Soft Star Shoes Review

Custom Adult Dash RunAmoc and Custom Adult Metro Mary Jane

Are you looking for that pair of shoes that are unbelievably comfortable and feel like your favorite pair of shoes right out of the box? Shoes that have the ability to improve your feet and other areas of your body in more ways that you could ever imagine? Continue reading… I just received my newest Soft Star Shoes to add to my collection from this top-notch company in Oregon! After giving the many shoes we’ve purchased from this company a lot of foot action, it’s now time for us to share our thoughts with you and possibly you’ll love these shoes as much as we do! Before I share with you my opinions about these high quality handmade in the USA shoes, I believe it’s important for you to know that here at fountainofyouthtv, we live by the Golden Rule; we will never review an item that we are not thrilled with because we feel it's not kind to speak negatively about anyone or anything. We are not compensated in any way for our reviews. One of our missions is to share with our fountainofyouthtv family the products we enjoy and what we find to be of impeccable workmanship, gives us outstanding performance, and worth every dime! With that said, let’s talk about Soft Star Shoes and the charming family-owned Oregon company whose core values focus on making quality, natural minimal shoes for happy, healthy feet.

There’s SO much to love about these shoes and this small company. Whenever I find a company with great value and ethics I give them my attention and see what they’re all about. Soft Star Shoes is one of those companies that goes above and beyond the call of duty. Each shoe is handcrafted to order, in a workplace that promotes mutual respect and dignity. All of the people who work there are treated like family, and the community are welcome to visit year-round to take tours of the workshop. Soft Star also gives financial support to programs for children, growing families, and events all over the country each year. Each shoe is handcrafted by “Elves”, that’s what the workers call themselves, who use only the best quality materials available. Whenever I purchase something, I opt to buy from companies with great respect for our planet. Soft Star Shoes takes this to the next level! Each shoe is handcrafted by talented “elves” that have been making shoes since 1984. This is one of the last remaining makers of adult and children’s footwear that can say with great pride that their products are made in the USA. Raw materials are sourced as close to the workshop as possible; with leather tanned in US tanneries and their soling materials purchased from Vibram's™ USA product lines. Yes, these may be bit more expensive than other options and I believe SO worth every dime! This company believes this results in a high quality product with a smaller carbon footprint...We appreciate this! Soft Star is dedicated to designing distinctive and healthy options for minimalist footwear. Their shoes are sold exclusively via the Internet at Soft Star Shoes or at the workshop showroom, and word of mouth. We appreciate their efforts to conserve raw materials, minimizing their environmental footprint by reducing waste, recycling, and reusing. A company who truly loves their country, their planet, and their craft! And to top it all off, NO better customer service anywhere!

Our collection of Soft Star Shoes

If you’re new to minimal shoes (barefoot shoes), let me quickly explain what they are. A shoe that provides minimal obstruction with natural movement of the feet due to incredible flexibility, low heel to toe drop, weight and thickness of the sole at the center of the heel, free of technology that are added to typical running shoes. Minimalist footwear encourages one to land on the forefoot and midfoot, rather than the heel, when running. You’ll also run more naturally as God designed us to move. Check out my blog called Shed Your Shoes, which will help you to better understand why we made the switch to barefoot shoes years ago. You'll run with shorter, quicker steps that can provide more effective propulsion and promote better natural shock absorption. To me, less is more!!! Many studies show that when wearing barefoot shoes, we lower injury risks, our stride changes for the better, and reduce the force of impact. We’ve found amazing improvements not only in the strength and flexibility of our feet, stronger ankles and calves, less jolting to joints allowing for improvement in so many areas of running, walking, and overall body healing from previous damage incurred from standard running shoes/sneakers.

Below, I’ve included a picture I borrowed off of the Soft Star Shoe website. This may help you to visualize what I’m talking about.

Conventional Shoes vs. Minimal Shoes

Shoe Review:

If I’m not barefoot, my shoe of choice is Soft Star Shoes! Why?

All that I LOVE about wearing Soft Star Shoes!

Quality - The leather meets high safety standards for customers and the environment. They are as chemical-free as possible. As I’m very sensitive to chemicals and only use products that are natural, this means a great deal to me! Almost all of the leather is sourced from USA tanneries to ensure that it adheres to strict regulations. They also offer vegetable tanned leather from Germany with extremely high standards, arguably the most natural and sustainable leather in the world.

Feel – The leather is SO soft and supple! Right out of the box they are beyond comfortable, light, and flexible…the next best thing to being barefoot! The toe box is wide, allowing for toes to splay/spread out correctly. The shoes are so light allowing for my feet to land lighter with less impact. We feel that we have less fatigue, more energy to run longer, and recover much faster. Our feet don't sweat in the styles that we have. With all natural materials, they really breather well. No chemical odor that bothers my sensitive nose!

Style – Dress them up or go casual…versatility!! I wear my shoes to teach in, to church, out to dinner, concerts, running through the woods, hiking in the mountains…they do it all.

Construction – Each shoe is handcrafted. The beautiful quality leather lays softly over the foot unlike the standard footwear that is rigid and constricting in the toe box area. There is no arch support or cushioning. We’ve found that our feet, ankles, and calves have become much stronger since we've stopped wearing standard shoes and are now completely wearing minimal shoes. When ordering your shoes, you have the option to purchase shoes already made or design your own unique pair from their custom visualizer tool that allows you the ability to select the kind of leather, colors, motifs, shoelace color, specific outer-soles, width, and large selection of sizes for men, women, teens, and children. So much fun to customize your own shoes! They even have vegan animal-friendly shoes! We LOVE their selection of soles! 2mm Vibram rubber sole, 4mm bullhide leather, or 5mm Vibram rubber sole, as well as suede/sheepskin soles. Our favorite is the bullhide leather! Perfect for Grounding/Earthing, too!

Built to last - Our shoes look as good as the day we bought them. I wear one of my Soft Star pair of shoes each day. Even when collecting spring water, the bullhide leather gets a bit wet, but doesn't soak through to my feet. They dry quickly and look good as new! The leather upper is easy to maintain with a damp cloth to wipe away any dirt.

These beautiful Dash RunAmoc shoes keep my feet nice and dry at the spring!

Cost - We feel their prices are very reasonable for the amazing quality that we get with free shipping on USPS First Class in the USA and Canada. They are built to last!

Our Custom Adult Dash RunAmoc - $145

Custom Adult Metro - $149

Sizing - We found the Soft Star sizing guide to be very helpful and accurate. I normally wear between an 8.5 to 9 in standard US sizes and Rox wears a size 10. As they use unisex sizing it was simple to understand that selecting our size shoe would be one size up from the the man's. So I went with the 8U which would equal a size 9 in women's shoes. Rox went with the 9U which would equal a women's size 10. They also have narrow, regular, and wide widths available as well.

Great for traveling - With the soft leather and thin soles, we love how easy these shoes are to pack and travel with. They take up hardly no space at all in our luggage. At airports, my Adult Metro shoes are so easy to slip off and put back on quickly when going through security.

Best Customer Service Anywhere - Each time I've called Soft Star Shoes, one of the "Elves" happily answers the phone and answers my questions with great knowledge of their products. They spend the needed time to help me make an informed decision as to what I would like to order. After customizing my order online, and placing my order, it usually takes about a week and a half for my shoes to arrive in the mail. Love the way our shoes are especially made just for us in the colors, styles, and soles that we like the best!!

I'm sure you can see how thrilled both Rox and I am with all of the shoes we've purchased from Soft Star Shoes! Everywhere we go, people stop us to inquire about our shoes. We'd love to hear your experiences with Soft Star Shoes or perhaps ask us some questions. We'd love to hear from you! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Peace and Grace, 💖

Suz