High Line Retail's Sharath Raju, 28, travels all over India in his attempt to sell the concept of a barefoot shoe, which is currently alien in the country.
‘Perhaps all our troubles — all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome — began when we stopped living as Running People.’
With these words, Christopher McDougall aptly summed what was the best use of our feet. McDougall’s Born to run inspired 28-year-old Sharath Raju to delve deeper into the style of living that has engulfed our busy lives. Being an athlete, Sharath realised that even though he was living an active life, he was prone to injuries with 80% athletes suffering from common injuries.
This is when he realised that no matter the cost and style of your conventional sports gear, the healthiest way of running or walking is to do go barefoot. With ample research Sharath found a not-so-established idea of footgear.
All he is trying to pitch is the idea of an alternate living — for your foot. A barefoot shoe follows the concept of footwear that is closest to being bare foot i.e. an ultra-thin sole.
Mind you, he’s not just a business man trying to sell his joota! Sharath, the owner of High Line Retail (exclusive retailer of Vivo Barefoot), travels all over India in his attempt to sell the concept of a barefoot shoe, which is currently alien in the country. It may not sound commercially viable, but Sharath is confident the benefits of a barefoot shoe for an injury-free lifestyle will soon be a common knowledge.
“Barefoot, we believe, is the future way of living,” Sharath says with a belief even though he is well aware of the fact that he has a long way to go before the concept is adopted by the masses.
Being the only certified trainer in this technology in India and having trained under one of world’s best barefoot running coaches, Sharath undertakes training sessions in order to “re-awaken” people’s innate skill of running in a natural way and instilling confidence in their “over-protected” feet.
How does he propagate this idea? With three mantras — posture, rhythm and relaxation. Perfection in these three, says Sharath, can help you overcome all the injuries.
Apart from the training, Sharath is the lone Indian who is publicising a rather unique form of footwear which, he says, has four unique features —puncture-proof sole, wide-toebox, no artificial support and flexible shoe— combined with style.
Social media, groups of sportsmen and well-travelled people — these are the three areas Sharath is largely dependent on the word-of-mouth before moving on to commercial promotion of the brand.
Boasting of the world’s lightest footwear, and the only running sandals in his range of footwear, Sharath says barefoot shoes are “scientifically” proven beneficial.
As of now the shoes are available in multi-brand retail stores in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi and are priced between 2,000 to 7,000. Sharath was recently in Mumbai and is looking towards introducing the shoes in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Promising to be on-par in style, Sharad claims the Vivo Barefoot’s collection offers attractive design with functionality.
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