Secrets of the Masai come to Oz

McLean Marketing director Julianne McLean, whose company promotes the brand in Australasia on behalf of parent company Masai Walking Australia - said the health benefits of the Masai Barefoot Technology (MBT) range of shoes included improved posture, abdominal, leg and buttock muscle strengthening and weight loss enhancement.
"Masai Barefoot Technology is based on a discovery as simple as it is astounding: at the beginning of the 1990s Swiss engineer, Karl Mueller, discovered that for the Masai, shoes and back pain were unheard of and that there was a causal relationship between these two facts," McLean said.
"Because they walk barefoot on the soft, uneven ground of their East African homeland, the Masai activate the muscles that degenerate through walking in conventional street shoes on hard even surfaces."
Mueller developed a sole construction that would let consumers enjoy the benefits of walking barefoot and launched the first MBTs in Switzerland in 1996.
The shoes featured an internationally patented multi-layered sole construction surrounding the shoes "heart" - an elliptical shaped sensor - which passed on the effects of walking barefoot to the entire body.
To date around one million pairs of MBT footwear had been sold in over 20 countries, with celebrities including Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Teri Hatcher and Arnold Schwarzeneggar lining up to endorse the product, she said.
The shoes - which include sporty, classic and elegant lines - are available in a range of stockists nationally including Peter Sheppard and Sports Fever stores, with prices starting at $339 for sandals and $369 for shoes and boots, complete with a training DVD.
Educating people about the benefits of MBT was an important part of the selling process, said Masai Walking Australia director Sue Mueller.
"In particular it's important to get these shoes on young people's feet as early on as possible, so they can go through life healthier than older generations," she said.