THE MBT Walking Shoe

Like I often tell my husband as he looks toward me horrified, my face covered in a caking green slime mask, hair dripping with oils and heating towels and hands in heating mitts:  "Beauty isn't pretty hon"

Case in point:  I am test driving a pair of shoes that have intrigued me since I first saw a person wearing them in Asia last summer.

Called MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) these shoes shift the balance of the body from backward leaning (toward the heel) toward the middle of the foot behind our center of gravity.

Because the balance of these shoes is out of the norm and imitates an "uneven" walking plain, wearing these shoes forces you to work harder, using muscles that are not ordinarily engaged when walking or running with normal footwear.  Not only are your core muscles now engaged but MBT is reported to tighten and tone the feet, ankles, calves, hamstrings, upper and inner thigh, buttocks, stomach and back.  It's as if you've got a gym - all in a shoe!  Can it be this easy?  Can a shoe multi-purpose so exquisitely?

The shoe takes its name from the Masai tribe of Eastern Africa who are known for their elegant and upright posture.  This stance is a result of walking barefoot on irregular natural surfaces and working not only the various muscles in legs, stomach and buttocks but standing erect to preserve the skeletal system. These ungainly and clunky shoes come with an instructional dvd and even some starter exercises to get your balance intact before hitting the road.

I took my bright red "Lifestyle" MB T's out for their first test drive this morning and I can report that my calves, buttocks and that oh -so tough to reach part of the very upper thigh are all tingling with fresh blood flow.  I did feel my core engage in order to help me stand upright on the pivot point in the centre of the shoe.  Worried about the unappealing look?  I got so many questions and comments on these unusual looking shoes during my usual morning walk, I'd cooled down long before I was finished the walk.  In fact,paired with the right outfit....you can actually make these rather orthopedic looking shoes seem rather "of the moment".

Comments

[Jen]

Last year our personal friend and inventor of the MBT, Karl Mueller, departed from his MBT kingdom in order to pursue other inventions and creations. At first we felt that this would not at all have an impact on the MBT product, which seemed to be at such a high quality and outstanding level. Nor did we feel it would impact the company's business units as Karl had partnered his brand with many excellent people worldwide.

On the business side we were wrong: immediately MBT's US subsidiary in Idaho (our direct business partner for the brand) was completely reorganized and new managers were hired, most of whom had made their previous careers in the low end and discount shoe businesses.

Their first move was to completely change the MBT product line: out with the old and in with the new. And as a consequence at the end of 2007 we ran an amazing sale on the dropped MBTs and we thank many of our customers for their enthusiastic participation and business in this sale of our existing inventory.

Even more significantly, on the product side we were unfortunately also wrong: having recommended, fitted and sold over 5,000 pairs of the entire MBT product line since 2004 from both our brick & mortar and our online virtual stores, it quickly became apparent to ourselves and to our customers that most of the MBTs produced after Karl's departure were not even close to what we had become accustom to...

In particular, starting in November 2007 we began receiving a plethora of complaints from customers that their MBTs were wearing out -- of the outsoles and collapsing Masai sensors -- already after only three weeks of usage (attached is a picture study of the outsole of the MBT Sport comparing the older and the newer product executions).

Since then we have also wear-tested many of the new Spring 2008 MBTs and, also unfortunately, the results have been extremely poor: POOR FIT, COLLAPSING MASAI SENSOR, PREMATURE & COMPLETE OUTSOLE WEAR, LACK OF STABILITY, EXTREMELY HEAVY... And as a result somewhat reluctantly, we have now decided to no longer sell the MBT in our store until (hopefully) the former quality of this once-great-product has one day been completely restored.

Just as we had been so enthusiastic in communicating and promoting the MBT brand when it was in its prime, we hope you understand our decision that we can not support any of our former efforts, convictions and recommendations based on the poor product quality issues present in almost all of the current MBT products. Quite frankly, there is no way we could recommend & sell the MBT in its current execution FOR OVER US$ 200!!! and expect our customers at all to continue to take our advice and recommendation seriously.

To conclude, it appears that even more significantly than driving the MBT creation and innovation, Karl Mueller, during his time at the company, was successful in maintaining the MBT shoe's high execution standard of quality production. With him no longer involved, we are convinced that the MBT is no longer what it once was... and that anyone who has been as involved with the MBT as closely, as thoroughly and as long as ourselves is similarly in complete agreement with our position.

[sheila horowitz]

what is the closest to MBT, now that Mr.Meuller is gone?

[sheila horowitz]

what is the closest to MBT, now that Mr.Meuller is gone?

[Jack]

Is there any way to still obtain high quality samples of this product?

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[Stefanie]

I've been doing research on mbt shoes all morning and every page has that karl meuller message in the comments area. So where can we buy mbt that were produced before karl left? Are the shoes dated, a code to look for??

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