It's been a busy year at the Soft Star workshop. Before we ring in the new year, we'd like to share with you the significant memories and adventures that affected our workshop and community in 2013.   Elves Volunteer at SAGE Garden Last spring, we had our first Soft Star volunteer day helping out at the local SAGE community garden...

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...

In my recent interview with Tim Norwood, sales monkey for Luna Sandals, I spoke to him as he was heading down to Mexico with Barefoot Ted to run the 50-mile Ultramarathon Caballo Blanco. The race, formerly called the Copper Canyon Ultramarathon, was made famous by Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run. The book documented Caballo Blanco's efforts to create an endurance...

Tom Norwood at the Orcas Island Ultra 50kThe Caballo run gained fame after the publication of Christopher McDougall's bestselling book Born to Run, in which McDougall chronicles his experiences in the canyons with Micah True (a.k.a. Caballo Blanco) and the Tarahumara Indians. Originally named the Copper Canyon Run, the race was renamed this year in memory of True, who passed...