Everyone in our shop had a lot of fun following the Olympics, especially when we heard about athletes competing barefoot or wearing minimalist shoes. It was a little sad to see the games end, but we’re giving one last hurrah to Olympic fever. Elf Tricia recently heard an interview with Missy Franklin that caught her attention. The American swimmer and...

It has now been one whole year since we released our Dash RunAmoc. The elves celebrated the event by looking back at the history and evolution of the Dash model. Way back in the early 2010s, Soft Star released what is now known as the Original RunAmoc. At that time, nobody in all of elfdom had any idea how popular...

We had some special guests visit our workshop last week. A class from the local Benton Center Parent Preschool Co-op dropped by for a field trip to learn how shoes are made. Elves Larkin and Tesla guided the curious youngsters through our whole production line and gave them a firsthand look at leather cutting, sewing, barging, finishing and shipping. All...

“Play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve, and more. Play is hardwired into our brains—it is the mechanism by which we become resilient, smart, and adaptable people.” —From Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, by Stuart Brown, M.D. & Christopher Vaughan Customers often tell us they...

Our 2011 holiday season has been our busiest ever! On Monday this week, we broke our record for the highest number of packages shipped in a single day. Elf Cindy had to call our local post office to tell them they would need a bigger-than-usual vehicle for our pickup. Our local postal carrier happily obliged, but was still shocked that...

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...