"It's all been
social media, grassroots marketing, a lot of one-on-one conversations, frankly, is what it's been that's built this business," he tells Natalie Armstrong. And when bigger companies copy his product,
he's counting on those relationships to keep it going. "People will always find a way, even if it's not an exact copy to design around something, so at the end of the day it's really about your
relationship with the consumer," Post says.
There now are more than 700 distributors for the shoe, which forces runners to land on their forefoot instead of their heels, in North America. Post says the company has "never run a single ad" for the product, which targets young, active people interested in anything from fitness training, running and outdoor activities to yoga.
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I know for a fact that I saw an ad for Vibram Five Fingers calling out knockoff products. So maybe it wasn't exactly a promo ad, but still it featured the product and its innovative design.