Vivobarefoot Motus Strength Review – Are These Legit?

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These are the Motus strength training shoes from Vivobarefoot – 

They’re a new, more robust and slightly pricier pick from Vivo 

I’m gonna try them out and see what they like to wear and at the end, I’ll tell you whether I think they’re a good buy.

Note: This is a full transcript from the review posted on the YouTube channel, if you’d rather watch that, click here

I’d say I’m quite new to the barefoot shoe world.

The first pair I ever tried were the Vivo Primus Lite Knits, and I really liked them. I liked the plain and simple barefoot feel they gave me, I liked how light they were and I also liked the fact that my feet felt so much better when I wore them.

Now these ones bring something new to the table, they’re labelled as being tougher and more durable. And you will probably understand that from the first moment you pick them up.

My Initial Thoughts…

The initial feeling is that these are very hard-wearing.

They have a much thicker-feeling rubber outsole that comes up over the toes a little and makes your toe area feel a lot more protected. 

Normally you can hold the shoe in your hand and maybe bend it in all types of ways to try and expose gaps in the stitching to try and see potential weaknesses, if you bend it a little you might see small gaps here and there, but these feel like they’re water sealed lol – they kinda remind me of scuba shoes

They just give the impression that they could keep water out.

I like the way the upper material feels and comes together though, you’ve got a kind of synthetic rubber in the forefoot and then elastic knit mix material underneath that comes up and out, towards the back of the shoe.

Wearing shoes like these, that natural feeling makes me wonder if wearing normal shoes for such a long time affected me in some way. Like I wonder if I had started wearing these types of shoes sooner, how different would my training be?

There’s not much insulation in there, so your sock game is going to be important if you wear these in really cold conditions.

The ones I tried before had knit all over, with a much thinner rubber sole. So walking on pavements, every bump and crevice was a little bit more pronounced as with any shoe hat has a really thin sole that makes you feel really close to the ground.

With these, you can really feel that the sole is thicker and tougher too. That fragility and vulnerability I felt wearing the Primus Lite Knit isn’t there with these. It’s closer to a regular pair of shoes in that sense.

**See How These Shoes Held Up After 3 Months**

Let’s Talk About the Sole

The rubber sole on these feels very strong and I do like the way the thick sole wraps over the toe box a little, really makes the foot feel more protected.

I will say that on my first wear, this grip was quite deceptive.

I wore them on a rainy day here in London, and my foot almost slipped once or twice wearing them on smooth surfaces.

Quite surprising because I assumed they would have exceptional grip. 

So I would just be careful on smooth surfaces in the rain with them. 

But walking around in them, the sole does make your foot feel so much more protected than a regular barefoot shoe which is what I think they were going for with this shoe.

Sizing Problem?

Now with the sizing, there is a strange thing I noticed. Vivobarefoots seem quite odd. The Primus Lite Knits that I have are a UK size 12, and even though they fit me, they felt a little snug, now these are a 12 as well, but these feel SO much more spacious. 

I was actually going to order a size 13 as well, just in case these came up feeling small like the Primus did, but these actually feel like there’s a whole half-inch of space in there. I know that different models of shoes can sometimes feel slightly different in size, but the difference here was quite a bit.

If you do buy these, make sure you pay extra attention to that.  

I looked into it and I found several people on forums saying that the Vivo sizing, can be weird sometimes so I guess it’s something to expect.

The Price

One of the reasons why I think a lot of people are put off when it comes to Vivobarefoot shoes is the price.

Barefoot shoes from Vivo and a few other brands are quite expensive, and looking at how minimalistic and stripped-down the shoes themselves are at first glance, it puts a lot of people off spending that extra amount. I get it. 

The price will be a massive factor with these because the price is at the higher end of their performance shoe range. So they’re even more expensive than the current crop. 

That’s why I think people who wear these tend to be people who understand the benefits of wearing barefoot shoes, or who have suffered from wearing normal more narrow shoes for too long, which is in fact what brought me towards them. 

These come in at £170 or $200 if you’re in the US (at the time of making this review), which will make some people’s eyes water, but as I said, I think the people who buy these shoes would more likely be people who possibly have owned a pair of barefoot shoes before and have felt or are more convinced of the benefits.

I think a lot of people will be searching Google for discount codes before buying these shoes just like I was –

Vivobarefoot are also more than welcome to send me a promo code that I can pass on to you guys at the email address below!

Joking aside

I really like the fact they’ve mentioned that this shoe model will live a long and healthy life, and looking at the build quality, I believe them. Durability for me is a massive factor especially when I’ve paid a higher price for the shoes. 

My Overall Verdict… 

I found them OK to workout in, if you’ve worn barefoot shoes before, you’ll be very familiar with the feeling.

Balance is important when you’re lifting and I find that a good pair of wide-fitting barefoot shoes give me a much better lifting experience than a normal pair. It’s a big reason why I bought my first pair.

The value I think of this shoe is it is tough and a more rugged shoe while still being lightweight and giving you the flexibility you need in a workout or gym scenario.

They are a good shoe, but if your heart is set on a pair of Vivobarefoots, I would encourage you to browse their full range because they have several cheaper options that can also do a good job as a workout shoe.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, would you buy these shoes?

With that being said, that was my quick take on the Motus Strengths by Vivobarefoot

Thank you for watching and ill see you on the next one