Today, I feel very lucky as I'm speaking with Stuart Jenkins—CEO and founder of Blumaka, a company that's revolutionizing the footwear industry by transforming waste into world-class performance products. But Stuart's story isn't really about shoes. It's about what happens when you refuse to let limitations define you.

As a kid growing up on a cattle ranch in central Nebraska, his parents were children of the Depression. They had lots of land, but not much money. And Stuart was dyslexic—in a time and place where that just meant you were written off as "dumb" or "stupid." Teachers told his mother he'd never graduate high school and should just work on the family farm as a career.

But his mother, Frances, saw something different in Stuart. She didn't focus on his weaknesses. She built on his strengths. And she taught him two words that would become his North Star: "Do better."

So Stuart did. He set an impossible goal at fifteen years old: to run in the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. Not because he was the most talented. Not because he was the fastest. But because he believed that anyone willing to work hard enough could get there.

For the next eight years, he didn't miss a single day of training. Twenty-six thousand, eighty-three miles. As Stuart put it, That’s 1,000 miles of preparation for every mile of the race. And at the Boston Marathon in 1983, he qualified for the Olympic Trials—by just four seconds running an amazing time of 2:19

Stuart's story so powerful: He'll tell you that qualifying wasn't the point. The real lessons—the ones that shaped everything that came after—happened in those 26,000 miles. Running in blizzards. Running in hundred-degree heat. Running after twelve-hour days working cattle on the ranch.

Those lessons propelled him into a forty-year career innovating in the footwear industry. He took an air shoe concept to ninety-four companies who all told him no chance—until Reebok finally said yes, and it became the best-selling walking shoe in America. He pioneered carbon fiber technology in footwear. He discovered and helped build Hoka into the powerhouse brand it is today.

And now, with Blumaka, he's doing something truly revolutionary: taking mountains of waste foam from behind shoe factories—material that would otherwise be burned or buried—and creating products that perform better than the originals. Professional athletes across the NFL and Major League Baseball are using his insoles. And just two weeks ago, Oprah named his Flex brand sandals one of her favorite things in 2025.

In this conversation, we go deep. We talk about trust as a starting point, not something you have to earn. About confidence built on humility, not ego. About why experience often matters more than expertise. And about that fundamental responsibility we all have: to never let our challenges define us, but to use them to strengthen us.

If you've ever felt limited by circumstances beyond your control—if you've ever wondered whether hard work really matters—if you've ever looked at a problem and wondered if it could be an opportunity—this conversation is for you.

One last thing here is that In the second half of this podcast, Stuart describes in-depth the process behind the scenes at Blumaka. Although you are only listening to this podcast in audio form, during this part of the conversation, Stuart was showing me examples of the different shoes and insoles Blumaka focuses on. If you want to see for yourself, please go to blumaka.com to learn more about the awesome products they make.

Connect With Stuart and Blumaka

Blumaka

Stuart on LinkedIn

#291- The Long Run: Stuart Jenkins on Purpose and Performance