Business people : “Barefoot Sandal” Start-up Xero Shoes Brings On Former Crocs Exec and Avia Co-founder

Feel The World, Inc, a Boulder-based start-up that’s already the world’s leading seller of barefoot-style sandals, Xero Shoes, announced the hiring of a 35-year industry expert as Chief Development Officer. Dennis Driscoll, former Global Design Director for Crocs and co-founder of Avia Athletic Footwear will spearhead new product development as well as provide business development assistance to Xero Shoes’ management team. 

Boulder, CO (PRWEB) October 04, 2012

Dennis Driscoll, a 35-year footwear industry veteran who co-founded Avia Footwear and most recently worked as Global Design Director for Crocs, has joined Boulder-based barefoot running shoe start-up, Feel The World, Inc., the makers of Xero Shoes • Original Barefootware.

Driscoll's roll at the bestselling "barefoot sandal" manufacturer is Chief Development Officer. Asked what attracted him to the product, he answers, "Xero Shoes are genuine, legitimate. We don't have to create ways to differentiate our product, because it is actually different."

Regarding the company, and its co-founders, Steven Sashen and wife Lena Phoenix, Driscoll adds, "They are a smart team who've already proven themselves and their business. I like that my experience with all aspects of the footwear business can have a big impact here."

Sashen and Phoenix reciprocate the admiration. "It’s highly unusual for someone of Dennis’s skills and caliber to work for a company at our stage. We're thrilled to have Dennis help take our barefoot shoes, and our company, to the levels we know they can attain."

Dennis Driscoll started in the footwear business in 1978 with Osaga Athletic Footwear as the Director of Product Development. In 1981 he co-founded Avia Athletic Footwear as the VP of Product. Ten years later Dennis joined Wilson Sporting Goods as the Global Business Unit Director of Footwear. After a 7-year stint at Converse in senior product roles, Driscoll took a position at Doc Martens Footwear and moved to London as the Global Director of Product. In 2010, he went to work for Crocs as Global Design Director where he had a fourteen member design team in the US office and design centers in Padova, Italy and Tokyo, Japan.

Visit http://www.XeroShoes.com to learn more about the minimalist sandal company and its barefoot-style products.