Over to Mr. TheBoyandMe for this one, as he's been lucky enough to receive a pair of swizzy new trainers to review.

It was one of the strangest offers I've had recently: "Would you like to review a pair of sports shoes?". Although I was a keen long-distance runner in the past, it's been almost 20 years since I managed any notable distance; these days, my exercise is a daily cycle ride into the middle of Cardiff. So my main concern was, "will I be able to cycle in them?"

My choice was the Vivo Barefoot Neo Trail, a lightweight running shoe designed specifically to give the same overall sensory feedback to running barefoot, but with additional features such as a puncture resistant sole for rugged terrain. Trying them on for the first time highlighted how different they felt to my normal footwear – the shoe enveloped my foot entirely giving little opportunity for it to slip around inside, but was also extremely flexible giving almost as much movement with it as without.

Cycling with them on was an absolute pleasure: the 5mm lugs are designed for rough terrain rather than pedals but gave me no problems, whilst the 3mm base and lightly-cushioned EVA insoles meant that more of my effort was going into the bike instead of compressing bits of foam together and, as a result, I've discovered that I'm now regularly passing 30 mph on the flat! As part of the overall ethos behind VivoBarefoot's designs they're not completely waterproof, and the one time the heavens did open I was wringing out my socks afterwards, but the shoes themselves never felt soggy or weighed down as a result.

I told TBaM many years ago that I would take up jogging when I see a jogger looking like they're enjoying themselves. This has still yet to happen, but if it does at least I've got something to wear for it!

We received this product for the purpose of this review, all opinions are honest and unbiased – he doesn't know how to lie!