Why Peluva?
Are they comfortable?
Absolutely!
The number-one compliment we receive is: "This is the most comfortable shoe I've ever worn!" Peluva literally means “foot glove” (Portuguese). These shoes allow your feet to spread freely-perhaps for the first time ever! In contrast, almost all shoes cramp your midfoot and toes, inhibit correct posture, and ruin proprioception.
We also added just the right amount of cushioning to allow you to navigate hard manmade modern surfaces without sacrificing groundfeel, and make a safe transition to living most of your life in Peluvas.
Many of our customers in movement-intensive jobs (health care, retail, etc.) report that they can stand all day in Peluvas better than super-cushioned or orthodic design shoes.
Five-Toe
Functionality
Minimalist shoes are great, but even the highly-touted "wide toe box" feature is not enough. Wide boxes don't actively hurt your feet like regular shoes, but they don't relax, realign and re-educate your feet like Peluvas do. Peluvas are like wearing toe spacers and doing foot strenthening exercises all day long-this is validated by research.
Furthermore, Peluvas promote natural postural alignment and gait patterns, where your bodyweight stacks over your heels, and your foot achieves complete range of motion for optimal impact absorption, balance, and propulsion. This is the authentic barefoot shoe!
The Authentic Barefoot Shoe!
Toe Articulation
Your toes must operate independently and dynamically in multiple planes of motion. The big toe in particular must be free to dorsiflex, load the weight of your entire body, and trigger the activation of the glutes on each stride.
Toe Splay
This refers to the natural widening, or splay, of your toes upon landing to optimally absorb impact, balance moving bodyweight, and harness kinetic energy for propulsion. Toe splay is only possible with articulated toe slots or when barefoot. Step up a stair barefoot and notice how your foot widens upon impact. Now imagine the sides of a shoe preventing that, hampering balance and inappropriately dispersing impact trauma throughout the lower extremities on every stride.
Zero Drop
A flat sole with no difference in elevation between heel and toe is called “zero drop”--an absolutely essential element of a true minimalist shoe. Experts assert that the elevated heel is the single most destructive aspect of modern footwear. Modern shoes typically have a 10 millimeter drop, often more. This directly results in nonstop inappropriate skeletal loading, poor posture and movement mechanics, and atrophy to the extremely important Achilles tendon.
Groundfeel
The bottoms of your feet are among the most nerve-dense and proprioceptive areas of your entire body. With every step you take, your feet deliver intensive feedback to your central nervous system so you can walk, run, jump and perform all manner of complex kinetic chain activity with grace, explosiveness, and safety. Elevated, stiff-soled, ultra-cushioned shoes cut you off from the earth. It’s like living life on a balance beam instead of feeling the ground with Peluvas soft, flexible soles.