Five Things You May Not Know About Soft Star Shoes

Where else can you design your own comfortable, minimal shoes? Let me introduce you to this intriguing family-owned business in Corvallis. Did you know…

1. Soft Star Shoes was founded by Tim and Jeanie Oliver in 1985, who wanted a soft, quality shoe for their baby girl and became frustrated by failed efforts to find such shoes so began making their own. As the Oliver family grew, so did their business – from a garage in Laguna Beach, California to the back of an old school bus in rural Texas to their first brick and mortar workshop in Corvallis, Oregon in 1990.
2. Originally including just four children’s shoe styles and one boot, the Soft Star Shoe line-up now includes dozens of different styles for the whole family – moccasins, sandals, casual shoes, boots, slippers and their newest addition, running shoes. You can even design your own, choosing colors, materials and motifs.
3. Over the decades Soft Star Shoes have been purchased by families, the Waldorf and Montessori schools and athletes. Their first celebrity customer was President Ford, purchasing a pair of baby boots for his grandchild in 1987.
4. In an ongoing commitment to Soft Star’s core value of “walking lightly on the earth,” in 2005 the company installed solar panels on the workshop’s roof and all power is now sourced from renewable energy. They even provide incentives for employees to bike to work.
5. As the existing Corvallis workshop quickly runs out of growing room, plans are now in the works to renovate a historic building in the neighboring city of Philomath. And chances are you’ll still find Tim putting the finishing touches on a pair of moccasins.

Cascade is pleased to feature Soft Star Shoes, a company passionate about minimal footwear for healthy development of bones, muscles and balance.