ABOUT US

‘20,000 years ago, people who didn’t believe in barefoot running got eaten’

Most positive change is born of necessity, from there, perseverance and luck often decide how far it goes. In 2005 Max DeLacy, a PT & Pose Running coach was diagnosed with hereditary arthritis in his knees, he began walking and running barefoot in an attempt to take the strain off his knees. It worked faster and better than he ever expected.

He began training all of his clients barefoot, from gen pop to athletes, with amazing results.

In 2006 he saw a photo of a foot shaped shoe in a health article and contacted the mother company, Vibram based in Milan, desperate to get a pair.

Luck is always a factor, Max was born in Rome, with Italian as his first language. This allowed him to build a relationship with Vibram, and to become their first international distributor (selling out of his house in Coogee)

Perseverance began to pay off with some magazine articles on the FiveFingers building awareness, and then in 2009 the book ‘Born to Run’ was published and the world went barefoot crazy. Fads are both good and bad, and although business boomed there were a lot of people buying minimal footwear without really understanding why or how to use and transition to wearing them safely.

In the 15 years since Barefootinc was founded we have continued to source and test footwear, packs, clothing and prehab tools with one question always leading the way. Does it help us move better, more naturally? When the answer has been yes, we’ve done our best to make them available. This journey included brands like Inov8, Skora, Zems, Ultraspire, Earth Runners, and now Altra, Vivo and Xero. It’s been a hell of a ride so far and we love it. Now more than ever we are in need of tools that help us connect with what’s natural, and we’ll keep searching and testing brands and products that will help us (and you) get more out of our training, running or walking.

Movement is life, never stop!