A major advance for minimalist sandals
 Top surface is comfy and grippy |
 Tread gives great traction |
 Now in Five cool colors! |
With the help of one of the world’s top outsole manufacturers, and former lead designers from Nike and Reebok, we started with the famous Vibram Cherry material (that we’ve been happily offering since November 2009) and made these huge improvements:
Contoured to fit your foot, without providing unnecessary support- “High-abrasion” material lasts a long time (hence, our 5,000 mile sole warranty!
- Very flexible (great barefoot feel) while still providing strong protection
- Holds its shape better
- Slight “toe spring” keeps the sole closer to your foot
- Sized for feet from 5″ to 13″ long — many people can use the outsole without trimming! (and there’s less waste if you do)
- Elegant shape with subtle arch and heel cup
- Easily customized with just a pair of kitchen scissors
- Topsole pattern feels soft while providing traction
- Reinforced, extended, and elevated ankle holes keep lace from wearing out
- Dual-Chevron tread pattern provides traction under any condition
- Material includes some recycled stock
There are two models of our FeelTrue® outsole:
- 4mm thick Connect — the closest thing to barefoot. Extremely light weight (men’s US size 9 weighs ~3.7 ounces)
- 6mm thick Contact — still a great barefoot feel, but with more protection. Slightly stiffer, but still flexible. (men’s size 9 weighs ~ 5.3 ounces)
Tips on choosing the correct barefoot sandal outsole style
Whether you walk, run, hike, or use your Xero Shoes for anything else, we can’t wait for you to try Connect and Contact and let us know how much you enjoy being able to Feel The World™.
Hi Eva, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQq3AhUsiX4
In short, we worked with the former lead designers from Nike and Reebok to develop FeelTrue. And we developed it specifically to be a VAST improvement over the Vibram Cherry.
It’s the only outsole made specifically for barefoot sandals.
Just saw you on shark tank. I have one question. Are all the parts of this shoe made here in America.
Hi Breeze… they’re not. But even if they were “made in America” is not as simple as many of us would like.
For example, for rubber, no matter where it’s made, almost none of the materials come from America.
There’s only one company in America that I’ve found that can do the compression molding we require… and they’re owned by a European company. The vast majority of their employees are immigrants who send a lot of their wages home. And, at our volume, we wouldn’t be creating any new jobs.
There are other companies that advertise “made in America” that, similarly, are sending their cash overseas, even though they write a check to o “US-based” company.
I understand the difficulties for a small business to have items American made, but I still ask. 🙂 I would prefer American Made items, but they are so hard to find anymore so instead I will be happy to support a local company. I live in Lakewood. One of the things that angers me about the Sharks is they are ALWAYS recommending the
Entrepreneur take their product over seas for manufacturing to increase the profit margin. And I am always hearing how these rich people are job creators. Anyway – not trying to get into all that. Thanks for answering my question. I can’t at the moment – but will be ordering a couple pair soon! I love being barefoot but hate the pit falls of it……..dirty feet, cuts, bad terrain, hot surfaces…….well, you know! Thanks again. I truly wish great success to you both!
Well, think about that “job creators” thing some more.
Sure, they might not be creating low-pay manufacturing jobs. Would you really pay more for most products just to ensure that they were made entirely in your country? Maybe yes, but in general, everybody around you looks for bargains, thus driving the market to the people with the lowest costs. It couldn’t happen if people willingly paid a “homegrown” premium. Not enough are willing. The sharks and the successful entrepreneurs are reacting to that reality.
Remember, every time an entrepreneur becomes successful selling a good, they create more work than there was before for:
a) the entrepreneur and any staff they hire
b) posties and couriers to GET the goods to you
c) customs bureaucrats to process the imports
d) blog-ists to review the product and blog about ’em
e) accountants and tax attorneys… depending on how successful the entrepreneur becomes
f) eventually, companies providing marketing and SEO services…
g) litigation attorneys, when the knock-offs and counterfeits start to appear
h) others I can’t think of right now.
So don’t say they don’t create jobs. They do. They just don’t necessarily create low-pay assembly-line jobs operating crude mixing and moulding equipment and getting poisoned by the fumes. Or they don’t create a local part-of-one-person job operating robotic machinery that does what unskilled/low-skill workers formerly did….. using robotic mixing and moulding machines with names like Kubota, Samsung, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries… ahem…
And anyway, if the low-skill jobs are overseas, chances are the senior executives of the overseas manufacturing company is making 30-to-100 times what the low-end worker is making, while if the same job still existed in your country, the CEO would be compensated at anywhere from 500-to-tens-of-thousands times what his lowly workies get.
It’s not all black-and-white.
By the way, and not to twist the knife, but… by buying Xero Shoes (or any other huarache or minimalist shoe) you are reducing the market for a company that DOES produce a fine-quality American-made product. Before I discovered minimalist/barefoot benefits, I wore shoes… with socks in ’em. The best socks I’d found are Darn Tough, from Vermont… and even THEY had to get their Merino wool from New Zealand and their high-end knitting machines from Italy.
And, before you ask, no, Darn Tough can’t/won’t make toe socks. Their expensive Italian knitting machines can’t handle the complex shapes of toe socks. I asked. I live up here in Canada, where we have … y’know… winter. Toe socks with sandals might have been nice.
DRAT!
🙂
Lol……i typed my name wrong. Please respond to Breeze on where the products are made. Thanks
Hi, does the 4/6 mm include the lugs? How thick are they?
The lugs are 1.2mm on both the 4mm and 6mm (4 and 6 are the total thicknesses)
They are non-marring … but we don’t have white at the moment. Only the 5 colors I show here.
I just got mine, today.
Wore them around the house, walked the dog, and did a quick little run around a couple of blocks in the neighborhood.
My verdict: Mostly good. Comfortable. Will take a bit of tweaking to adjust the lacing, until I feel comfortable cutting off the excess. While standing around, or while walking on hard surfaces, I could forget I had them on.
I thought I was landing well on my forefoot when running, but apparently not – I was getting a slapping noise with every running step. None when walking.
The only “con” for me, so far, is that I keep curling the toe under, when I’m on carpet, grass, any surface that’s not smooth-ish and hard. All stairs in our house are carpeted, and I’ve been up and down many times, and every time, I’ve caught the toe of one Xero or the other and it curls under and I’m walking on a roll of rubber. Same thing when I walked briskly across our little patch of lawn. I lift the foot and it extends flat again, of course.
Did I hear (read) that you had a trick for stiffening the front a little, to avoid the curl? They don’t naturally want to curl under – and maybe this will resolve once they get nice and dusty-dirty, and lose a bit of their grip. But right now, the sole material is very grippy, and the slightest skim causes it to grab and get rolled under my toes. Maybe I can Krazy-glue a toothpick to the……. never mind….
a) Some people get the “sweet spot” of lacing tension right on the first try. Others take a couple of days to dial it in. But once you’ve found it… you’ve found it and you won’t have to re-tie them, well, maybe never.
b) Slapping is not about heel-striking vs. forefoot landing, though sometimes if you heel-strike you’ll slap. See https://xeroshoes.com/slap
c) Catching the front edge of the sole has nothing to do with the sole “curling under”, which it doesn’t do. That is, the sole doesn’t spontaneously bend, flop, or flex. If you look at the video on this page and see where I hold the sole up with just a few fingers supporting it… it’s flexible, but only bends under force or pressure, not by it’s own weight.
What’s happening is what you’ve described: you’re skimming the front edge of the sole on the ground by, in essence, dragging your toes a bit (rather, having your toes so close to the ground at one point in your gait that you catch it).
I like to say, think about cowboy boots. Why don’t you catch the front edge of those and fall on your face? Because your body quickly learns to make SMALL adjustments so that you don’t catch the front edge. Same thing here, basically. When we have so little on our feet that we barely notice, we’ll tend to relax more and pass our toes closer to the ground, or let the ankle bend and have the toes pointing down more than usual. This can lead to catching the front edge.
But as you pointed out, it’s not a big deal — lift your foot and it flips back up. And, if you give it a bit of time (not much), you’ll probably see that you spontaneously and unconsciously start lifting your feet/toes the TINY bit extra (literally, a few millimeters) that you need and you’ll stop catching an edge.
Good Morning!
I’ve gotten my XeroShoes 3 weeks ago and I haven’t taken them off… I love them!!! I went for the 4mm’s.
Thank you for mentioning the “Slap” I struggle with it sometimes too.
I’ve gone from 10+ years of hiking boots with insoles for my PH to Xeroshoes, and so far so good… I experienced very stiff ankles and feet during my first few days but now its evened out a bit.
Pro’s:
:: My feet have become so much stronger, I sleep better, I have less almost no pain in my neck/hips and back
:: I do 7km per day in mine and my feet are fine, no sweaty-hot disgusting feet after a day in hiking boots
:: I love the feel of the “world” the real feel of grass and ground without getting my feet dirty.
Con’s for me:
:: cutting the shoe to “size” was a bit of a mission – luckily I’ve got a very handy friend otherwise it would have looked totally hacked.
:: I need to work on the “slap” as I’m afraid I might fall on my face..
:: Sometimes the string around the heel “falls” off.
:: Not very good in sandy areas (just me personally)
I am wanting to do a 21km in them on Friday.
Well done Steven!!!!!
Thanks for sharing your story!
Regarding some of your “cons”:
One reason we made the ready-to-wear products — the Venture and the new Cloud — is for people who have a tricky time with cutting the DIY kits.
If the lace is falling off your heel, you may need to raise the heel strap up by wrapping it around the ankle hole more than once (see Sonja’s tying style videos at http://www.xeroshoes.com/tying for an example of what I mean).
Regarding slapping… check out http://www.xeroshoes.com/slap.
And for sand… watch what happens as your walking form naturally changes. I’ll bet your sand experience changes too 😉
I’ve had these shoes or well lack of them for over 4 months now, and I just have to say they are AMAZING! Very comfy and the outsole will never run out from the looks of it. THe only issue I’ve had is the middle toe string wearing out multiple times, but I’ve found if you take a small piece or duct tape with about the width of your pinky finger nail and wrap it around it will keep the laces lasting longer, and it doesn’t even show up or change how comfortable they are.
Hi, what is the sole material made of? Since I don’t want any toxic stuff in my natural shoes 🙂
They’re a synthetic rubber. Every ingredient has been deemed safe by the very strict California safety requirements.
how much does a women’s U.S size 9 weigh?
3.2 ounces for the 4mm Connect and 4.8 for the 6mm Contact
Ok thank you
I trimmed the edge of my Feel True soles and now they look all hacked! Is there a way to file or shave the edge to smooth it out?
3 ways:
1) Be more delicate as you cut a curve (make a slow cut as you twist the sole)
2) To trim off “corners” turn the sole over and cut just the corner, using the suggestion above.
3) grab some sandpaper and smooth out the edges (we use a belt sander here)
When I trimmed mine with kitchen shears, I promptly took them out to my bench in the garage and smoothed out the rough edges with a Dremel fitted with a coarse 1/2″ sanding drum, rounding the edge on the top sole to match that of the factory molding and slightly angling the bottom to take out the “fringe” left from cutting through the chevron pattern. You almost can’t tell they didn’t arrive from the factory. Dremel speed should be about 20-30% of full to avoid overheating the rubber.
Great suggestion, Kevyn.
For those without a Dremel tool, regular sandpaper will work, too. And a belt sander is like magic 😉
got my Kit yesterday and fixed some invisible laces (Nylon) to them. closest thing to go barefoot, amazing feeling. thanks Steven
VERY cool and clever!
Hi,
How can we best decide which type of your shoes to get? Now that you have three types, how do we choose? I’ve never had any.
Thanks.
The first choice: Do you want the fun of making your sandals from a do-it-yourself kit, or do you want something ready-to-wear?
For the former, pick our kits — https://xeroshoes.com/shop/product-category/diy-kits/.
For the latter, go to https://xeroshoes.com/shop/product-category/amuri/
A second question: Do you want the fun of all the color and decoration options that our kit gives you… or do you like the color combinations of the ready-to-wear Amuri line?
Same pointers as above, based on your answer.
Third: Do you want the ULTIMATE barefoot experience? Then you’ll want our 4mm DIY kit.
If you want more protection, the 6mm kit or the Venture will be what you want.
When it comes to “protection,” the Cloud is in between those two options… the Barefoam™ makes the Cloud sole “more barefoot” than the Venture and 6mm kit, and more protected than the 4mm kits.
Some use the Venture as their trail sandal and the Cloud for everything else (though it can handle trails if you like a real barefoot feeling on the trail).
Do you sell any DIY kits that don’t have the outsoles already cut to shape (i.e. just a square of material)? My feet are a really weird shape – your precut soles will be much too wide for my heels if I get them to fit the rest of my foot. Also, I can’t tolerate “subtle arch” curving, I need soles that are totally flat. If not, where can I buy that material?