I've strongly considered them, but I'm not much of a runner. For the actual lifting, they're better than regular sneakers, but nowhere close to weightlifting shoes. Keeping your feet flat ("barefoot" or actually barefoot) is good, but the positioning you get from the lifting shoes with the raised heel gives you a lot more leg drive. Plus the idea of doing cleans with exposed toes kind of scares me; I'd like to keep all 10 of them. If I was more into running, I'd definitely grab a pair of Fivefingers though.