What's ASHINAKA SHOES?

Welcome to ASHINAKA SHOES GRIPDROP!!

Do you know ASHINAKA ?

ASHINAKA is a traditional Japanese footwear and appears in the Kamakura period picture scroll "Kasuga Gongen Reigenki", which means it already existed 700 years ago.

 

 

They are a kind of straw sandals, and are said to be so named because they are small and only halfway up the foot.　足(ASHI)means foot.半(NAKA)means half.
The statue of Takamori Saigo in Ueno Park also wears a pair of ASHINAKA.

 

Since the Edo period (1603-1868), they have been widely used in farming and fishing villages for labor, and even today they are used for cormorant fishing on the Nagara River.

The short length of the shoes allows them to fit closely to the soles of the feet, preventing pebbles and mud from getting in and making them slip-resistant.

 

GRIPDROP was created with a hint of ASHINAKA.

Why do we need ASHINAKA now?
It is because the feet of modern people have become critically weak.
There are three major reasons.

・The ground has become hard and flat, such as asphalt and concrete.
・Lack of basic exercise due to the development of transportation networks and lifestyle changes.
・Wearing shoes that are overly protective of the feet. （Cushioning, support）

 

As a result, the feet of people, especially those in developed countries, have lost the ability to move in complex ways, and the muscles in the feet have weakened.
The feet are the foundation of a building. If the foundation is weak, the building itself will have problems. (Posture becomes worse)
Especially weak are the muscles of the toes.
It is said that a large percentage of people have floating toes, which is a way of standing where the toes do not even touch the ground.
If you stand barefoot on a hard, flat floor and get a postcard under your little toe, you have a floating toe.

While selling shoes as a profession, the developer of GRIPDROP kept searching for the ideal shoe.
However, he realized that there was no such thing as an ideal shoe.

In the three million years of human history, it has only been a few hundred years since we started wearing shoes in general.
Our bodies were not supposed to be designed to wear shoes.

The ideal foot environment for the human body is to live barefoot on a diverse ground.
Humans are also animals.
We are the only animal on the planet that wears shoes.
The shoes we wear without thinking about it are actually very unnatural.

The moment you put on your shoes, your feet start to weaken.

Conventional wisdom → Weak feet need support (insoles, supportive shoes)
New way of thinking → Restore weak feet (Ideally, live barefoot)

However, living barefoot in modern society is unfortunately not realistic.
The diversity of the ground has already been lost in the cities.

It's a long story, but that's where "ASHINAKA" comes in.
Just by wearing them, you can strengthen the muscles of your toes by grasping the edge of the ASHINAKA.

We hope that GRIPDROP will help you regain your toe muscle strength.