Minimal style running shoes are not a fad and it is certainly not over. The reason why Vibram Five Fingers sales are down is because just about every running shoe manufacturer now makes minimal shoes (sometimes even whole lines of them), not to mention that plenty of new running shoe companies have cropped up that specialize in minimal shoes. Just about all of these have the same benefits as the Five Fingers, and don’t have individual toe pockets and as such don’t look ludicrously silly.
Also in my own experience, because minimal shoes have very little or no padding in the soles, you can wear them for ages, because, well, there’s nothing that’s “compressing” that you’re worried about. I own about, hmm, six or so pairs of minimal running shoes (mix of trail and road), and I still bust out my oldest ones at times, because I feel like I get the same run in them now as when I first bought them. Sure, they can get a bit stanky and worn out over time, but you can easily clean them.
I will never ever ever run in non-minimal shoes again, it has made running so much more of a joy for me. A couple years back, probably about six months after going full-in minimal, I did a run in normal running shoes. I will NOT do that again, it was complete misery.
