Welcome to episode 47 of The Optimal Body Podcast
Creation of Barefoot Shoes, Vivobarefoot, by Co-founder Galahad Clark
Do you believe that you absolutely need that arch support in your shoes? Love that feeling when you come home and take your shoes off? Join Dr. Jen and Dr. Dom as they interview Galahad Clark – CEO and co-founder of Vivobarefoot Shoes – and uncover why barefoot shoes benefit everyone. Galahad dives into the science behind barefoot shoes and how they have been shown to decrease pain throughout the body. Not only are Vivobarefoot shoes beneficial to your health, but the environment as well. Listen as Galahad reveals the sustainable mission he wishes to accomplish environmentally with Vivobarefoot shoes, as well as shoe production in general.
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What You Will Learn in This Interview with Galahad Clark: @vivobarefoot
01:42 – What Galahad’s mission is with Vivobarefoot shoes and his journey to that mission
05:21 – What brought Galahad’s friend to cut the sole off a shoe and put a tennis racket on it, instigating the idea of Vivobarefoot shoes
07:40 – Why Galahad created the specific shape of the Vivobarefoot shoes
10:10 – Galahad’s theory behind why shoes were created and marketed the way they are today
14:04 – Supporting facts to help ease your worries on transitioning to barefoot shoes
18:58 – How barefoot shoes addresses pain and why
20:47 – How Galahad implements sustainability and have a positive impact on the environment in producing Vivobarefoot shoes
25:14 – What a B Corp Certification is and why it’s important to collaborate with other companies
About Galahad Clark:
Galahad is a 7th generation shoemaker. As a teenager, he spent summer holidays on various shoe production lines in Europe and Asia learning the family’s trade. After finishing school, he went to America on a Morehead scholarship to study Chinese and Anthropology. While there he founded Students 4 Students International an organisation created to help disadvantaged students in Africa go to the best secondary schools and onto university. In 2003, lured by the Wu Tang Clan wearing Wallabees, Galahad started his first shoe project: “Wu Shoes”. From there he went on to launch United Nude (high end architectural shoes), Worn Again (a closed loop green technology business) and Vivobarefoot (where he now focuses his energies)
About VivoBarefoot Shoes:
Vivobarefoot are the outsiders of the shoe industry. Rejecting this broken industry and fighting for a more natural future, by reconnecting people and planet.
Sedentary & cushioned lifestyles are making people and planet sick. The short-term comfort of foam and air is having a long-term effect on our health – Vivobarefoot want to change this by making footwear that makes your feet stronger. Using wide, thin and flexible design principles that allow your feet to do their natural thing. They add less so you feel more.
All Vivobarefoot footwear is produced using sustainably sourced natural, bio and recycled materials. With the aim to protect the planet so you can run wild on it, forever. Created by two cousins from a long line of cobblers, Galahad and Asher goal is to create alternative footwear for those who want to feel.
Vivobarefoot want to be judged by their actions – championing foot health and the planet. In 2020 they became an accredited B Corp brand and launched ReVivo, a program that sees worn and returned Vivobarefoot footwear revived, reconditioned, keeping shoes on feet and away from landfill.
The same year, Vivobarefoot launched the Livebarefoot Foundation, an in-house impact hub, catalysing research, advocacy and enterprise-based solutions for environmental and social problems.
Items mentioned in this episode include:
VivoBarefoot Website: https://www.vivobarefoot.com/
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Written By Kylee Flores
