business
Young kicks be free Minimal footwear is all the rage. Pediped is turning the trend into kids’ stuff
T by joseph langdon
The human foot is a marvel of Darwinian engineering — 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments of one-of-a-kind ambulatory innovation, the very advancement that enabled Homo erectus to erectus and stand head and shoulders above primate peers. Only recently, though, has the lowly foot gotten some respect. We’ve spent centuries trying to “fix” it with all manner of shoes and boots, but now many experts argue that footwear isn’t the solution to our problems. Footwear is the problem. Barefoot and minimalist-footwear movements are taking off. You’ve probably heard of the 2009 bestseller “Born to Run,” which extols the unshod sole. These days, on just about any jaunt through Red Rock, you can expect to see a hiker with those strange toe-glove things that look like alien feet. Even shoe giants like Nike are trying to co-opt the anti-shoe mantle with purportedly minimalist lines. Barely-there options exist for running, walking, hiking and climbing — but what about taking your first steps? Angela Edgeworth heard about the benefits
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Pediped’s Angela Edgeworth wants to give kids’ footwear a swift kick.
of barefooting it back in 2004 and sought a forgiving first pair of shoes for her baby, Caroline. Even with Santa Monica boutiques at her disposal (not to mention the Internet), she came up empty-footed. “There was nothing,” she recalls. “Everything was very rigid, very hard. A lot of the styles were basically adult styles that were taken down and shrunk.” Into that void steps Pediped footwear. The start-up that Angela launched with her hus-
band, Brian, to provide minimalist footwear for the most minimal of feet has quickly become the second-largest kids’ shoe brand in the country. Last year, they shipped more than a million pairs.
Ex-shoes me Years before the birth of Pediped, Rudy Glocker, the avid hiker who would become the company’s COO, commemorated his graduation from business school by tackling Mount
Zappos is set to make a big footprint downtown. Learn how on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” at www.desertcompanion.com/hearmore
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PHotography By Christopher Smith