Vivobarefoot: Reconnecting to Nature, Redesigning the Organisation

This blog post is part of 80+ case studies of progressive organizations we created for the ZeroDX awards 2025. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:

• Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace

• Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution

• Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.

By 2024, the London-based brand had grown to over 160 employees and was generating nearly £90 million in revenue. Its ambitions extended well beyond footwear. Vivobarefoot was positioning itself as aregenerative lifestyle business, seeking to integrate natural principles into its products, culture, and organisational systems.

The internal transformation began in 2020, when CEO Galahad Clark and regenerative leadership advisor Giles Hutchins convened the leadership team in a Sussex woodland to explore what a living organisation could look like. Itwas a moment of intentional reset, prompted in part by declining employee engagement and a desire to more fully embody the values the brand was known for.

Vivobarefoot started by shifting its cultural foundations. The leadership prioritised psychological safety, open dialogue,and regenerative leadership. Coaching, peer feedback, and team-based reflection became embedded practices. From this cultural groundwork, structural change followed. Departments were restructured into interconnected circles with rotating leadership roles. Traditional management titles were replaced with roles like "evolution lead," designed to encourage peer-level accountability and clarity without hierarchy.

The company introduced an Evolution Council (a cross-functional body responsible for reviewing salary proposals and ensuring transparency in pay decisions) to review salary proposals and ensure pay transparency. Employees proposed their own compensation in collaboration with their teams. Final decisions were made collectively and sharedopenly, which brought initial discomfort but later became a non-issue.

Vivobarefoot also invested in regenerative onboarding. New joiners received three pairs of barefoot shoes and were grouped into pods. These pods participated in nature-based immersions that introduced the company's values, principles of regenerative leadership, and a sense of personal connection. Internal coaching was available throughout.Each employee had access to an annual allowance for both personal and professional development.

As the company evolved, it experimented with how to organise around the customer. A temporary shift to structuring the business into three user-facing categories, active, outdoor and kids, ended up fragmenting the brand and was eventually reversed. However, the intent behind the change remained central: to get closer to the people Vivobarefoot serves.

This commitment is most visible in initiatives like ambassador retreats and the VivoBiome project. Every quarter, ambassadors are invited to participate in feedback sessions, often hosted outdoors, where they co-create productideas and reflect on the company's direction. In parallel, Vivobarefoot has been developing 3D scanning and localisedmanufacturing to reduce waste and increase product personalisation. The vision is to decentralise footwear production entirely, a move aligned with its ecological mission.

The company has maintained a focus on decentralised decision-making and transparency. Internal updates are shared through monthly bulletins and company-wide calls. Any employee can join a Field Circle (an open forum where employees can engage directly with the CEO and discuss company-wide matters) to speak directly with the CEO.People are encouraged to bring forward their own ideas and initiatives.

Not all efforts succeeded. Early attempts to form a Project Council (a previously attempted cross-functional groupintended to prioritise investments, later disbanded due to lack of authority and budget) for investment prioritisation failed due to unclear authority and a lack of budget. A category-based business structure proved premature and led to confusion. But many experiments yielded insight, and their learning informed the creation of new systems, including the Live Barefoot Fund (Vivobarefoot’s philanthropic and innovation initiative for regenerative projects, using internal criteria to allocate funding), which now uses adapted scoring methods to evaluate regeneration projects globally.

The Evolution Council (a cross-functional body responsible for reviewing salary proposals and ensuring transparency in pay decisions) and Proprioceptors (team members selected from across departments who act as internal sensors, surfacing insights and feedback from the organisation), cross-organisational sensing roles, have endured and continue to support decentralised decision-making and organisational learning. Proprioceptors (team members selected fromacross departments who act as internal sensors, surfacing insights and feedback from the organisation) meet quarterly at Vivobarefoot's woodland space to bring team insights forward and act as stewards of internal connection.

As the business grows, Vivobarefoot is investing in physical infrastructure to sustain its culture. A new regenerative campus near Bristol will serve as a learning hub and gathering point. The company hosts four seasonal gatherings each year, bringing together staff, ambassadors and partners to reconnect in nature, align on strategy, and share livedexperiences. These moments are not retreats but core practices.

Vivobarefoot's way of organising reflects several core elements of the RenDanHeYi model. There is clear alignment with Zero Distance to users through direct ambassador engagement and product co-creation. While the company hasnot formalised full micro-enterprise structures, certain project teams operate with localised accountability and budgetary control. Salary decisions are transparent and collectively governed, reflecting the Shared Success principle.

Self-management and decentralised leadership are encouraged, and the organisation is consciously working to reduce hierarchy while maintaining clarity of purpose.

Perhaps most distinct is Vivobarefoot's view of transformation as a regenerative journey. The goal is not to adopt a model but to cultivate a living organisation.

Vivobarefoot continues to evolve as a living organisation, with several of its practices aligning closely with coredimensions of the RenDanHeYi model, even if not formally adopting the model in its entirety. Its ambassador gatherings, product co-creation practices and decentralised structures embody the principle of Zero Distance by ensuring those closest to the user shape decisions. Teams such as the Evolution Council, which oversees compensation with full transparency, and the Proprioceptors, who gather feedback from across the organisation, enable distributed leadership and enhance internal responsiveness. While the company has not yet adopted full micro-enterprise structures, it encourages local accountability within project-based teams, particularly in innovation-led areas like VivoBiome. Transparent salary practices and participatory governance uphold the principle of Shared Success, reinforcing a system where contributions and value creation are visible and rewarded.

Looking ahead, Vivobarefoot is deepening its commitment to decentralisation, user proximity and entrepreneurialthinking. Its new regenerative campus, regular nature-based gatherings and evolving leadership practices provide a strong foundation for sustainable growth. The transformation is far from complete, but the company is increasingly capable of responding to complexity not with rigid controls, but with structures that learn, adapt and regenerate.