Xero Shoes is a type and brand of lightweight minimalist footwear manufactured by Feel the World Inc. Designed for walking, running, and athletics, the footwear has thin and flexible soles that are contoured to the shape of the human foot. Xero Shoes was featured on ABC's Shark Tank and gained success after the show's appearance.
History
A high-school sprinter, Steven Sashen got back into the sport after a 30-year break. However, after two years of injury-prone competition, he joined a local barefoot running club in Boulder, CO at the suggestion of a friend who gave him a copy of by Christopher McDougall. As a result of running barefoot, his gait changed and injuries abated. Sashen wanted to continue the barefoot experience in areas which required foot covering, so he developed his own modern huarache-style sandal similar to those worn by the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico’s Copper Canyon, consisting of a thin rubber sole sourced from Vibram in Italy and nylon-polypropylene laces. After making the first pair for his wife Lena Phoenix and a second for himself, Sashen got requests from friends for their own minimalist sandals. Sashen launched a website selling this DIY sandal kit at invisibleshoe.com in late November, 2009. In August 2012, the company engagedDennis Driscoll who has previously developed products for Avia, Crocs, Dr. Martens, and Wilson Sporting Goods as a chief product officer, and renamed the brand Xero Shoes in December 2012. It has since sold shoes and sandals in various styles and designs to customers in 94 countries. The company has since moved from online-sales only to also channel marketing via select high street based North American retailers and Amazon.com, priced from $19.95 to $149.99.
Media Acclaim
In 2012, National Geographic named Xero Shoes as one of the top 5 best running shoe brands. In 2017, Apparel Magazine nominated Xero shoes as one of the top Apparel brands of 2017 amongst contenders like American Eagle, 3.1 Phillip Lim, and other brands. In 2018 Business Insider acclaimed Xero Shoes as one of the Top 5 Best Barefoot shoes of 2018.
