If you're here right now, I'm guessing you're tired of wearing your humid, painful dress shoes - day in and day out.

• Maybe you deal with clients face to face.
• Maybe your work requires formal attire.

• Maybe you love how dress shoes look, but hate how they feel.

Whatever your circumstances, one thing is clear.

Life would be a lot more pleasant if someone would build a dress shoe that looked great and at the end of a long day, didn’t make your feet feel like they’d been flogged.

I'll introduce myself in a second, but before I do - you can see just how much pain we've been able relieve with our customers.

My name is Mountain. And I'm going to introduce you a new approach to footwear...and your pain.

For years I kept asking myself one question.

When was someone going to make a dress shoe that was *actually* comfortable to wear?

It didn’t seem like a huge ask.

But years came and went. Nothing changed.

No revolutionary new shoe on the market. No breakthroughs in shoe technology that made a real difference.

Then one day I had the book "Born to Run" recommended to me.

If you’ve never read it before, it makes a strong case for humans being exceptionally good at distance running. It's peppered with quotes in favor of minimalist shoes from Harvard researcher/paleoanthropologist Dr. Daniel Lieberman.

It’s easiest to see this in action with the growing popularity of ultra marathons - which start at 31 miles and go all the way up to 3,100 miles in New York’s Sri Chinmoy.

But you can also see this kind of long distance running as a casually accepted part of Rarámuri culture - that is, a native American tribe that runs up to 200 miles (7.2 back to back marathons) in a single session for inter village messages, hunting, or just to get around.

The evidence is clear.

Humans rock at running.

Just one thing. Modern humans get injured like crazy when we run.

The Rarámuri tribe...not so much.

The data seems to point to differences in footwear.

They don’t use padded running shoes.

They do all their running in huaraches - basically a sandal which is made of a thin sole and a strap to hold it in place. Below is a picture of a modern huarache.

Incredibly, this approach to running has been adopted by world class athletes...

Many of them started seeing their usual post run injuries vanish.

With that, my world changed. This was something I needed to try for myself.

I practiced running barefoot around my neighborhood in San Diego.

I loved the feeling of being barefoot, so...I tried to wear my Vibram Five Fingers to work.

That's when I discovered that appearances can matter a lot in the workplace.

As you might guess, this look can damage your reputation in the office.

So I gave in that day. I switched to my regular old black leather dress shoes and hated every minute of it.

My toes felt restricted, sweaty, and humid. Everything I loved about being barefoot had been replaced with what felt like shoe prison.

Later that night, I came home so frustrated with the thick heels on my shoes that I trimmed them down with a hand saw.

That was mistake #2.

The shoes were ruined, and I learned a lesson.

If I was going to show up in the world on my terms, I was going to have to make my own shoes.

Months of research and testing later, Carets was born.
 

What's special about Carets?

Let me be perfectly clear. There's no overwhelming scientific evidence for or against zero drop, minimalist, or barefoot shoes.

All I can offer you are my logic based on the facts available and the raving reviews from our customers. *knock on wood* Until September 5th, 2018, no customer has told us that our shoes have caused an injury. A huge number have told us that we have made their work lives more comfortable and have relieved their pain.

There is evidence that a raised heel throws off our alignment and forces more of our weight into our knees and toes.

We see an exaggeration of this effect in one study after another on women’s shoes. The higher the heel, the more pain and potential damage to the toes, ankles, knees, and even the back as the body tries to compensate - even a small heel has a negative effect, especially if you weigh more.* **

The other problem with dress shoes is that our toes get pushed deeper into the narrow toe box, causing pain, conditions like bunions or neuromas, and increasing the risk of plantar fasciitis.*

According to podiatrist Harvey Lemont, the best thing you can do for your toes (and legs!) is to give your toes room to spread out.

“This fixed my problems. I haven't had knee or foot pain in five years. I'm running 70 miles a week, up to 30 on weekends."
- Harvey Lemont, Podiatrist

Finally, the padded soles in most modern shoes stop us from really feeling the ground with our feet, the way we're meant to. This causes unnatural movement and of course, pain.

“People actually land softer when they have less cushioning. [...]Cushioning actually lulls you into thinking you can slam your foot into the ground.”

- Irene S. Davis, PhD, PT, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School & Director of the Spaulding National Running Center.*

You can think of modern shoes like a cast. When we put our arms in casts, they become weaker. It’s no different with our feet and legs. Modern shoes are designed to protect our feet - and credit where credit is due - when it comes to avoiding sharp rocks or shielding your feet from broken glass, they do a great job!

But let’s approach this with simple logic.

Many shoes, especially dress shoes, don’t allow for much movement in your feet. Your toes are pinned down in the narrow toe box. Your foot is rigidly locked into the place between the padded sole, your socks, and the walls of the shoe.

When your foot is in a dress shoe, it can’t flex and adjust the same way it could if you were barefoot. So the muscles in your feet don’t do as much flexing as they normally would.

This is a problem.

The muscles we don’t use tend to grow weaker and weaker - until eventually we suffer from a torn muscle, a sprain, or something worse.

I’ve made a point of designing our dress shoes to help you fight back and strengthen your feet.

Each dress shoe comes equipped with a thin and light but durable and hard-wearing polyurethane sole, so you can feel the ground beneath you and move the way you were built to move.

The toe boxes are roomier so you’ll never feel like you’re losing blood flow. Many of our customers also experience the pleasant effect of no longer having to suffer through sweaty feet.

The heel is zero drop - that is, it’s an optical illusion. Your feet lie flat on the ground, instead of slowly sliding further and further into the toe box because of the raised heel. You’ll never feel like your toes are being slowly jammed into a vise like you would on traditional shoes.

Nor will your body try to compensate for the heel by messing with your calves, skewing your posture, or awkwardly loading unnecessary weight into the lower back.

In short, I believe you’ll feel more comfortable in these dress shoes than any other formal shoe you’ve ever owned or worn.

How do I know they work?

There’s no way to guarantee these shoes will fix your problems. The list of potential causes and cures for aches and pains is just too broad for one piece of gear to them all.

I will say this.

Most Carets shoe owners get exactly what they’re looking for.

I’m confident you’ll love your Carets no matter which shoes you decide on.

If for any reason you don’t love them, I’ll buy them back.

Hassle-free.

In fact, we’ve built out a best in class program for people to test drive our shoes without any risk.

I’ll explain more about that in a second.

I need more time to decide. What if I don’t like the shoes I ordered?

Here’s where things go from good to great.

I know what it’s like shopping for shoes online.

Sometimes things don’t look the way we expect. Sometimes the fit isn’t right. Sometimes the shoes just aren’t for you.

So before you fully commit to your next pair of Carets…I want you to try them risk-free for a FULL 365 days.

When you order any pair of shoes from us, you’ll have an entire year to try them out. Go to work in them. Walk around the park. Attend a wedding.

Do what you need to do - and if they somehow aren’t your new favorite pair of shoes.

Send them back.

Provided you haven’t run them through a wood chipper or gashed up the sides, all you need to do is clean em up and send them to me for a full refund.