Take A Walk In Our Shoes

Unable to find healthy minimal shoes for their daughter Corina, carpenter Tim Oliver and his wife Jeanie learn to sew soft leather shoes from a local artisan. The shoes are sold to friends and neighbors.

1986 - Softstar shoes at Sawdust Art Festival

The Oliver family uses their proceeds from the festival to purchase a plot of land in Wimberly, Texas for their first home—plus an old school bus to live in until it is completed. Tim builds the house himself and the family moves in as soon as the roof is up. The school bus then becomes the first official Softstar shoemaking workshop

Over the next few years, Softstar Shoes are sold via mail order and craft fairs as Tim and Jeanie celebrate the birth of their second daughter, Violet. The whole family helps make shoes with one strict rule: everyone must jump into the crystal clear Blanco River at the end of every work day.

Tim and Jeanie decide a move to Oregon is best for the family. Sadly, the school bus is left behind, but they open the first brick and mortar Softstar workshop in the small town of Corvallis.

The first Softstar website is launched featuring photos of the five available shoe styles with a printable mail order form (checks or money orders only).

Friends and business partners Tricia Salcido and Larkin Holavarri approach Tim about purchasing Softstar Shoes. Like Tim, they want to sell products that are healthy for their families (Tricia has one child and Larkin is pregnant with her first). Tim agrees and stays on to manage shoe production while the new owners focus on growing the business. Their first priority: online checkout.

The new owners also explore new ways to encourage Softstar’s core value of “walking lightly on the earth,” solar panels are installed on the workshop’s roof and all power is sourced from renewable energy. Other sustainable measures include composting, reusable towels, a workshop recycling program, donating leather scraps for crafts and providing incentives for employees to bike to work.

As barefoot and minimal running become popular, many customers call to say they are running races in Softstar’s moccasins. After months of experimenting, the moccasin is modified into a running shoe with ankle laces and a rubber sole. Fans vote to choose the name RunAmoc for this new shoe, which exceeds all expectations for sales. Within the next 12 months, the Softstar workshop and staff double to keep up with RunAmoc orders. Softstar's designers begin to develop an entire line of minimal shoes for adults.

When the Corvallis workshop ran out of growing room, Tricia and Larkin began restoration of a historic building in neighboring Philomath, Oregon to be the new home of Softstar Shoes. The new workshop and retail space officially opened in February, 2017.

More shoe styles are introduced, including merino wool shoes and an expanding Primal line of shoes that feature the widest toe box on the footwear market to maximize a barefoot experience. Softstar now makes over 20 different styles for children and adults.

The Zünd Cutting System automatically cuts patterns while minimizing leather waste and investment in metal dies. The cutting system reduces development time and provides flexibility to improve designs over time.

Softstar changes its legal structure and becomes a certified Benefit Corporation. Softstar also acquires B Corp certification, a third-party stamp of approval granted to businesses that follow high standards of environmental and social stewardship benefiting the greater community.