THE SIMPLE SANDAL IS perhaps one of the oldest human inventions. Human beings have learned that protecting the bottom of our feet can give us a huge advantage in many environments.
IN 2003, BAREFOOT TED WAS ON A SEEMINGLY SIMPLE MISSION... to learn how to run pain-free. That simple desire led him down a rabbit-hole of a quest to learn as much as he could about natural running form, the natural selection of footwear, and the evolution of human movement.
On his journey he re-discovered that the human body is not broken by design. We, as humans, have an amazing capacity to move well solely with the equipment we were born with, our own bodies.
As he learned more about the natural selection of footwear in human cultures, he kept finding the simple sandal as the footwear of choice for many cultures past and present.
BORN TO RUN
This fascinating quest into the world of movement, running, and simple footwear led him to a man named Caballo Blanco and into the Copper Canyons of Mexico in 2006; the story of which is famously chronicled in Christopher McDougall's best-seller, Born To Run. If you’ve read Born To Run, you are familiar with Ted's story.
HE TRAVELED...
down to the Copper Canyons of Mexico to run a 50 mile ultra-marathon with the legendary Tarahumara natives, and while there, Ted became friends with Manuel Luna. Manuel made Ted his first pair of traditional tire 'huarache' sandals. The spark for LUNA sandals was born and as they say, the rest is history.
As chronicled in the bestselling book Born to Run, Barefoot Ted tells the story of his meeting with Manuel Luna in 2006 down in the Copper Canyons. He describes how that event sparked his imagination and has lead LUNA Sandals to where we are today.
