Growing up in a family famous for their shoe brand, Asher Clark found himself following in his family’s footsteps when he co-founded Vivobarefoot with his cousin Galahad Clark in 2012. They were passionate about the idea that footwear should be natural and follow the mechanics of your foot as opposed to your foot following the mechanics of a shoe – which was and still is the norm in athletic footwear in general. They built Vivobarefoot on the idea that barefoot footwear is sustainable footwear.
Asher is also the design director for Vivobarefoot and in this episode, he chats to Josh about how he got into footwear design and how it happened that he became a passionate advocate for nature and sustainability through his shoe brand. He also shares some exciting future plans for the Vivo brand that may just change the way we buy shoes.
Discussion points:
- Future plans in Creating the perfect pair of customised footwear
- Asher’s Background
- The First Vivo-shoe
- The Benefits of Barefoot Wear
- The Importance of Sustainability
- Materials used in Vivo footwear
- A focus on recycling and “REVIVO”
- Impact of Covid on the Business
Resources:
Strength Matters System of Athletic Development
Strength Matters Online Coaching
Quotes:
“A big thing for us and frankly our kind north star as a business is to reconnect people into the natural world and obviously through feet and through footwear but ultimately the greatest expression of that is to be in nature. – Asher Clark
“All we’re trying to do is effectively make as little footwear as possible to get as close to the barefoot condition as possible… a version of what ‘good’ is to us is just natural. It’s following your feet, not the shoe.” – Asher Clark
“Five years ago we were trying to make sustainable barefoot shoes but, sustainability is just not enough. It’s just not a big enough, shiny enough north star because just to sustain is not good enough, to be a regenerative brand is about thinking about the whole piece, not just the product piece…” – Asher Clark
