For what it's worth, I'm still running in invisibleshoe huraches in 20' weather, but I've added smart-wool socks. My feet get wet, but the cold isn't bad as long as I stay moving. I'm run on snow, ice, and cold pavement with them...
I may have to try out some of those Huraches! Can't wear smart-wool socks with VFF.
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
Invisibleshoe huraches are cheap. I've worn through the strings twice....something seems to wear down about every 50 miles or so...however I just move excess string around between the punch-holes and make a knot at a convenient place. I try to get the knot on the top-side of the sole material. Shoe strings are also cheap and easily replaceable.
Santa brought me a pair of Runamocs with the trail tread. I've been wearing VFFs on trails and they were pretty darn slippery once the wet season started. I wore my new Runamocs today on an extremely wet (creek crossings, muddy (shoe-or-moc-sucking mud) 7 mile trail run this morning (it's been raining for days in California) . I wore old injinji toe socks, as I was worried about 1. smell, 2. warmth, and 3. toenails rubbing cuts/blisters on nearby toes, a common problem I have when wearing "normal' running shoes (not my VFFs).
First thing that was different from the VFFs - they were easy to put on, and my toes felt "free" and could splay easily. Getting used to the tug of the shoeleace around the ankle will take a few runs. The mud sometimes would suck at my heel, so i stopped and tightened the laces as much as possible, but still had that mud-sucking problem until I realized it was only when I was walking/running slower and had more weight on my heels - bad barefoot form. The "trail" tread protects more against the sharp rocks I encounter and I typically slow down for when I'm wearing VFFs; I could run faster with the Runamocs, with less care about foot placement because of this. There was definitely less true sense of the feel of the ground, though, than with VFFs.
7 miles, no issues. Came home and rinsed them off with clean water, waiting to see how they dry.
I ran over 300 miles in my Invisible Shoe Huaraches. I had to replace the string at 80 miles, because I tied it wrong. The second string show no sign of breaking anytime soon.