The Earth Shoe (also known as the Kalsø Earth Shoe) was an unconventional style of
shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...
invented circa 1957 by Danish yoga instructor and shoe designer Anna Kalsø.
Its unique "negative heel technology" design featured a sole that was thinner at the heel than at the forefoot, so that when wearing them, one walked heel downward, as when walking in sand, with various claimed health benefits.
In 1970,
Raymond
Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...
and Eleanor Jacobs founded the Earth Shoe company in the United States, after discovering Anna Kalsø and her negative-heel shoes in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
,
Denmark
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, song_type = National and royal anthem
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.
The shoes were introduced in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on April 1, 1970, three weeks before the first
Earth Day
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 b ...
.
[ The shoes quickly became a popular ]countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
symbol of the 1970s. The company expanded to 123 stores to sell the shoes, boots, and sandals, all with the negative-heel design, across the United States, Canada, and Europe.The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...
'' and in ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine. Soon, other firms, including Roots Canada
Roots Corporation (doing business as Roots) is a publicly held Canadian brand that sells apparel, leather bags, small leather goods, footwear, athletic wear, and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1973 in Toronto, Ontario, by Michael ...
, also marketed similar negative-heel shoes. Experts expressed varying opinions on whether the shoes were good or bad for one's feet.
By 1976 sales had grown to $14 million, but the company dissolved in 1977.[ They are not to be confused with the Earth Spirit shoe brand sold by ]Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
, and others.
References
External links
Current producers of Kalsø Earth Shoes
1970s fashion
Shoes
{{Shoe-stub