Xero Shoes’ Co-Founders Steven Sashen and Lena Phoenix featured on “How I Built This” Podcast
March 6, 2023 (Broomfield, CO) – Xero Shoes’ co-founders Steven Sashen and Lena Phoenix were interviewed on the NPR podcast and radio show, “How I Build This,” hosted by Guy Raz.
“How I Built This” dives deep into the origin stories of iconic brands, sharing how visionary entrepreneurs weather the trials and failures on the road to success. Six years and just over 500 episodes in, it’s a top-five business podcast on Apple with more than three million subscribers.
In a 90-minute interview, Sashen and Phoenix covered a wide range of personal, professional, and philosophical topics touching on their own entrepreneurial journeys and their experience growing Xero Shoes.
During the broadcast, Raz states that “the brand sold nearly $50 million dollars worth of shoes” and Phoenix estimated the Company’s 2022 pre-audit net revenue at $48 million dollars, a 44 percent increase from 2021.
From the corner of the founder’s spare bedroom to a multinational brand, Xero Shoes’ has expanded into Europe, has seven international distributors, and is in more than 400 stores worldwide. The brand has a nearly “evangelical following”: 40 percent of barefoot shoe sales come from repeat customers, and 60 percent of customers report owning three or more pairs of Xero Shoes.
The podcast was released to subscribers of Wondery and Amazon Music on March 6th, and is available NPR.org and other podcast platforms on March 13th.
Listen to the full episode of Xero Shoes on “How I Built This” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Stitcher, or wherever you get podcasts.
Link to episode: https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-xero-shoes-steven-sashen-and-lena-phoenix/
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