An Athlete's Discovery of True Performance

Meet Sarah, a former Division 1 lacrosse athlete turned brand strategy powerhouse who brings the same intensity to building innovative companies as she did to the playing field. Through leadership roles at 2U and collaborations with iconic brands like The New York Times, NBA, and Dartmouth College, she's developed a reputation for protecting both ambitious visions and the teams that bring them to life. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts where she earned the prestigious Brand Master award, Sarah's strategic insights have been featured in Forbes, FastCo Design, and Communication Arts, proving that her fearless approach to business (much like her adventure-seeking spirit that once led to a New Year's Eve surfing mishap in Australia) continues to push boundaries in the world of brand innovation.

We sat down with Sarah to discuss her IAMBIC experience and discover how precision-fit footwear has revolutionized her active lifestyle—delivering a level of comfort and reliability that's transformed her expectations of what shoes can be.

How did it feel wearing a true one-of-one pair of shoes crafted just for you? 

Every time I put on my IAMBIC shoes, I actually feel very special. Like I know I'm going to walk out of my apartment and if someone's like, I like your shoes, I can say, they're the only ones. You could do it too, but yours are going to be different. So I think what's just really special is having something that's uniquely mine and made for me and being able to almost show that off and introduce people that that's a possibility for them as well.

How do you feel about the look and style of the shoes? 

What's great about these shoes is they translate across categories.  So I can wear them to work. I can wear them to dinner. I can wear them to a big meeting. And I can also wear them when maybe my feet don't feel their greatest, but I don't have to compromise not looking professional. What's so great is that I can bring that style and I can also feel really comfortable showing up.

What excites you the most about your shoes becoming more personalized with each pair through the Sole Print technology?

I'm very excited about the Sole Print technology. With my regular shoes, I can see where my foot pushes down harder or where I might be rolling over a bit. But I've never been able to fix that and get a shoe that's already adapted. I think it's incredible that your shoe can learn from your last pair, so any pain or struggle you had at one point is already fixed. With any new non-IAMBIC shoe, I have to wear it down to the right place again every time. But with Sole Print, it's incredible that a new shoe can actually read off of my old shoe and be an even more perfect fit because it's learning from my movements throughout.

I'm gonna tell you a story. Two weeks before I ran the marathon, I was wearing my marathon shoes because I don't want to wear any other shoes, and I don't want to hurt my feet. I had my feet propped up next to a campfire and I burned the bottom. I was panicked because I was like, my gosh, I'm running a marathon in two weeks and I'm going to have to buy new shoes. I did end up buying new shoes and the last week and a half leading up to my race I was so stressed out. Should I wear my old shoes? Should I wear my new shoes? And if I had had some sort of technology that knew my foot and could already sort of deliver the right thing for me, that would have been incredible because I was taking my old insoles putting them in my new shoes hoping for the best, thinking, ‘Okay, on race day, I just have to do it one time. So if my feet are broken, it'll be fine, right?’ The idea that there's a technology that could learn from the rhythm of my feet would have made it so much less scary to get a new pair of shoes. I would just feel so much relief knowing that's a possibility.

Can you describe the moment you first put on your IAMBIC shoes and felt the precision fit? 

So the first time I put on my iambic shoes, I was so excited to get them because I had been having foot pain from wearing the wrong size shoe. In fact, I didn't know I was wearing the wrong size shoe. And I put them on and they just worked. So it's one of those things that's just such a comfort and relief to put on something that feels good and to know that it will work for you. It’s also a relief because you're buying something that's not inexpensive. It's an investment. And so you want an investment to feel really good. And it did. So I just felt a sense of relief putting on a pair of shoes and knowing that they were made for me, and knowing that I could walk around in them and my feet would feel good. Any pains or aches that I had from previous shoes wouldn't get worse. I wouldn't be doing a disservice to my feet. I'd actually be protecting and helping them on a journey to feel better and have IAMBIC with me along the way to do that.

How has the precision fit improved your day-to-day comfort and performance?

Day to day comfort and performance is improved by my IAMBIC shoes because I'm not worried that I'm going to hurt myself or that anything is going to go wrong with my feet. As a runner, as an athlete, just knowing that I'm doing a good service to my body is incredible. It’s the reason that I love my IAMBIC shoes. It's that precision that makes me feel safe to walk down the street, get on the subway, do my commute, bring my kids to school, and not feel concerned that I'm doing it in a shoe that doesn't fit right or that doesn't feel good that's not going to help me the next day. 

How has experiencing precision-fit transformed your expectations for all footwear?

I feel like I'm about to get rid of half the shoes in my closet, which sounds very bad because it's not nice for the environment. So I'll find a way to repurpose them and get them to a good place. But I just don't have the patience or the desire to wear shoes that don't feel good and don't make, don't perform.

I need to be able to do what I need to do every day. I need to be able to commute. I need to be able to bring my kids to places I need to be able to go for my run, and do my trainings. So I need to feel like the shoes that I'm wearing are adding to that or at least not doing anything to worsen that for them to be a part of my wardrobe and closet, and I think that's just table stakes now. So I've got a lot of cleanup to do in my closet because I've got a lot of shoes that are poorly fitting. When you have a pair of shoes that fit, all the ones that don't become way more obvious and something that you're not sort of willing to deal with.