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Happy, and barefoot, St. Patrick's day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day from Xero Shoes! I don't know about you, but I'd love to find this barefoot sandal 4-leaf clover in my garden. I'm sure it would make you lucky if you found it;-) Since moving to Boulder, CO almost 20 years ago, I love St. Patrick's day, not just because of the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade (1/2 a block), but because by this time of year it's usually warm enough to be barefoot again. Now, granted, I'm barefoot throughout the whole winter, too. So it's not like anything is actually changing for me. Plus, we usually get our biggest snowfall of the year AFTER mid-March, so it's not time to put away the shovels. But I'm not a winter sport guy. Summer is my season. There are fewer things I like better than a nice day running on the track, or one of our evening track meets when it's still warm as the sun sets. So, for me, St. Patrick's is is the reminder that I've got month's of comfortable bare footedness coming up soon. I also have a lot of friends who have birthdays right around the 17th, so that's fun, too. What's your favorite part of St. Patrick's day, barefoot or not?
We were on Shark Tank!
Did you see us on ABC's Shark Tank? (if not, click here) Want to try a pair of Xero Shoes • Original Barefootware and have the fun and benefits of being barefoot... plus: The protection you want A perfect fit (you can trim them to size if you like) Style that expresses your personality (with fun lacing or decorative add ons) An affordable price Complete natural movement Our 5,000 mile warranty As of March 2020: Over 650,000 items sold in more than 130 countries, all for people who love Xero Shoes for: Walking Hiking Camping Paddle boarding Yoga Crossfit Kayaking Working out Jogging Running 100-mile ultramarathons! ... and having fun! Our DIY barefoot sandal kits are the perfect project for the family... you can make your own shoes in just a few minutes. Or you can let us do the work with our ready-made shoes and sandals. Not sure what to get, or ordering for a friend or family member? Get a gift certificate instead.
Xero Shoes on ABC's Shark Tank on Feb 1st!
For all of you who, for the last 3 years, have said to us, "You guys should be on Shark Tank!": You can stop saying it now You'll appreciate how good of a secret we've kept ;-) While Lena and I were taking our first vacation since starting our company, we got an email saying that we're scheduled to appear on Shark Tank on Friday, February 1st. The show is on ABC and airs at 9pm Eastern and Pacific, 8pm Central and Mountain time.For those who don't know the show, check out ABC.com. For those of you who know Dragon's Den from the U.K. and Canada... same idea (in fact, 2 of the same Sharks).In essence, Lena and I will be pitching 5 investors -- the Sharks -- to get an investment in our company and take it to the next level.We couldn't be more excited than to see what happens when we air, and when over 7 MILLION people discover our barefoot sandal company.BTW, we appear as Xero Shoes on the show and, if all goes well, we'll be using our new site at www.XeroShoes.com starting next week!Fingers crossed!
Vibrating insoles, bare feet, and balance
The Wall Street Journal online published an article describing the research of James Collins from Harvard. James wondered why people get less steady on their feet as they get older.His conclusion: They get less feedback from the ground and lose the ability to balance.So far so good.His solution: An insole that provides random vibration to stimulate the nerves in the feet.Can anyone here think of another way of doing the same thing, but without all the electronic bells and whistles? Anyone? Beuler? Beuler?If you said, "Take off your shoes!" you win any prize on the second row!If you said "Take off your shoes! And if you don't want to step on unpleasant things, wear Xero Shoes!" you get a prize from the TOP row! ;-)If you think about this, it sheds light on another bit of research on balance and the elderly: Studies have shown that Tai Chi can help elderly people regain their balance. But it's probably not the Tai Chi that's causing the effect (BTW, I have nothing against Tai Chi... I did it and taught it for years). It's the time spent barefoot, FEELING the ground.I hope that someone does a study with Xero Shoes and balance sometime. I'd place a bet on the outcome.The content of this post does not constitute and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions or concerns you may have about your health or a medical condition.
Barefoot in Asia - Regev's Review
I just realized that I have a strange history with barefoot running, barefoot walking, and minimalist shoes.First, like most of us, I spent a lot of time barefoot as a kid in the Summer. I went to a camp in the Pocono Mountains (Camp Shohola just in case any readers also went there) and whenever I had the chance, I was barefoot (made easier by the fact that I spent half of my days doing water sports). I was a competitive diver, too, so that kept me out of shoes.In junior high school and high school, I was a gymnast, so that was even more barefoot time every day.When I was 18, I went to New York City to be a street performer. I had already been doing this in Washington, DC, doing a magic act in Georgetown, and on K Street, near the White House. When I got to NYC, though, I found it much harder to get a crowd and, even worse, within a few weeks, the other street magicians had stolen all my bits! I asked one of the veteran street acts what I should do and he said, "Simple, write an act that nobody would dare steal."I pondered this for a while, until I landed on the answer. I created an act that had a bunch of crazy gymnastics in it (I did a running front flip over someone's head, stealing their hat and placing it on my head while in mid-flip), and a finale where I... wait for it... walked on broken glass in my bare feet.Now let me back up. For the gymnastics part of the act, I wore minimalist shoes. They were some old Adidas (I can't remember the name), with zero-drop, very little toe spring, not much padding. Just enough between me and the ground so I didn't kill my feet. This was in 1980-81, BTW.I loved these shoes. I bought every pair I could find. When I could no longer find them, I asked the local running shoe store what happened and he answered, "Adidas stopped selling them; they were lasting too long."I don't know if his info was accurate but, if it was, it wouldn't be the first time a company pulled a product that didn't wear out or go obsolete fast enough.Luckily, I found a company that sold shoes to prisons (you can find ANYTHING in NYC), and they had the last few pairs of these shoes... I bought them all. And they lasted through some serious abuse.Okay, back to walking barefoot on glass, though. Let's just say that it's part physics, part showmanship, and part some-hard-to-describe-thing that, if I could convince you to jump onto a 3" high pile of shattered beer bottles, you would instantly get a knowing look in your eye and say, "Ahhh... I get it now."In 5 years and thousands of shows, I only got one small cut. But by the end of the day, my feet were FILTHY from being barefoot on the street.CUT TO: Going to Asia in 1989.This is where I got hooked on being barefoot. Aside from the fact that you never wear shoes into almost any building (I was in China, Nepal, India and Thailand), there were plenty of opportunities to be barefoot outside as well. There were also plenty of times where you wanted something on your feet, but not much because it was really hot when I was there, and anything more than a sandal was way too much.When I came back from Asia, I stuck with the habit of removing my shoes whenever I went into someone's home (we've saved a fortune on carpet cleaning by not dragging dirt in from the outside).Okay, so why this long story?Simple, I was reminded of it all when Regev Elya did his review of Xero Shoes, which he took on a 7-month trip through Southeast Asia (I'm SO jealous).Of course, I think that Xero Shoes are the best minimalist shoes for a trip like that... but check out what Regev says.
Barefoot Sandals - the best minimalist running shoes
Every now and then, someone will smugly say to me:"Barefoot Sandals is an oxymoron. If you're barefoot, you're not wearing sandals, and if you're wearing sandals, you're not barefoot!"Yes, technically, that's true. Barefoot is barefoot and shod is shod.And, I'll admit, I'm normally a stickler for grammar. I hate when people say "very unique" (something can't be VERY one-of-a-kind), and don't even get me started on "a whole nother" ("nother" isn't a word! You mean "another whole").But for "barefoot sandals" or barefoot shoes or even bare feet shoes, I'm willing to be a bit more lax, and not just because I'm in the business of making huarache sandals.It's simpler than that.In this case, there's not really much lost when you remove the "implied word": -style.That is, what people would say instead of "barefoot sandals" if they were being more accurate is "barefoot-style sandals," or "barefoot-style shoes," the implication being that this type of footwear is similar in some way to being barefoot.Now the key element to that sentence is "similar in some way," and I'm sure I don't need to tell you that many shoes that advertise themselves as barefoot running shoes are about as similar to barefoot as a pair of stilts (I should make a spoof commercial about barefoot stilts!).Some manufacturers say that their shoes let your foot move as if you're barefoot, or run with natural form (usually meaning forefoot or midfoot striking). Others say that you can feel the ground as if you're barefoot.It won't come as any surprise that I think Xero Shoes does this better than any other product. After all, what could let your foot move more naturally than having nothing on your foot? And what could give you more ground-feel than just a bit of rubber (oh, I know, LESS rubber... but that's a story for another post).One of the first Xero Shoes customers said it best when he came back from his first run, all giddy, "It's just like being barefoot... if they covered the earth in 4mm of rubber!"So, cut some slack to those of us who use phrases like "barefoot sandals" or "barefoot shoes." Let the implied meaning come through. But do demand that those who use the phrase can back it up with a product that lives up to the claim.
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