Cheers to 15 Years: AMA with Dan and Nick – Bedrock Sandals

Bedrock started with river restoration gigs so for our 15th anniversary, Dan, Nick, and some of the crew headed to NW Montana for a remote packrafting jaunt. A heinous bushwack and some time down a lazy river full of glacial blues was the perfect way to celebrate the years.

Before anyone touched water, we sat down with co-founders Dan and Nick and asked them 15 questions from our customers–one for every year about where Bedrock came from, what we believe in, and where we're headed.

Packrafting Montana Backcountry

1. What's the creation story of Bedrock?

Dan: Nick and I first met in AmeriCorps. We were the two weirdos wearing Vibram Five Fingers and connected over minimalist footwear. Throughout AmeriCorps we were keen on starting a small business when we finished so we could do our own thing. The first idea was resoling old leather hiking boots with minimalist outsoles. We ordered a Vibram doormat off eBay and resoled an old pair of boots from a thrift store in Arcata. It turned out absolutely terrible. They looked awful, and we were like, "Yeah, we can't do this."

At the same time, Nick got a kit for making super minimalist running sandals, which I thought was crazy and weird at the time. We already had the material, so we just went for it. That simple act of adding an adjustable strap was unique for sandals at the time.

Our world was the guiding world and the environmental researcher world, where people wanted sweet sport sandals, and Nick's world was converging with that at an interesting point in time. We wanted to make a minimalist sandal that's resoleable, repairable, and light enough for our lifestyles.

Bedrock ❤️s Bedrock

2. Where did the name come from?

Dan: Nick and I's first website was bedrockrunning.blogspot.com. Bedrock was a contender for the name because of our roots in geology, and we ended up going for it.

Naresh and the infinite blue

3. What were your expectations for the brand in the beginning?

Dan: We were trying to sell a few pairs a day, five or ten pairs, just to make enough to have our own business where we could do what we wanted. We started in our early 20s, living in vans and cheap studios, living off a few hundred bucks a month.

4. What other footwear brand do you admire or respect?

Nick: Birkenstock. They've been around for such a long time.

Dan: I'd say Danner. They're clean, quality designs, and how they're actually building shoes to be repairable is really respectable. They're one of the few brands that does that.

Nick moving light & free in the Montana backcountry

5. What inspired the wide toe box design and mellow footbed?

Nick: Personal need….Arches and heel-to-toe drop messed with my running after a biking accident.

Camp chores

6. Did Vibram® develop the Regolith especially for you?

Dan: Yes. We worked with them hand in hand. At first, because we were small, it was a hard pitch to get in the door, but we ended up flying out to their headquarters in Boston and convincing them to make it happen with us.

7. Have you considered platform clogs, exotic leather, or clipless SPD Bedrocks?

Nick: We don't do fast fashion. We like to experiment, and continually tinker. We don’t want to totally rule it out but cycling shoes are inherently way stiffer than what we normally design.

Dan: But our clog is stiffening up…I'm more open to it than Nick.

Nick: I feel kind of like a hypocrite because I love biking but at the same time, I'm also a curmudgeon and you should just have less shoes and just bike with flat pedals.

Packrafting the outlet

8. Is the resole and rebuild process economically feasible?

Dan: Yes. The way we've built the resole program, especially with replacing the outsole and midsole for sandals, makes it more feasible for our USA operation, and it gives customers a pretty sweet experience of getting almost a fresh pair.

9. What’s the record for number of resoles?

Nick: I think four.

Dan, Naresh, and Nick smile sitting on ice by waterfall

Ice, ice, baybae

10. How did you maintain quality while growing quickly to a scale where you might not control every aspect?

Dan: Maintain control of every aspect. We also haven't grown meteorically fast, so we've been able to keep things under control as we've grown. The other aspect that's been important to us from day one is working with the best suppliers and subcontractors we can find has been important.

Nick Scrambles in new Bedrock Shoe prototype

Always testing

11. What's with the shoe?

Dan: We're probably on the 17th version at this point. A few years in of testing, lots of pivots, lots of changes. We're getting really close.

Nick fakes playing basketball when hanging food, Naresh shows watch stating his excellent sleep score

Air Nicky & Naresh's excellent backcountry sleep score

12. What's surprised you most in growing the brand?

Nick: That people stuck with us.

Dan: I think it's an optimistic note. We're in a world with a lot of doom and gloom but at the end of the day, if you make a good quality product you actually stand behind that’s all you need to do. People find you, talk about you, keep coming back, and tell their friends. That's been a pleasant surprise, and it's kind of been the fundamental way we've grown the brand.

Dan, Naresh, and Nick walk across rocks with packs on.

Backcountry Bliss

13. What do you like about being headquartered in Missoula?

Nick: Endless testing.

Dan: It's a small mountain city vibe with a bunch of amenities and a really sweet, supportive community. We've got multiple rivers running through town and access to thousands of trail miles and wilderness. I've never lived in a town with such support for what local people are doing. Designing and repairing footwear here, and connecting those dots with the town, has been really neat.