By Nathalie Bouchard
SOM Footwear is a new brand in the shoe industry and we mostly sell online. We are grateful to live in a small community, in a region we love, and be able to connect with people from all over the USA, and the rest of the World. We exchange numerous emails a week to answer all kinds of questions and assist our customers to pick the right shoes for them. Sizing is one question that comes up often, but it doesn't stop there.
Many people ask us about the comfort of our shoes and we are pleased to let our customers express their satisfaction about it via the testimonials page. The beauty of our shoes, when you try them on, they fit you or not. It is that simple and there is no marketing gimmick to look for. Your feet will be amazed how comfortable they are and will thank you for offering the space they were looking for.
Another question we receive is about their life expectancy.
We've been selling shoes for 16 months now. We can tell you that our first customers still wear their shoes. We have two different customers in particular, one 12 months in, one 16 months in, each one's wife bought them their second pair because they didn't want them to wear the old dirty pairs to out to restaurants. We thought that was kind of cute to have this happening twice. Those two customers then learned that they can wash their shoes in the washing machine with cold water and let them dry in the shade.
I have attached one picture (left) related to this story. It was taken about 12 months after he bought his first pair. You can see for yourself that this customer is very hard on his shoes (he is a river guide and luggage handler). And because of him, we then started to offer resoling for free when you buy your next pair, so he, and you, can keep a clean pair to go out on the town. ;-)
If you read the story, Olie came up with the idea of making his own shoes because he was as tired as you are with buying shoes made in Asia that were not even lasting a run. The entire SOM crew put them to the test: running on Rocky mountain trails (which are practically in our backyard), hard-core exercising and every day use. We like their durability and versatility, so we don't have to wear any other brands in our daily life. But our customers are the best to test the shoes. The guy in the picture barely wore out the sole in a year, some other customers sent their pair to be resoled after 3 months. It seems to really depend on people's strides regarding the sole, but the shoe itself holds up very well.
We use a high quality flexible Vibram sole material that we cut to our needs. The cup (the lower part of the shoe) is also made with another high quality Vibram rubber band. We choose the Italian made rubber because of its quality and its weight, to favor durability and comfort.
SOM Footwear is now well known for its lightweight design, superior comfort, and, after more than a year of being put to the test, its durability. What else do we need in a pair of shoes?!