Band Aid Friction Block
Every once in a while I learn about a product that is truly a game changer for me. The most recent example of this is Band Aid Friction Block.
The Gotham Gal turned me onto this product last week when I was getting blisters on my feet from some new shoes she bought me.
You rub it onto the parts of your feet where you are likely to get blisters and then you put your shoes on and are good to go for the day.
For all I know this product has been on the market for years and I’m the last one to learn about it. But in case that’s not true and some of you are, like me, unaware of it, I feel compelled to tell the world about it.
There are very few times that a $6 product is life changing. This is one of them, at least for me it is.
Comments (Archived):
Very cool. Never heard about it, but it has 4* on Amazon over 72 reviews. Just added to my Trello list for next US visit…Thanks for sharing.
A great hack is to rub hair conditioner on the leather of your shoes in the spots where it feels tight. It will soften the leather just in those tight spots. Reapply the conditioner if the leather still feels tight after walking around in the shoes. I typically use this trick the first two or three days of wearing new shoes.
I stopped wearing shoes that need to be broken in…. Life is too short.
Shoes? I stopped wearing them.
I think Cliff Claven said good shoes were the secret to a good life
Cliff!!!
There is only one Cheers quote:’ How’s it going Mr Petersen? ” Its a dog-eat-dog world out there and I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear. ‘Well, and the one where Frederik Crane’s first word is ‘Norm!’.And.……
new shoes + holiday = blisters
I just use Vaseline 🙂
“BAND-AID® Brand FRICTION BLOCK® Stick has a lubricating formula that glides on smoothly to instantly reduce rubbing on skin”Note to self. Don’t do the joke. Don’t do the joke. Just don’t. You’ll be banned for life.
Oh, please. Join me.
no,you won’t, but you will get me yelling about you because we do get teenagers posting here on occassion
Got it Shana. I won’t be this person scaring the teenagers.http://giant.gfycat.com/Dop…
NICE video clip!
i don’t like zoos.
+1 for the great gif!
Don’t put any photos in iCloud.
Just a simple way to condition your shoe to fit your feet is …Wear the new shoe just 2-3 hours the first few days … don’t wear it the whole day. That is it the shoe gets used to your feet.Basically this comes from some of the rough part of the shoe which needs a little toning to fit your feet that is all.
Having ‘weird’ feet and a love of walking, I’ve used this and the amazing blister healing patches for years. Always have them in my backpack. Even saved a runway model at a fashion show once with a patch :)And I felt the same way as you when I first found these products. Happy walking!
i feel there is a story why you were near a runaway model
When I was running BeautyRiot, I got backstage press passes to Fashion Week. Awesome. I nearly imploded every time from celebrity sighting overload (yeah, I still get giddy when I see Heidi Klum or Michael Kors – I’m schmucky like that).
Sponsored post?
You’re killing it today, brother Jim.
Undocumented feature: rug burn remedy
Seems a mood killer though…….
I think if the rug is involved, the mood has already been killed.
I’m going to leave this thread (get it?) right here, where it is.
Yeah, let’s sweep it under the rug.
Also works for carpet muncher burn as well.
You’re biting off more than I care to chew.
This has existed for at least a few years and it is great stuff. This post cracked me up, though. It is funny how simple things can rock our world.
As an endurance triathlete there are many uses for this. I use it to prevent rashes when doing 2+ hrs swims in my wetsuit, my entire feet get a dose before my long runs as well. The other beautiful thing is that I’ve noticed is that if you keep applying it with consistent use, callus’ still form. Which is the bodies way of protecting against rubbing and chafing. So eventually you won’t even need it anymore. 🙂
stupid question: what is your wetsuit made out of. Do you like it?I’m thinking of investing long term (over the nesxt year or so, if I can fix my strokes and build up the stanima) in a wetsuit. Problem is I am allergic to certain forms of neoprene. So are you happy with the wetsuit, and what it is made of?
I believe they are all neoprene. Did not know there is different types of neoprene however here’s the link.. http://www.blueseventy.com/…
Slow day…
I’m scratching my head to think of another $6 product that is life changing, and all I’m coming up with is 3 packs of chewing gum.
for me it is keeping a pizza cheese shaker full of baking soda next to my kitchen sink. Life changing while doing dishes. total cost for the pizza cheese shaker was a dollar.(this thing: http://www.webstaurantstore… )
How many guests have sprinkled baking soda on their pizza at your house?
0. I stick it next to my stink because baking soda is an excellent mild abrasive and good base for other gentle cleaning, particularly for stuck on food when you don’t have a dishwasher and you can’t use a harsh technique anyway for cleaning, before, I would leave a box, and the box would get soaked every 2-3 weeks because my sink is just not very deep, meanwhile I would need the baking soda for other things, like as a leavening agent, or deacidifying tomatoes. It was just gross, and this is a lot betterIt helps that the baking soda is next to a quart or gallon jar that say “Poison: Has Bleach in it” used for sterilizing my counters.My cheese is in the fridge, and I have a grater in a drawer 🙂
Your comment is grater than mine.
Is this the comedy thread? It didn’t take much to get it going. Just $6.
Humor is cheap. Seriousness, costly.
i’ll humor … seriously.
If that happened, there would be no harm done. Unlike most other cleaning products, baking soda is non-toxic. Also, if you put some on pizza by accident, it might even alleviate any post-pizza acid indigestion :O)
Oh, I was worried about toxicity. Was thinking more about taste. But thanks!
what does baking soda do to dishes?
i use it with water as a gentle grit to get off mildly stuck on food (plus elbow grease). It doesn’t scratch the dishes, but it does get off the food.
For some people, it could be..ahem…contraception.
$6 contraception? Hahahaha.
https://answers.yahoo.com/q…
News you can use. Thanks.
i didn’t want to go there…
Actually truth be told the female condom is much better than the male condom. For some reason they have never taken off. You can get them at planned parenthood for free. They are way way better than male condoms. (I don’t mean in pregnancy prevention (which they are good for) but in terms of sensation.http://www.plannedparenthoo…
If you’re scratching your head, try Head n Shoulders for $4.97
do you see lots of hair on my head?
Ah, well, we have another $6 life changing product for that.
That’s because you don’t live in New York my friend.Every New Yorker has purchased an unlimited # of $5 disposable umbrellas from impromptu street vendors when torrential rain storms show up.And they do a bunch of times a year.
Got to love the umbrella’s 1 year warranty.
I always wonder how these impromptu shops are just there like mushrooms.Hey–I’m glad they are.
ah! i have done that too in NYC after getting soaked.
I wonder if there was an opportunity for someone to do a similar short rental similar to “smart carte” at airports but for umbrellas.
don’t forget pashminas 🙂
Toilet Paper
let’s not get too personal 🙂
The job ain’t done until the paperwork’s complete.
deleted – beaten to the punch.
Send some to Ukraine
Do you think Vlad’s aggro comes from poor fitting shoes? 😀
Apply to entire country
Send some to Venezuela. Or Cuba. Why is it the commie and socialist countries always run out of that stuff?
Run by assholes
Such stuff never makes it into the Great Leap Forward Five Year Plan approved by the Politburo in part because all the members of the Politburo shop at special stores full of imported goods such as the anti-friction pads! With enough more from FDA, USDA, FTC, DHS, TSA, IRS, INS, FBI, DEA, SEC, FCC, TLA, WTF, ABC, XYZ, etc., the US can be more like a dream worker’s paradise where we don’t have any such pads either!
I need to buy this!!!!!Actually, what I need is a better source of shoes.or a person who can make my shoes fit better (reshape the inside of the toe or heel boxes so I don’t walk out of my shoes/don’t give myself bunions/blisters)Advice?
(beyond make a lot of money and get custom lasts/shoes..that’s the obvious)
Gotham Gal investment actually:http://www.truegault.com/ho…
Fred, you could do an Oprah… “You get Friction Block, You get Friction Block. everybody gets Friction Block!”
Interesting product. When I hooped, I used to get blisters all the time. Had to tape my feet up, along with my ankles. Will try this. Have used moleskin, but it’s pretty messy.
Fred – truly the most transformational product i’ve seen in decades…..Can you imagine how this changes our world??????http://the-stand-up.com/
I like this better:http://stepnpull.com/
I was so floored when this post was actually about the actual Band Aid Friction Block product. Ha!
Young men, don’t just pass by and miss out on the really good lesson here! The Gotham Gal turned me onto this product last week when I was getting blisters on my feet from some new shoes she bought me. Get it? Read that again and think a little! As in the word of Will Smith in the movie Armageddon, this is important!Uh, this game is for keeps; you don’t get do overs; you really need this lesson; mostly you won’t think of it in time just by yourself; if you haven’t gotten this lesson from your family, and the odds are good that you didn’t, then here stands to be about your last chance; that you got this chance means that you are one of the lucky ones; don’t blow it.Right off, can list seven kinds of love, compassionate, committed, affectionate, romantic, intimate, passionate, and faithful.For the first, compassionate, that’s where the two of you care about each other. So, if you have the flu, then maybe she brings you orange juice, maybe by the quart! While it may not cure the flu, it will make you feel better! Just that she brings it, even if you are not big on orange juice a quart at a time, you will feel better!Generally if you are hurting, she knows and helps. Yup, again, even if she just tries to help, say, the miracle cure of TLC, you will feel better!And, of course, you should try to do the same for her. You will need to try hard because there’s no way you will be able to equal her insight into emotions — in the crib you were paying attention to things, trying to hack the latch, while she was paying attention to people and their emotions. She’s much better at reading emotions than you are; she was likely much better than you are now when she was five years old and had her father wrapped around her little finger and unable ever to tell her “No.”.So, young men, part of your romantic secret score card to tell if she really loves you is the list of seven kinds of love above.But, of course, every girl who loves you will eagerly give you all seven, right? Nope. Not on this planet — can’t speak for the rest of the universe, but even there I have my doubts.Of the seven, a lot of couples have only one — not much extra credit for guessing which one that is. But, look around at other couples and see how many of the seven they have in good form — tough time finding couples with more than, say, four. Have all seven, and are on the way to the top of the class.If add respect, responsiveness, honesty, and trust, that’s 11, and, presto, bingo, go on average to the top 1%; and there was nothing difficult at all!How’d I learn about all this? The hard way. Paid full tuition. You don’t want to do that. Trust me on that one! Background reading from an expert? Okay, try E. Fromm, The Art of Loving.This scorecard can save you billions. How? Well, early in your relationship it’s not so romantic to have her sign some iron clad pre-nup, but when you are successful and worth your minimum of $10 billion and when without all 11 somehow the two of you break up (it’s been known to happen), having a great relationship with all 11 could save you, right, ball park $5 billion. Easiest $5 billion anyone ever made/saved.Want better than the top 1%? Okay, for the premium version, the two of you keep a list (maybe mostly just as a collection of photographs or diary entries or just from memory but an actual list, say, in a word processing file, might be still better), and each year grow it, of activities you’ve enjoyed, accomplishments you are proud of, memories (e.g., when the kids have successes growing up), and traditions (e.g., a big time each year at Thanksgiving) you like a lot, don’t want to lose, can’t get anywhere else, and, thus, will glue you together. Presto: On average, top 1 in 100,000.Still more? Okay, for maybe another factor of 10, since you asked: Solve the tomato/tomahto problem where you say tomato, she says tomahto, and that and the inevitable 50,000 other differences that are similar the two of you got because you came from different families and that the two of you accept and don’t let cause problems, e.g., lack of respect.Warning: She’s supposed to show compassionate love for you, and of course you are also for her. If she doesn’t or won’t, don’t risk the $5 billion and for anything serious look elsewhere.Actually she should do fairly well on this list of 11, and some more, if she is just good life partner material and really loves you — that is, she should not have to have actually seen the list and checked off the items. That is, she should do well on the list just naturally.Example: Fred and GG! She got him shoes and a pad! Congrats to them both! Two smart people, one smart couple. That’s no doubt some of why they get to enjoy Lake Como, together! A lot of couples could learn from an example like that!Yes, maybe call what I’ve described as a static solution, that is, where have all the solution in place before the wedding. Well, there’s a good chance your best candidate girl (woman) is a bit short on the list of 11. In that case, you can use the dynamic solution where you act like a wise leader and lovingly and continually but effectively guide her to respect, adopt, buy into, and honor all 11. Will likely have to continue and reinforce this training during the marriage but should get started during the courtship!You need all of the 11 and more you can get; to get these, you will likely have to act to ensure what you get and don’t just expect you will have such a good situation merely naturally.Sure, some such discussion should be in Girls 101 for Dummies — Boys.
Even though it’s what I do I’m going to give you permission to copy me and use footnotes [1] rather than bury everything in one long post. Would greatly improve the readability for people in a hurry.Okay, for the premium version, the two of you keep a list, and each year grow it, of activities you’ve enjoyed, accomplishments you are proud of, memories (e.g., when the kids have successes growing up), and traditions (e.g., a big time each year at Thanksgiving) you like a lot, don’t want to lose, can’t get anywhere else, and, thus, will glue you together.Way to formulaic for me! Sounds like something people do after things have already gone bad. People who are in good relationships don’t need to explicitly do this. To me this is like a therapist assignment. Shouldn’t be that hard and take that kind of effort.[1] Like this.
Yup, does sound that way. But I can assure you that too many people don’t realize this point, don’t value the list, break up, and then start to miss what would have been on the list. That is, they don’t appreciate what they had. So, when that happens, about have to tell them about the list and hope that they get it.Right, as I mentioned, mostly this stuff should be natural; sadly too often it’s not. Too often one or the other of the two has some simplistic, exploitative, or dysfunctional view of the relationship and fails to appreciate anything like the list of 11 items and its potential and the potential of the relationship. Why? They’ve never seen a good relationship — couples with good scores on all 11 are rare.So, make the list. Hopefully, then, at the next generation it will all be natural.
“congrats to them both”
Why are you wearing shoes that give you blisters in the first place? You’re Fred Wilson, you can wear whatever shoes you want. You could wear Crocs like Mario Batali. Or maybe pick up some of those Tod’s driving shoes they advertise in Monocle while you’re in Italy. Those look comfortable, like fancy topsiders.
Bodyglide (http://www.bodyglide.com/) – a very similar product – has been around a long time and is very popular in the running communities that I participate in. Makes all the difference when you start training, especially after a long layoff that makes your feet tender!
I read a nasty story about this guy and his blisters on twothousandtimes.com He definitely did not have the band aid friction block product, and he suffered.
Props to comfort, even better if you wore sneakers that didn’t give you blisters.You city folks are such slaves to fashion 😀