The Founder's Journey

At GravaFlex, we believe better movement starts from the ground up — and that strong, healthy feet are the foundation of a mobile, balanced, and connected body.

But for most of my life, I didn’t know that.
I’m Greg, founder of GravaFlex — and for years, I just assumed sore, cramped feet were normal.

In high school, I wore size 13 shoes because that’s what I thought fit. My toes always hurt, but I figured everyone’s did. A few years later, I got into distance running and visited a specialty store for proper shoes. They told me I was overpronating and wearing shoes that were too small — so I sized up to a 14 and started using stability shoes. The extra space felt better… but not enough.

They also told me the worst thing I could do was go barefoot — so I believed them. I wore arch-support slides at home and leaned into the cushioned-shoe trend. When Hoka came along, I jumped in. The comfort felt great at first — but their narrow toe boxes kept cramping my toes. Even in wide sizes, the shoes felt wrong: too big in the wrong places, too tight where I needed space.

Eventually, I developed mallet toe and had a flexor tenotomy on all of my toes. Once they could finally lay flat, I realized I actually needed size 15 shoes. But even in size 15s, the toe box was still too tight — especially for my larger big toes, which pushed all my other toes together.

At the same time, I started noticing a decline in my balance, flexibility, and overall mobility. I blamed it on age and started following mobility coaches online. One day, I came across a coach wearing barefoot shoes, and it caught my eye. Later, I met someone in real life wearing VivoBarefoot, and he had great things to say — so I tried a pair.

And that changed everything.

For the first time, my toes weren’t cramped. My feet could feel the ground and respond naturally. I started wearing barefoot shoes to the gym… then all the time. I now go barefoot as often as I can, and my feet have grown stronger, more stable, and more connected.  I realize now that I didn't need those stability shoes, I needed to strengthen my feet.

As I learned more, I started using toe spacers to help retrain my feet — but once again, I hit a wall.
Nothing fit my feet.
Every pair I tried was too small, stretched tight, and offered no real spacing between my toes.

So I decided to solve the problem myself.

That’s why I started GravaFlex — to create simple, effective tools that fit real feet, even bigger ones like mine. Tools that restore natural function and support better movement for everyone.