For several years now, the elves at Soft Star have enjoyed a friendly, non-competitive relationship with the monkeys (their term) at Luna Sandals, which operates just north of us in Seattle, Washington. We supplied Barefoot Ted with soling materials back when he originally worked to develop his huarache product and he later became a very memorable visitor to our Oregon workshop. Later, Luna Sales Monkey Tom Norwood kindly let us interview him for our blog regarding his adventures running the Copper Canyon Ultramarathon last spring. We also love their sandals.
Since Soft Star doesn't make running huaraches, we usually direct sandal-seeking customers to the Luna website. After all, it's a high-quality minimalist shoe made in the good ol' USA by great people… thus, elf-approved.
Well, after all those years of good relations we finally had the revelation that we could just become an official Luna retailer. After discussing it with the Seattle monkey team, we're proud to announce that you can now buy Luna Sandals directly from Soft Star!
We're starting with the Luna Mono sandal—a nice design for hiking, traveling, lounging, camping, running, spelunking… you name it! Last summer, the Mono (pronounced "moe-no") became my go-to footwear anytime I wasn't wearing my RunAmocs, and I'll personally vouch for their awesomeness. The straps are completely adjustable, the sole is durable yet flexible and I think they make me look kind of hardcore (except to the people who know me better than that).
You can purchase these sandals from our website, over the phone or directly from our workshop if you happen to be in the Corvallis area. Best of all, if you order sandals with a pair of Soft Star shoes then the sandals ship for free!
On a side note: yes, we are still working on our own casual sandal design, which we hope to have available for summer 2014.
Not familiar with the Lunar Monkeys? Here's a brief history:
As a prominent advocate of barefoot running, Barefoot Ted found himself on the adventure of a lifetime in 2006 when he participated in the very first Copper Canyon Ultramarathon deep in Mexico. That race, as documented in Christopher MacDougall's bestselling book Born to Run, introduced western runners to the legendary Tarahumara tribe on their native turf. The Tarahumara traditionally run races hundreds of miles long without the injuries that plague modern runners, and their footwear of choice is a simple huarache sandal cut from old tires.
During his trip, Ted met Tarahumara runner Manuel Luna. The two became friends and Luna taught Ted how to make a classic huarache sandal, which quickly became Ted's footwear of choice (aside from his bare feet). Ted took the lessons he learned from that experience and began his own sandal company named after his dear friend. Luna Sandals has come a long way since that time and now offers a growing variety of sandal options, but they all still follow the classic huarache style and are all made in Seattle, Washington—just north of Soft Star's Oregon workshop.
So what's with the monkeys? Ted's totem name in Mexico was El Mono… "The Monkey." The name seemed to have stuck—something our elves understand very well.
For more information on Luna Sandals, visit their website at www.lunasandals.com
To follow Barefoot Ted's latest adventures, check out his blog at www.barefootted.com
