Stuart Jenkins is the founder and chief executive officer of Blumaka, a company that manufactures insoles and shoes for high performance runners and other athletes. As a marathon competitor, Stuart was frustrated not to be able to access high performance running shoes, so he designed and now manufacturers and sells his own line. Blumaka also sells its insole technology to Fleks shoes, one of Oprah’s top product picks.

The podcast begins with Stuart’s story. A farm boy from Nebraska, he won major marathons, finished in the Boston Marathon seven times, and was an Olympic trial runner. All told, he has run nearly 90,000 miles in his life so far, equivalent to circling the globe more than three times. He had first-hand experience with worn out insoles that lost their cushion. The insoles that come with top brand shoes, he states, fail in 30 miles or less. Blumaka guarantees its insoles for 1,000 miles.

Ted and Stuart discuss the benefits of running.. lots of time to think and reflect. Running competitively, Stuart reflects, is all about effort. If you work hard, you can be at the front of the pack. The old joke is that the hardest part of running is pulling on your shorts! Running stimulates creativity and thought; you can process information better when not distracted. Stuart stated that he can get more work done on a 30-minute run that being in the office for 4 – 5 hours.

As a young runner, he was given shoes by local race sponsors for winning his division. But they did not satisfy him so he took out his mom’s butcher’s knife and cut away at foam for more flex and better cushion. He punched holes in shoes if they were too hot. At age 17, and after modifying lots of shoes he thought, “I can make them better.”

The conversation shifts to foam. Blumaka uses leftover foam from manufacturing—soles that would otherwise be buried or burned. Foam is plastic, Stuart explains, the worst kind of plastic. Imagine plastic blown with gas. Once the air is blown into the foam, like a scrambled egg, it cannot be separated and recycled. Stuart buys waste foam from shoe manufacturing and found a way to reconfigure it, granulating it to maintain its cushioning properties.

Blumaka’s high performance products are popular. There are now 20 NFL teams buying from Blumaka, plus over 1,000 professional athletes. The non-slip insoles help runners run faster as their feet are not sliding inside shoes. They help golfers hit balls farther. Stuart is clear that his products are being bought not because they are sustainable… but for performance. His company’s mantra is to sell a product that is sustainable, but it also has to look as good or better, last as long or longer, and cost the same or less.

Blumaka built, owns, and operates a factory in Southern China where it is manufacturing without the cocktail of chemicals used by the major brands and their suppliers… and using a fraction of the water. Now Blumaka produces a line of products, from insoles and running shoes to pickleball shoes, golf shoes, and through its sister brand — Fleks– Blumaka sells sandals, flip-flops, and slides. EcoMotion readers are welcome to use the code ECOL20 at the Blumaka or Fleks website for a 20% discount to buy “the most sustainable souls on the planet.”