When EVA Meets Engineering
The Return of Native’s
Fitzsimmons Boot
Written by Leah Balagopal
Before fashion houses embraced a puddle boot aesthetic and EVA silhouettes flooded the market, Native Shoes quietly pioneered a new frontier in lightweight, molded footwear. From the classic Jefferson, to the original Fitzsimmons boot, they’ve consistently experimented at the intersection of comfort, sustainability, and design innovation. Now, with a newly reimagined Fitzsimmons Venture featuring a Vibram outsole and interchangeable inner bootie, Native Shoes once again pushes the conversation forward. We sat down with Thomas Claypool, Co-Founder, and Gabe Lam, Design Lead,to unpack the evolution of EVA and the legacy of the Fitzsimmons, and where the future of modular, lightweight design is headed.
When people think of technical footwear, Native Shoes isn’t usually the first brand that comes to mind. With its bubble font and playful colorways, it hardly projects a high-tech image. Yet beneath that cheerful exterior, Native Shoes has been pushing EVA innovation long before the heavy hitters entered the scene. Turn to the spec sheet and it reads like lab notes, bio‑based shells, supercritical insoles, Vibram Eco‑Step Natural outsoles, silicone micro‑grips, and tuned durometers are the ethos that sets Native Shoes apart. That ethos set the stage for the Fitzsimmons line, and today it culminates in the new Venture, a re-engineering that pulls the original magic forward.
The first Fitzsimmons proved the concept, not a novelty, but a necessity. It emerged to bridge the gap between the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles, where life moves seamlessly from city streets to mountain trails. It was the urban hiker distilled to its essentials. The design pared the hiker back to a clean upper over a monocoque and injection‑molded EVA shell, making the boot improbably light. "Injected EVA lets you sculpt the shoe at the molecule-and-millimeter level," the team told us. Control over density, rebound, wall thickness, and surface that traditional builds couldn’t match. Native Shoes had already cut its teeth on fully injected models like the Jefferson, Miller, and Corrado. It was this groundwork that informed a dual-piece idea for the Fitzsimmons, an injected upper cold cemented to an injected mid/outsole. This ensured that the silhouette stayed consistent while the underpinnings could evolve. It sold, it won a Red Dot, and it signalled that lifestyle EVA could be precise, not just plush. Years later, when monobloc foam became mainstream, Native’s take looked less like a trend and more like an origin point.
If the form reads minimal, that’s because the engineering hides inside. Early on, Native Shoes hand-brushed EVA to create a suede-like finish, proof that a closed-cell foam could be tactile. The liner followed the same logic. A three-layer booty (microfleece, perforated neoprene, tricot) tuned for skin feel, breathability, and water resistance without the visual noise of add ons. That padded tongue panel was shaped to match the shell opening exactly, creating a gasket-like seal that kept out water where earlier Fitzsimmons leaked. It looks minimal because the engineering is inside, not stitched on.
The new Fitzsimmons Venture doubles down on that ethos and expands on the original design. Weight comes back by switching to an EVA midsole and pairing it with a Vibram Christy outsole in Eco-Step Natural, a compound made of 90% natural rubber with a timeless lug pattern, giving the shoe traction and durability at a fraction of the mass of the prior full-TPR build (Fitzsimmons City Light.) Inside, a supercritical foam insole, which is expanded under high pressure and temperature, adds long-term rebound you notice the second you step in. Expanded under high pressure and temperature, the insole’s microcell structure increases resilience and reduces compression set, delivering long-term rebound with the kind of softness and durability usually measured on the Asker C foam-hardness scale. Soft yet durable enough for ground contact, it captures what excites the brand; "integrating high-performance running technology - typically not found in craft, into a minimal, casual shoe.”
The removable booty isn’t just removable; it’s re-engineered. Details like a layer of sheet rubber on the bottom ensure it functions as a durable house/camp shoe, a re-patterned collar that opens wider, a padded tongue panel that blocks water at the lace line, and near invisible silicone heel grip that stops lift without breaking the minimal line. Hardware moves to thicker metal D-rings, eyelets for cold weather reliability without bloating the feel. They wanted the OG magic back the moment you pick it up. Lightweight first, then traction and durability where you actually need it.
"We live lightly. 'Keep it light' has been there from the very beginning, in the product, in the brand, in the mindset."Sustainability here isn’t an afterthought. EVA injection reduces parts and processes, which drops energy and labor per pair. Today, the compounds lean bio by default. Bloom® algae-based EVA in the shell, SugarLite EVA derived from sugarcane across the line and recycled rubber where rubber appears. At the inevitable end of life, the Native Shoes Remix program takes back worn pairs, sorts anything with stride left for donation, and grinds the rest into material for structural furniture, sound panels, acoustic treatments, or playground surfacing engineered to meet drop height safety regs. For Native, durability is sustainability. The longer a product lives, the less waste it creates.
Native Shoes is guided more by Dieter Rams’ philosophy of "less, but better," timeless and functional rather than by the fleeting aesthetics of the fashion runway. Future materials, timeless shapes and as little design as possible. Minimalism here is a constraint, not a look. That’s why the Fitzsimmons reads like itself across fifteen years while the internals keep changing. The upgrades with dual and tri-density experiments, recycled rubber caps, ground contact-rated EVA, and now higher rebound foams are subtle. Form follows function, and Native forms are designed to last longer than a trend cycle.
The lab work isn’t limited to foams. Native Shoes was early into additive R&D, partnering with MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab on Rapid Liquid Printing. They’re frank about what 3D printing can and can’t do right now, wall thickness, material safety, unit costs, but clear on where it matters which means localized on-demand making, inventory right-sizing, eventual fit customization. Any near term 3D outputs will appear where the tech serves the silhouette, not the other way around. "That’s how you see our long-term vision," the team adds."It’s about knowing the technology, being part of the conversation, and pioneering what’s possible." In the meantime, compound work like Wander Foam focuses on ‘democratizing fit,’ a soft, high-rebound EVA tuned to stretch and accommodate more foot shapes without sacrificing durability.
The Fitzsimmons Venture reads like the brand in miniature; modular, minimal, quietly highly engineered. It’s a continuation of a through line that began when EVA was still confined to chefs, clogs, and cushioning, until Native asked a different question: what if foam could carry classic silhouettes like the hiker, runner, or court shoe, without the usual baggage? Fifteen years on, the Fitzsimmons Venture shows Native Shoes remains radical at its core, it only looks simple...