Blog – Page 33 – Xero Shoes

Posted on March 17, 2013April 12, 2013 by — Leave a comment

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?

Posted on February 13, 2013September 27, 2022 by — 129 Comments

Barefoot Running is Bad For You!

Ever since Chris McDoguall’s book, Born to Run, became popular (interestingly, long after it came out), the debate about barefoot running has become heated.

There was no big argument when Zola Budd ran barefoot, or when Abebe Bikila won the marathon without shoes, or when Ron Hill competed in the Mexico City Olympics in “the lightest shoes I could find.”

But once “regular folk” started kicking off their kicks, it’s become a rhetorical battlefield out there — the converts touting the great benefits of barefoot running, and the critics assuring everyone that taking off your running shoes is akin to playing Russian Roulette.

Then the Harvard study came out, showing that when you run barefoot, you adjust your stride to put less stress on your body. And, right on the heels of it (pun intended), came editorials about how running barefoot is the worst thing you could do… though, most of those editorials came from people who own or work for shoe companies or shoe sellers. Continue reading Barefoot Running is Bad For You!

Posted on February 4, 2013August 20, 2020 by — 110 Comments

Xero Shoes Barefoot Sandals On Shark Tank

In 2013, Lena and I had the honor and pleasure of appearing on the ABC hit reality-business show, Shark Tank on ABC… and on October 1st we appeared on CNBC, who syndicated the show.

Over 30,000 applied to be on the show and we were on pins and needles for months, waiting to see if our pitch would make it to the airwaves.

If you didn’t see the show, check it out here. I’ve set it up so that when you start the video, it’s cued up to our segment, at the end of the show.

Since the show aired we’ve gotten some amazing responses.

Some people think we were nuts to walk away from a $400k offer.

Others think we were insane to even consider it.

In the first week after the show aired, over 2,500 people decided to try Xero Shoes and experience the fun and benefits of being barefoot, but with a layer of protection, a perfect fit, a custom style, an affordable price, and our 5,000 mile warranty.

THANK YOU to you everyone who emailed and called us, to the people who crashed our website with traffic (over 270,000 people!), to the people who put up with our shopping cart glitches (this cart was, it seems, not made for that kind of traffic), and to everyone who ordered some of our Original Barefootware.

Happily, we have a MUCH improved website and shopping cart and, as you can see here, a MUCH more extensive line of barefoot-inspired shoes, sandals, boots, DIY kits, and more.

-Steven