Why I named my company something people hated

The controversial brand decision that made customers remember my business forever…

After two years at Vodafone (first in their highly sought-after graduate programme, then in an Enterprise Project Management role) I’d had enough of corporate life.

I always likened working there to steering an oil tanker. You have an idea, even the slightest direction change, and it takes months to execute with endless people involved. Great colleagues, decent prospects, but painfully slow. For someone with an entrepreneurial mindset, it was torture.

So I left. No job lined up. Just a vague idea about launching an online store selling barefoot and minimalist running shoes.

I’d recently read Richard Branson’s “Business Stripped Bare,” and one thing stuck with me: his decision to name his company Virgin. At the time, it was controversial, shocking, memorable. In an era of safe, forgettable corporate names, he chose something that made people uncomfortable.

That lesson stayed with me as I tried to figure out what to call my new business.

The Birth of Feetus

I had very little money to start with. I knew I had to squeeze every drop of value out of every business decision. And that started with the company name.

I’d been inspired by Christopher McDougall’s “Born to Run” (a book about the philosophy of natural, barefoot running). The whole ethos was about returning to how humans were born to move. Born to run. Born with feet designed for running.

Feet. Born. Foetus.

Feet + Foetus = Feetus.

“Born to Run” became the company slogan.

Did People Hate the Name?

People’s reactions were immediate and polarised.

“That’s… unusual.”

“Are you sure about that name?”

“It’s a bit uncomfortable, isn’t it?”

Exactly. That was the point.

What people don’t realise is that discomfort creates memorability. A safe, forgettable name like “Natural Running Company” or “Barefoot Specialists” would have disappeared into the noise. Nobody remembers safe.

But Feetus? People asked about it constantly. Many customer interactions started with “Why Feetus?” and that question became the best marketing I could have asked for. Free engagement. Free word-of-mouth. Free brand recall.

I also had zero competition on Google. Search “Feetus” and every result was mine. Total keyword dominance with a single, weird word. Try that with “barefoot shoes” or “natural running.”

When Customers Rebrand Your Competitors

The real validation came when something remarkable started happening: customers began calling minimalist shoes “Feetus shoes” (regardless of brand).

People would be surprised when they learnt that the actual brand was Vibram FiveFingers, not Feetus. Our marketing had done such a good job of bringing minimalist shoes (particularly Vibram FiveFingers) to a mass audience in the UK that we’d become synonymous with the category itself. That’s what every marketer dreams of. Hoover. Kleenex. Google it.

The slightly uncomfortable name created cognitive friction that made it impossible to forget. Whilst competitors spent thousands on SEO and Google Ads, the Feetus name did the heavy lifting for free.

The Strategic Brilliance of Uncomfortable Branding

Here’s what Branson understood and what I learnt by copying him: controversy isn’t just memorable, it’s valuable.

Safe names require expensive marketing to create recall. Uncomfortable names generate free marketing through conversation. Every time someone said “That’s a weird name,” they were engaging with the brand. Every time they explained it to someone else, they were doing our marketing for us.

The name also filtered customers. People who were put off by “Feetus” probably weren’t our audience anyway. We were selling barefoot shoes to people willing to try something unconventional. A conventional name would have sent the wrong signal.

The brand name set expectations: we’re different, we’re willing to take risks, we don’t do things the safe way.

Nine Years Later

I sold Feetus in 2016. The company still exists today under new ownership (Shaun’s doing a brilliant job with it at feetus.co.uk), and people still remember the name. Former customers mention it to me. Competitors I’ve met at events bring it up. The name has outlasted my involvement in the business.

That’s the power of brave branding. Safe choices feel less risky in the moment, but they’re forgettable. Uncomfortable choices feel riskier but create lasting impact.

The Lesson

Would I recommend every business use a controversial name? No. But I would recommend thinking harder about whether “safe” is actually serving you.

If you’re launching something new, something different, something that challenges conventions, then a safe name is a missed opportunity. Your name should signal what you’re about. If you’re playing it safe with the product, play it safe with the name. If you’re doing something bold, your name should reflect that.

The uncomfortable truth about branding is that being remembered matters more than being liked. Feetus taught me that the worst thing you can be in business isn’t controversial. It’s forgettable.

Sometimes the best marketing decision is the one that makes you slightly uncomfortable.