Agreed, merrell trail gloves are great shoes. I run 60-70km per week in them.

I highly recommend barefoot style shoes in general, but you do have to acclimate to them slowly while you build up your foot strength.

After building foot strength in 'barefoot' shoes, I can now run much faster in any kind of shoe.

How do they compare to Vibrams? I tried to get a pair of KSO or Bikila last time I was in the USA, but all the shops have stopped stocking them since the company settled a lawsuit.