clumsy, and stiff.
Ground Feel: 1 out of 5.
Fails the wet pavement test - when I walk on wet pavement, it doesn't feel wet, which to me is the gold standard of ground feel. I can feel big rocks and heavily textured concrete. I can't tell the difference between the road and the sidewalk. There is a lot of stuff on top of the advertised "3mm outsole." They're equivalent to my Vans boat shoes.
Fit: 0
Apparently Vivo's idea of a roomy toebox is to use an extra-wide last and sell it as a standard D width. This is especially bad in the heel which is over 1cm too wide for me. The leather in the toe is low-cut so that there is no "room" other than the resulting floppiness of the shoe. Overall it feels like a sandal, it is clumsy and unstable.
Like most "minimal" shoes they include a cushy insole. While they encourage the owner to eventually dispose of this, the fit is designed around it and so the floppiness is even worse without it.
Toe box: 1
It's not too tight in the horizontal plane, for all the wrong reasons as stated above.
Flexibility: 2
They're about as flexible as a bicycle tire. Tire, not tube. You can bend them with your hands is the best I can say for them.
Appearance: 3
The leather upper is textured to look like canvas. This is the one instance where they took something expensive and tried to make it look cheap instead of vice versa. The leather is poorly cut, leaving huge folds where the tongue connects to the sides. This is unsightly and amateurish.
Durability: expected 3 or 4
But only because they are too thick.
Performance: 1
Loose, clumsy, and stiff.