June 4, 2019
Josh sits down with Xero Shoes co-founder Steven Sashen. Xero Shoes are designed to let your feet do what’s natural. They let you have the right combination of protection and ground feel granting more agility and connection to where you step. Steven initially got this nuanced approach for shoe design in 2009 while getting back into sprinting after a 30-year break. He was getting injured quite often and when asking a friend who happened to be a world champion runner for advice he told him to take off his shoes to see if he could learn anything about his form. What he learned was why he was getting an injury and how to stop this from happening. He realized that his issue was a form problem that he couldn’t tell he had when he was wearing shoes and wasn’t able to feel the ground. After experimenting more with running barefoot his injuries went away, he got faster and started to see some serious improvements. Having has such a positive natural movement experience, he started making some shoes for himself, then for his friends, and then for his friends. It wasn’t long before he found himself at the head of a rapidly growing footwear phenomenon we now know as Xero Shoes.
