When Lena Phoenix and Steven Sashen began Xero Sneakers, that they had no method of realizing that their minimalist footwear thought would develop into a number one model, occupying almost 100,000 sq. toes of workplace and warehouse house, with a department in Prague.
In 2009, the husband-and-wife staff was launching their fledgling firm whereas managing what you would possibly name a bushy inner battle. Headquartered within the spare bed room of their Boulder, Colorado, residence, “it was me and Steven and a few cats that really interfered with our skill to do work as a result of they had been all the time messing issues up,” Phoenix says.
Sixteen years, one life-changing look on Shark Tank and lots of of hundreds of comfortable clients later, with 2023 income of just about $65 million, Xero and its subsidiaries make use of 87 workers.
Extra importantly, the corporate has modified numerous lives for the higher. “We see ourselves as a well being and wellness firm disguised as a footwear model,” says Phoenix, who works primarily on behind-the-scenes enterprise initiatives. As one of many pioneers of the “barefoot” shoe house, “[the shoe] lets your toes—and due to this fact the remainder of your physique—operate the way in which it’s speculated to,” says Sashen, who thrives on getting in entrance of individuals to promote the model. For Xero’s many devotees, meaning a return to pain-free motion and the power to have interaction in an energetic life-style.
When Xero entered {the marketplace}, their product was aimed primarily at runners, amongst whom the groundbreaking bestseller Born to Run had lately sparked widespread curiosity in barefoot operating. Since then, the concept that minimalist sneakers enable our toes to develop the energy and adaptability required to assist our physique’s pure motion patterns has gained a foothold nicely past the operating group.
Xero fans embody leisure and elite athletes in each sport from pickleball to parkour, informal hikers and basketball execs like former Denver Nuggets forward-guard Justin Vacation and Detroit Pistons forward-center Isaiah Stewart.
As the corporate has expanded, so has the dimensions of the hurdles dealing with Phoenix and Sashen. Listed here are just a few of the rules which have guided them alongside the way in which.
Make It Significant
Initially, the co-founders’ private expertise with the product was all of the motivation they wanted to forge forward; Sashen credit Xero’s prototypical selfmade huarache operating sandal with eliminating the accidents that plagued him when he returned to sprinting at age 45 following a 30-year hiatus.
Over time, although, private expertise alone couldn’t present ample motivation to drive the quickly rising enterprise ahead. However the steadfast assist of an ever-growing group of comfortable clients has offered loads of inspiration to plow ahead.
“As we’ve hit a few of these very robust bumps within the street, it’s these emails from clients telling us we’ve modified their lives—that’s actually what helps us get away from bed within the morning and face these obstacles and hold going,” Phoenix says.
“That that means additionally has helped us appeal to actually good high quality expertise,” she shares. The youthful generations, specifically, need to make a distinction, and giving their staff members an opportunity to just do that units Xero aside, she says.
Know Your Numbers
Whereas a profitable enterprise requires all types of expertise, it’s inconceivable to downplay the significance of understanding your funds. A sustainable enterprise hinges on “realizing your numbers inside out, backwards, left and proper, and realizing that every thing you’re going to do goes to price you greater than you anticipate and make you lower than you anticipate,” Sashen says.
Which means creating and sustaining “an exquisitely intimate relationship with each quantity meaning something,” Sashen says. That features promoting prices, the return in your promoting spending, your income, your margins and the state of the financial system, to call just a few, he explains. “Lots of people will probably be surprised that they’re making tens of millions of {dollars}. However as a result of they don’t perceive money circulate, they really find yourself going bankrupt,” he says.
Decide to Creativity
“Within the early days, my job was developing with an excellent thought. Lena’s job was telling me we didn’t have the cash to do it,” Sashen says. This dynamic ended up being the breeding floor for boundless creativity. Sashen and Phoenix agree: Their skill to see a work-around as an alternative of a useless finish has been vital to their success.
Sashen feels problem-solving has all the time been one among his strengths. Sashen, who’s Jewish, recollects a time in his childhood when his dad warned him that antisemitic folks would possibly attempt to get in his method. He remembers pondering, “If somebody will get in my method, I simply discover a completely different method and completely different folks.”
A dedication to creativity has additionally helped Sashen and Phoenix think about—and plan for—what may go fallacious. “On the finish of the day, money guidelines the enterprise,” Phoenix says. And probably the greatest methods to keep up a optimistic money circulate is to arrange for quite a lot of situations. “My contingency plans have contingency plans,” she explains.
Detailed backup plans—and the inventive forethought behind them—have saved Xero afloat by obstacles together with the 2018-2019 commerce battle, the availability chain disaster and, extra lately, new tariffs.
Thoughts the Competitors
Whereas it may appear counterintuitive to direct your consideration away out of your firm’s imaginative and prescient and towards your competitors, there’s vital worth in preserving tabs in your business rivals.
“When you suppose you’ve gotten none, you won’t have an actual enterprise,” Sashen says. Then again, “in case you have just a little, it’s essential be very conscious of what they’re doing.” And for those who suppose you’re coming into a market with robust development potential, “it’s important to think about what sort of competitors would possibly present up,” he provides.
Sashen notes that previously couple of years, the variety of new minimalist shoe manufacturers has skyrocketed. However what continues to set Xero aside is how they’ve anticipated the methods these manufacturers would possibly try to differentiate themselves and the way Xero has continued to place itself because the superior different.
This text initially appeared within the July/August 2025 difficulty of SUCCESS® journal. Picture courtesy of Xero.
