Earth shoes (also known as Kalso Earth Shoes) were an unconventional style of shoe invented in the 1970s in Scandinavia by Danish shoe designer Anna Kalsø. Unlike most other shoes, the soles were thick and the heels were thin (Negative Heel Technology), so wearing them one walked heel-downward.
The shoes were introduced in the United States in New York City on April 1, 1970.
The shoes surged in popularity and were prominently featured on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and TIME Magazine. Unable to keep up with demand, franchise owners pursued litigation against the United States distributor of Kalso Earth Shoes, and the brand discontinued being sold at retail by the late 1970s.
A new firm with the same name is now in existence, and has recently introduced shoes with negative heels in a variety of styles ranging from sandals to running shoes.
In 2001, Kalso Earth Shoes re-surfaced as the rights to the name, technology and branded properties was purchased by Meynard Designs, Inc.
Today, Kalso Earth Shoes with "negative heels" include a range of styles from sandals to walking shoes.
The company also sells separate branded lines of footwear without the "negative heel -- "Earth Footwear" and "Earthies."
Famous quotes containing the words earth and/or shoe:
“The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“Your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your
sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and everything about
you demonstrating a careless desolation.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)