Trish has been an entrepreneur, marketer and maker ever since she crushed her first lemonade stand at age five. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, she spent many summers running barefoot with her sisters. These early memories later inspired her to build a brand which embraced the joy and freedom of childhood with the health and science of minimal footwear. Trish relishes evolving the company to grow stronger and more competitive with each passing year. She is a frequent expert panelist for both e-commerce and entrepreneurship conferences. Trish enjoys spending time with her family, dogs and ducks on their property in Oregon and loves the proximity to both surf and snow. She has a background in Engineering Physics and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

  1. What happened to Minimal Packaging?

    Soft Star has always had an option for customers to choose"minimal packaging" as part of their checkout process on the Internet. This meant that instead of having your shoes packed in a branded Soft Star gift box AND a mailing box, your shoes would simply be put directly in the mailing box (like this picture). In both examples, if there...
  2. What's Your Vote? Running Shoe Update

    We have had a lot of great suggestions for names for our new minimal running shoe - thank you!! We narrowed it down to three and would love a vote on your favorite: A. Barefleets (submitted by "ainulindale") B. RunAmoc (submitted by "nathan") C. Mocathon (submitted by "ainulindale") It was hard to narrow the field to just three... there were...
  3. What do you call that funny looking running shoe?

    The Elves have been busy working on our latest product... a minimal running shoe. This has been an exciting project that has brought us in touch with an amazing group of people - barefoot enthusiasts! We have prototypes of "the shoe" on the feet of a few runners. They are putting some serious miles on all types of surfaces so...
  4. Reducing our Environmental Footprint

    The Elves got this certificate in the mail this week. It made us feel good about participating in the Blue Sky program offered through Pacific Power. According to this certificate, we kept over 3.5 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere last year. YEA!!! Soft Star Shoes is a family friendly company located in Corvallis, Oregon. Viewpoints...
  5. Batman Visits the Elves

    Batman Visits the Elves

    We were VERY lucky to get a visit from a superhero today. Batman and Robin stopped in at the shop to make sure there were no bad guys hanging around. After checking that all was okay at Soft Star, the caped crusader zoomed off in the Batmobile to fight crime at the toy store down the street. Batman, thanks for...
  6. The Elves want to go green(er)!

    This week we had Julie from Allied Waste come talk to us about recycling. Julie was impressed with our shop... everything from using reusable cups/plates to us sorting our recycling. We had a handful of items we asked her about... can colored paper go in 'office' recycling? Or should it go in co-mingled? (It can go in 'office' if it's...
  7. What's in a Name?

    Describing colors is the second hardest thing we try to do over the phone and on our website. Several years back we had a customer suggest using Crayon colors to help people figure out what the leather colors look like (you can read that post here). Another 'trick' I often use is comparing the color of the leather to a...

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