The sole - and the soul - of Earth shoes remain the same, but in their reemergence almost everything else about the defining shoe of the 1970’s counterculture has changed. The wide, box-toed, brown footwear that Newsweek once called “ugly as sin” has gone from frumpy to fashion-able, embraced by designers like Kenneth Cole and Francis Hendy, who shod his models in Earths for a recent runway show. The 61 styles (43 women’s, 18 men’s) in the current fall line include ankle- and knee-high boots, dress shoes with sophisticated side buckles, modernized Mary Janes, and geeky-cool mock sneakers and mock bowling shoes (see earthshoes.com for all styles and to locate a retailer near you). The one model you won’t find is the original boxy brown one; the new line is made up of variations on the theme.

Introduced in Copenhagen in 1967, the Kalso Minus Heel shoe was created by Anne Kalso, a Danish yoga instructor who had spent time in Brazil admiring the posture of the natives. When she realized that their footprints in the sand showed their heels sinking significantly deeper than their toes, Kalso designed a shoe with a negative, or “minus,” heel that would keep the toes up and the body leaning slightly back, the belly pulled in, and the spine straightened into proper alignment.

The shoes got to the United States by way of a New York couple, Eleanor and Raymond Jacobs, who discovered them in Kalso’s store in Denmark and then opened their own in lower Manhattan on April 1, 1970.

That date also happened to be the first Earth Day celebrated in the United States, and to attract the crowds of eco-minded hippies cavorting in the streets, Eleanor Jacobs stuck a sign in the window that advertised “Earth Shoes.” A name, and a fad, were born.

These days, Earth shoe ads have less to do with posture and more to do with style. “Generation I” is the target market. “The ‘I’ stands for ‘independent,’” according to spokesperson Vern Aisner, and is “a psychographic rather than a demographic profile.” In other words, it’s an attitude, not age, that defines the new devotees. When French-born U.S. shoemaker Michel Maynard bought the rights and resurrected the shoe in 2001, Aisner explains, he wanted a shoe for “people who like to be different, the innovators rather than the followers.”

Fans of the new Earths span two or three generations: the young and urban as well as their parents and grandparents who wore the shoes the first time around.

The feel of Earth shoes takes some getting used to, and the company warns newcomers to wear them sparingly at first and to expect some initial discomfort. Podiatrist Jane Anderson, D.PM., vice president of the American Association for Women Podiatrists, says that though the width and roominess of Earths make them “a sensible shoe shape,” the lowered heel can aggravate tendonitis in the Achilles region. “If you notice pain in the back of the leg, it may not be the shoe for you,” she says. But what’s hard on the Achilles may be good for the sole. Former Reebok shoe design chief Lisa Halbower points out that plantar fasciitis sufferers need to stretch the tendons in the heel and theorizes that wearing Earth shoes may be beneficial. And Earth shoe groupies of any age will tell you that these shoes are the most comfortable they have ever worn: “I love them, my feet love them, my back loves them,” says one loyal customer. With this new line, your eyes can finally love them too.