When Lena Phoenix and Steven Sashen started Xero Shoes, they had no way of knowing that their minimalist footwear idea would grow into a leading brand, occupying nearly 100,000 square feet of office and warehouse space, with a branch in Prague.
In 2009, the husband-and-wife team was launching their fledgling company while managing what you might call a hairy internal conflict. Headquartered in the spare bedroom of their Boulder, Colorado, home, “it was me and Steven and a couple of cats that actually interfered with our ability to do work because they were always messing things up,” Phoenix says.
Sixteen years, one life-changing appearance on Shark Tank and hundreds of thousands of happy customers later, with 2023 revenue of almost $65 million, Xero and its subsidiaries employ 87 employees.
More importantly, the company has changed countless lives for the better. “We see ourselves as a health and wellness company disguised as a footwear brand,” says Phoenix, who works mainly on behind-the-scenes business initiatives. As one of the pioneers of the “barefoot” shoe space, “[the shoe] lets your feet—and therefore the rest of your body—function the way it’s supposed to,” says Sashen, who thrives on getting in front of people to promote the brand. For Xero’s many devotees, that means a return to pain-free movement and the ability to engage in an active lifestyle.
When Xero entered the marketplace, their product was aimed primarily at runners, among whom the groundbreaking bestseller Born to Run had recently sparked widespread interest in barefoot running. Since then, the idea that minimalist shoes allow our feet to develop the strength and flexibility required to support our body’s natural movement patterns has gained a foothold well beyond the running community.
Xero enthusiasts include recreational and elite athletes in every sport from pickleball to parkour, casual hikers and basketball pros like former Denver Nuggets forward-guard Justin Holiday and Detroit Pistons forward-center Isaiah Stewart.
As the company has expanded, so has the scale of the hurdles facing Phoenix and Sashen. Here are a few of the principles that have guided them along the way.
Make It Meaningful
Initially, the co-founders’ personal experience with the product was all the motivation they needed to forge ahead; Sashen credits Xero’s prototypical homemade huarache running sandal with eliminating the injuries that plagued him when he returned to sprinting at age 45 following a 30-year hiatus.
Over time, though, personal experience alone couldn’t provide sufficient motivation to drive the rapidly growing business forward. But the steadfast support of an ever-growing community of happy customers has provided plenty of inspiration to plow forward.
“As we’ve hit some of those very tough bumps in the road, it’s those emails from customers telling us we’ve changed their lives—that’s really what helps us get out of bed in the morning and face those obstacles and keep going,” Phoenix says.
“That meaning also has helped us attract really good quality talent,” she shares. The younger generations, in particular, want to make a difference, and giving their team members a chance to do just that sets Xero apart, she says.
Know Your Numbers
While a successful business requires all kinds of skills, it’s impossible to downplay the importance of understanding your finances. A sustainable venture hinges on “knowing your numbers inside out, backwards, left and right, and knowing that everything you’re going to do is going to cost you more than you expect and make you less than you expect,” Sashen says.
That means developing and maintaining “an exquisitely intimate relationship with every number that means anything,” Sashen says. That includes advertising costs, the return on your advertising spending, your profits, your margins and the state of the economy, to name a few, he explains. “A lot of people will be stunned that they’re making millions of dollars. But because they don’t understand cash flow, they actually end up going bankrupt,” he says.
Commit to Creativity
“In the early days, my job was coming up with a great idea. Lena’s job was telling me we didn’t have the money to do it,” Sashen says. This dynamic ended up being the breeding ground for boundless creativity. Sashen and Phoenix agree: Their ability to see a work-around instead of a dead end has been critical to their success.
Sashen feels problem-solving has always been one of his strengths. Sashen, who is Jewish, recalls a time in his childhood when his dad warned him that antisemitic people might try to get in his way. He remembers thinking, “If someone gets in my way, I just find a different way and different people.”
A commitment to creativity has also helped Sashen and Phoenix imagine—and plan for—what could go wrong. “At the end of the day, cash rules the business,” Phoenix says. And one of the best ways to maintain a positive cash flow is to prepare for a variety of scenarios. “My contingency plans have contingency plans,” she explains.
Detailed backup plans—and the creative forethought behind them—have kept Xero afloat through obstacles including the 2018-2019 trade war, the supply chain crisis and, more recently, new tariffs.
Mind the Competition
While it might seem counterintuitive to direct your attention away from your company’s vision and toward your competition, there’s significant value in keeping tabs on your industry rivals.
“If you think you have none, you might not have a real business,” Sashen says. On the other hand, “if you have a little, you need to be very aware of what they’re doing.” And if you think you’re entering a market with strong growth potential, “you have to imagine what kind of competition might show up,” he adds.
Sashen notes that in the past couple of years, the number of new minimalist shoe brands has skyrocketed. But what continues to set Xero apart is how they’ve anticipated the ways those brands might attempt to distinguish themselves and how Xero has continued to position itself as the superior alternative.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of SUCCESS® magazine. Photo courtesy of Xero.
