Our Story

Founder’s story. (photo of Co-founders Mark and Kyle). Co-founder Mark Sisson is a former elite endurance athlete – turned health and fitness investigator. For almost 40 years he has been researching ways in which we can all achieve optimal health and fitness. His blog MarksDailyApple, launched in 2006, is widely recognized as a primary source of reliable, well-researched articles on ancestral health. He has written several best-selling books based on the ancestral lifestyle and ketogenic diets. In 2014, he founded Primal Kitchen® foods in order to change the way the world eats. It became the leader in the “better for you” food revolution and continues to grow impressively under the leadership of its co-founder Morgan Zanotti at Kraft Heinz.

During his decades of looking for ways to improve the health of millions – whether through altering the diet, mixing up exercise patterns, changing sleep habits, getting more (not less) sun and developing easier, more delicious ways to eat healthy – Mark has been obsessed with shoes and foot health. He was an early proponent of barefoot living and the minimalist shoe movement. Despite owning hundreds of pairs of minimalist shoes, his disappointment and frustration at the industry’s inability to produce a comfortable, good-looking minimalist shoe led him to create his own. In 2021 he joined forces with his son Kyle to start Peluva, with the sole purpose of creating attractive and comfortable shoes that address the four pillars of the best minimalist shoes: little-to-no drop from heel to toe, increased flexibility, a wide toe box, and thinner soles. The result is the shoes you see here on our site today.

Sisson has always been primarily an educator. For two decades, he has promoted walking as the single best exercise (or form of movement) that anyone can do. The more the better in most cases. These shoes encourage the user to do just that. The time has never been more appropriate for a massive change in how we walk.