GET YOUR FEET FIT

Our breakthrough footbed featuring KineticPülse technology provides real active recovery for hard-working feet.

How Our Award-Winning Slides Work

The Flex 3 Fulcrum is a unique active recovery slide with a patented ergonomic footbed featuring our proprietary KineticPülse™ technology. Two firm rubber features sit in it: a Heel Ball and a Meta Pad; plus, a EVA foam Low-Rise Arch. They each press into specific parts of your foot as you walk, so the walking itself becomes the work.

It's effective, efficient, and incredibly wearable. That's why we say it's The Ultimate Foot Fitness Tul.

Shop Fulcrum | $75
What Is KineticPülse Technology?

What Is KineticPülse Technology?

KineticPülse is pushpül's proprietary footbed technology. It describes the way the three shaped features in the Flex 3 Fulcrum footbed engage automatically with the natural movement of your foot. You do not have to "do" anything, or hold a position, or follow a routine. You just walk, and the features meet your feet naturally and automatically with each step.

KineticPülse is patented in the United States under US 12,011,066.

Every other recovery tool asks for a dedicated session. A massage ball asks you to sit down and find the spot. A foam roller asks for ten minutes on the floor. A recommended stretch asks you to remember to do it. All of them work, but all of them also compete with everything else you have to do.

The Fulcrum asks for next to nothing. Just slide them on. Walking to the kitchen is already the thing. It's the Ultimate Foot Fitness Tül.

That also sets the ceiling. KineticPülse is not a stronger version of a massage ball. In fact, the pressure is lighter, and lasts hours instead of minutes, which is an ingenious win-win trade off. What these slides give up in intensity they give back in how little they demand of you.

3 Patented Pressure Points

3 Patented Pressure Points

The Fulcrum's three pressure points are the main features you can clearly see and the ones you feel first.

HEEL BALL. A firm rubber dome sitting just in front of your heel, pressing along the back of the plantar fascia. It's positioned where you would put a massage ball if you were doing this by hand.

META PAD. A teardrop-shaped rubber node just behind the ball of your foot. It lifts and separates the long bones in your forefoot so your toes can spread instead of staying packed together.

LOW-RISE ARCH. A low rise EVA foam guard along the inside edge. It limits how far your arch drops, and, just as importantly, holds your foot in position over the Heel Ball and Meta Pad.

That last part is key. The Low-Rise Arch works double duty for the Heel Ball and the Meta Pad. Position, in this award-winning design, is just as important as pressure.

Why Footbed "Bumps" Alone Are Not Enough

Put three similar footbed shapes into an ordinary soft sandal, and three things go wrong:

X   Your foot moves around randomly, so the features land somewhere different every step.

X   The foam is soft enough that any footbed bumps just sink into it instead of pressing back. 

X   Your foot ends up sitting at the wrong angle to properly engage with any footbed bumps.

What you get with most cushy "recovery" footwear is a sandal with bumps in it, period. That's not a footbed that's doing good for your feet, and the difference is not marketing.It's, in fact, seven more critical design decisions.

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The [ 7 ] Supporting Features That Make Fulcrum Work

This is the one worth understanding. The footbed is EVA foam. The Heel Ball and Meta Pad are firmer rubber. Step down and the foam compresses while the rubber does not, so the pressure you feel is set by how heavy you are and how hard you step.

A 140-pound runner and a 220-pound lifter in the same size slides feel different amounts of pressure. There is nothing to adjust and no setting to pick. It's two materials with different give, responding to force, doing the work automatically.

An ergonomic cup around your heel stops your foot from sliding forward, backward, or side to side. That's what makes the Heel Ball and Meta Pad land in the same place every step instead of randomly poking and prodding your foot.

Most sandals have a pronounced drop from heel to toe. The Fulcrum has almost none. That keeps your feet closer to flat, but with a very slight forward lean, which is the position where they can meet the Heel Ball and Meta Pad properly.

The Meta Pad lifts and separates the bones in your forefoot, which only does anything if your toes have somewhere to go. A standard toe box would keep them right where they started.

Our outsole uses durable EVA foam, deliberately not the softest available. A flimsy outsole would squish under the three pressure points and cancel them out. This is the counterweight that makes the whole design work.

Grippy EVA pads shaped in the pushpül hexagon pattern reduce slippage and channel water way thanks to grooves cut between them. These work well on pool decks, in changing rooms, and in the rain.

Soft EVA foam backed with smooth swim mesh, cut with half-hexagons to let heat out. You are putting these on over feet that have just spent two hours inside a training or performance shoe, and the cool, soft strap is designed for exactly that moment.

What Happens In a Single Step

What Happens In a Single Step

Walking is a sequence, and the Fulcrum's three main features are placed strategically along that sequence.

  1. Your heel lands first. And the heel cup catches your foot, then the Heel Ball meets the back of it.
  2. For most of us, weight rolls forward along the outside edge, and the Low-Rise Arch bears the load as your arch flattens under it.
  3. Weight then moves across the ball of your foot. The Meta Pad gently rises between the long bones, opening them up, while the expanded toe box gives your toes room to spread.
  4. Then you push off, your toes acting as levers, propelling you forward. Then you do it again. And again.

Nothing presses everywhere at once. Different parts of your foot meet different parts of the footbed at different points in the step, which is why our three footbed features sit where they do rather than being spread evenly like a massage mat.

Fulcrum vs Other Slides: How They Measure Up

There are two conflicting ideas about what your recovery sandals should be doing after training and competing.

Foam maximizes absorption. Sandal footbeds made of thick, soft material takes the load off. Your feet are cushioned, broadly supported, doing almost nothing by design. These are immediately comfortable and the right answer if taking load off is what you want.

Fulcrum provides structure. Working in conjunction with comfortable foam, your feet engage with and around three ergonomically shaped features while the other seven keep everything lined up. The footbed is shaped so your feet keep working rather than resting flat. Your feet are actively working, stretching, not going to sleep.

> You can read more about the research behind this approach here on our deep dive into The Science page.

BEFORE YOU BUY: Soft foam feels great in the first thirty seconds. The Fulcrum is definitely noticeable underfoot at first and takes a few wears to feel normal. That is the design working, not a sizing problem, but it is a real adjustment. And it works.

So if what you want to feel is basically nothing at all underfoot, foam is the better purchase for you.

How Fulcrum Compares
Get Your Feet Fit

Working Fulcrum Into Your Training Routine

  • First Steps
    20-30 minutes for the first few wears. The footbed takes some adjusting to.
  • Build It Up
    Increase frequency and duration. Regular use is key. Find your own cadence.
  • Post-Activity
    Wear after sessions and events. Straight out of your trainers works best.
  • On Rest Days
    At home, on errands, anywhere when not wearing other required footwear.
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FAQ: How and Why Fulcrum Delivers

KineticPülse™ is pushpül's patented footbed technology, US 12,011,066. It refers to the way three ergonomic features in the Flex 3 footbed - the Heel Ball, Meta Pad, and Low-Rise Arch - automatically engage with the natural movement of your feet as you walk. There is nothing to activate or adjust.

It depends what you are asking them to do. As comfortable footwear for after training, most people find them worth owning. But if you're looking to train your feet and improve their resilience, the pushpül Flex 3 footbed is shaped to keep your foot working while you wear it, which is a different goal from cushioning. Whether that suits you comes down to what you want out of the hours after a session.

A massage ball works well and costs less. It also requires you to sit down and use it. The Flex 3 footbed applies lighter pressure while you walk around doing something else, and applies it in three places at once rather than one. Most people who train seriously end up doing both.

Start at twenty to thirty minutes and build up as they become familiar. Plenty of people end up in them for several hours. There is no target and no minimum.

Straight after or later both work. Most people change into them immediately, because that is when their feet have just come out of training shoes and the contrast is most obvious.

They are built for walking, not for distance. Errands, the house, moving around a gym or a race site. They are not a substitute for a walking shoe.

If you train or compete regularly and spend hours in stiff training shoes or specialized runners, most people find the change of footbed worth it. If you train once a week and mostly wear soft shoes anyway, the case is weaker. Buy accordingly.

The Ultimate Foot Fitness Tül

The Ultimate Foot Fitness Tül

For dedicated athletes who understand recovery isn't rest. It's another training session. Get Your Feet Fit

Shop Fulcrum | $75

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