Interchangeable

Our collection begins with a black leather, round-toe, closed-lace, cap-toe Oxford because of its versatility. The design we carefully selected is widely acknowledged as the most classic and can be worn in almost any occasion. While it’s often harder to dress a casual piece up, you can always dress a formal piece down.

Quality constructed

Not only have we captured the look of great dress shoes, but their essence as well. We use full-grain leather because it looks the best, feels the best, and wears the best. And we made sure that our shoes would be resoleable. For most shoes, and especially for minimalist shoes, the sole is the first thing to wear out. What good is all that full-grain leather and careful stitching if the bottom is worn out? When your pair of the Primal Professional needs a new sole, send it in to us. We’ll remove the old sole and attach a new one. Not only that, but we’ll also refinish the upper, fix any stitching that may have come loose, and replace the laces. For a fraction of the price, your shoes will be good as new, and you can do this over and over again.

Our Evolutionary Heritage: Agility, Strength, Endurance

Picture a hunt. What do you see? Is it camouflage and blaze orange with a rifle? Is it a bow and quiver of arrows? What you probably don’t see is a man with primitive leather sandals on his feet, chasing an animal across the savannah for hours until it collapses from sheer exhaustion. According to Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, not only was “persistence hunting” a neat feat, but it is what made us genetically modern humans.

Our anatomy provides possible clues to support his hypothesis. Our spring-like achilles tendon that makes us very efficient at long-distance running. Our upright gait and subsequent height allow us to see further, relative to our weight. Our hairless skin and powerful lungs allow us to manage heat better than our prey. Our complex respiratory system allow us to communicate and coordinate, one of our main advantages as hunters. Our neck is uniquely built to provide unparalleled stability for our oversized head. Our head contains a giant brain, made possible by the nutrient-rich yields of a hunt, that allows us to imagine, plan, and invent. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23conversation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

“Human beings are not broken by default.” - Angelo Coppola, (http://www.humansarenotbroken.com/)

Running shouldn’t hurt. Neither should walking, squatting, crawling, climbing, lifting, sitting, laying, and on. Though it seems so distant, we were once wild humans who had to navigate the natural world. Up until recently, most of us worked with our hands and rarely sat. The assertion that we are naturally weak, slow, uncoordinated, and plagued with pain is absurd, and we only find ourselves in this state when we live out of sync with our Evolutionary Heritage. And one step towards reclaiming our Evolutionary Heritage of Agility, Strength, and Endurance is choosing the right footwear.

Healthy feet that have never seen conventional footwear.

Feet as unnaturally-shaped as the shoes that did the deforming.

Fourth, and perhaps most contentious of all, is the foot’s arch and arch support. Those who argue against having arch support say that an arch is the strongest geometric shape. It is meant to bear weight, and being composed of muscle, will grow stronger with progressive loading. An arch needs no support, and support will not only hinder growth but destroy it, as upwards pressure is how arches in buildings are disassembled. However, those who argue for arch support say that there are those who, whether due to genetics or a lifetime of bad shoes, simply cannot rebuild a proper arch and must wear support. The Primal Professional does not come with arch support because we believe that the majority will be stronger and more comfortable without it, and that those who do need it will use their own custom footbed.

Now we know that the 4 key features of natural comfort are 1. No raised heel, 2. Light & flexible sole, 3. Roomy toebox, 4. No arch disruption. However, if you think of a conventional dress shoe, it is has 1. Raised heel, 2. Heavy & stiff sole, 3. Slim toebox, 4. Arched in midfoot.

Natural barefoot comfort and professional dress are complete opposites. But for the uncompromising man, they need to somehow exist in one shoe. Enter the Primal Professional.

We bridged the natural and the dressy with 4 solutions:

1. Hollow out the heel, so it appears raised but the foot sits flat inside.
2. Get rid of excessive material, and choose light and flexible.
3. Accommodate the widest part of the feet--the toes--then taper sharply.
4. Use angled cuts to give the appearance of an arch.

The Primal Professional.

We’ve made a shoe that has Real Style, can be worn for multiple situations both formal and casual, and provide you Real Comfort throughout all those occasions. Now take those benefits, and extend it further. Because, they are made by a shoemaker with a Real Heritage of 120 years’ experience in durable footwear and ISO-certified quality control practices. Because, they come with shoe horns, high-nap cotton flannel shoe bags, and aromatic cedar shoe trees, the essentials of at-home shoe care. And because, not only are they resoleable, but they are backed by our full recrafting service which will restore your shoes to better-than-new, years later, for a fraction of the cost. All this at no risk, because we’ve got you covered with free returns and exchanges for life. You’re not getting shoes. You’re getting tens of thousands of hours of game time, looking sharp and feeling great at the same time