Shoes that Moves With Your Feet at the Physical Product Showcase

It makes sense to design shoes around how the human foot moves. Three founders are doing just that while sliding into the athleisure space with footwear that feels good.

“Modern shoes need to be as minimal as possible to help people to move more naturally—it allows your body to do what it was made to do,” said Co-founder of Flux Footwear Zachary Frey.

Founders Zach Frey, Isaac Mertens, and Ben Loschen are tapping into a health and wellness market that values a natural style footwear. They pitched Flux Footwear in 2020 as “yoga pants for your feet” in a successful Indiegogo campaign. After their initial launch, they experienced contraction in the market and shipping delays. They’re optimistic about growth though, with new products coming out this fall, and a following of loyal customers.

Frey has experience designing athletic shoes for Reebok. He noticed that when a foot steps down, the toes splay out. Together with his business partners, Frey set out to build a shoe with less rigidity that acted as an extension of the foot. He designed the footwear to mimic the stretchy fabric of volleyball arms sleeves. The hexagonal spaces in the fabric allows more biofeedback than the average shoe.

“When you step down without shoes, you have all these nerves in your feet that absorb all this info. Most modern shoes put something flat and rigid under your foot, which dampens that biofeedback. When people are running in cushioned shoes, you actually hit the ground harder to find the ground. By adding texture and flexibility to the insole, we’re allowing your foot to land more softly, and find your balance more quickly. We stumbled on this and thought, ‘this is something that people will love,’ and we were right,” said Frey.

While the warehouse for Flux Footwear is located in Nebraska, they’re also building infrastructure in Denver. Frey relocated from Los Angeles to Denver because he saw that the growing health, wellness, and recreation industries would accommodate a product that is pushing all those boundaries. The founders plan to launch new lines of midtops and running shoes as they build out the wholesale aspect of their business this fall.

Their main point for production is a factory in Busan, Korea. They do initial production in Vietnam, final assembly in Korea, and then ship the products through Long Beach, California. They’re learning to navigate shipping delays and the high demand for their products so they can keep enough inventory in stock. Through these hurdles they have learned how to become more efficient and competitive.

The founders are considering two growth strategies. They could continue to grow steadily through direct to consumer sales and traditional funding routes. They could also pursue a more aggressive route by finding strategic investors to get into wholesale accounts and scale demand. Frey mentioned that he and his partners see doing business as a fluid and intuitive experience, and that they’re leaving the door open to real time opportunities. He is excited to demo a line of Flux Footwear at the Physical Product Showcase during Denver Startup Week.

“I’m convinced that the strength of our brand does lie in our local communities. I have visited my friends who work at Nike in Portland. The city is galvanized around Nike. I would love to see cities like Denver having that kind of energy around Flux one day. I think the best way to do that is getting the shoes on people’s feet and creating meaningful connections,” said Frey.

Tell Your Story at the Physical Product Showcase

The Physical Product Showcase is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to meet new customers. If you have created a new product in Colorado, consider joining the event as a vendor. This event is for you if you have a physical product to display and you can host a table. Your product can be a prototype if you are moving toward production. It’s all happening on September 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at a retail space near Skyline Park in downtown Denver. If you would like to be a vendor at the Physical Product Showcase, get your application in soon!