The running shoe revolution will be picking up speed in 2011. Based on the new models of shoes companies showed off to retailers at this week’s Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, the barefoot/natural running category looks like it will continue to be white hot next spring. Although not every innovation is based on being lighter, more svelte and closer to the ground, the new concepts are bound to have a lasting affect on how all running shoes are designed.
The trade show was the first unveiling to the industry of New Balance’s much-anticipated Minimus line of shoes. It includes three shoes with a 4mm heel-to-toe drop, a lightweight road trainer, a trail shoe and an everyday wellness shoe. Although certainly minimalist by design, the shoes are uber-light (under 8 oz.) and made for neutral gaits, but each has much more underfoot cushioning and protection than the shoes in the Vibram FiveFingers line and slightly more than New Balance’s 100 model and forthcoming 101 model. Like the FiveFingers, the new shoes have a Vibram outsole. As with the 100 and 101, New Balance took design input from its ultrarunning champion Tony Krupicka, who has been known to train barefoot and in shoes that he’s personally modified to become more minimal. New Balance is already taking what it’s learned from the Minimus process and applying it to other shoes, including the new 915 trail shoe (which is a 2 oz. lighter than the 910 it is updating) and the brand new 890 road trainer.
Perhaps the best thing about new line is New Balance’s promise to put considerable time and resources into educating shops and consumers on how to transition to running with a more natural running gait. It’s working with Good Form Running, the educationally driven running mechanics program designed by Michigan-based running retailer Playmakers. Furthermore, New Balance has said it won’t initially sell the Minimus shoes online so it can make sure that all customers receive point-of-sale advice about slowly transitioning to more minimal footwear.
“This is a consumer-driven concept and a performance-driven concept that we see as a permanent part of our line,” says Katherine Petrecca, strategic business unit manager for New Balance. “This is here to stay. It’s miniscule now, but it could become 10 to 20 percent of our (running shoe sales) in two to three years.”
Vibram, Merrell, Ecco, Inov-8, Terra Plana (Evo), Saucony and Keen were among the other brands showing off new minimally constructed, low-to-the-ground shoes. Vibram had updated models of its FiveFingers line, Merrell had its new Pace Glove and Trail Glove low-profile Vibram-outsoled trail runners, Inov-8 had several new trail shoes and its first line of road racing flats. Saucony’s Peregrine is a 10-ounce trail runner with an aggressive outsole and a 4mm heel-toe drop. Meanwhile, Keen’s 9-ounce A-86 trail runner was one of the slickest looking shoes at the show. “We’re not so much about the barefoot movement, we’re just into doing the right thing because it’s logical,” says Keen product line manager Blaine Conrad.
Montrail, meanwhile, had a nifty looking trail shoe called the Rogue Racer, an 8.5-ounce shoe that U.S. trail marathon champion Max King helped design. That shoe has a 10mm heel-toe drop and a featherweight rock plate built from flexible high-density EVA. Salomon was also showing off the lightest trail runner it has ever made, the 9.2-ounce XR Crossmax 1.
The entry of the bigger brands into the barefoot/natural running category is a sign that it’s not just a flash-in-the-pan trend.
“I think the best thing about it is that, because some of the bigger brands like Saucony and New Balance have shoes in this segment, shops understand it now. The same ones that two years ago were saying we were crazy are now accepting us,” says Ecco’s David Halter. “This is not a fad; it’s here to stay.”
Not every company is designing minimalist shoes. In fact, two brands are building shoes with considerably more foam under foot. Hoka and Tecnica have shoes for 2011 that put a runner’s foot much higher off the ground than anything previously offered. Hoka actually debuted this year with its Mafate trail running shoe at a limited number of retail shops (including the Boulder Running Company, where co-owner Johnny Halberstadt says they’re selling quite well). Now Hoka has a road running shoe (called the Bondi B) that is slightly lower to the ground with a slightly more firm foam.
Like the 11-ounce Mafate trail shoe, the road runners are high off the ground, have a significantly rockered profile and a relatively level heel-toe ramp angle (4mm) profile. At first glance, you’d think the shoes would be bouncy, heavy and entirely unstable, but that’s far from how they actually ride. They’re very lightweight (9.3 oz.) and surprisingly stable, and the thick amount of foam actually slows the rate of a foot’s pronation quite well. At the previous Outdoor Retailer trade show, Hoka’s booth got a lot of crazy looks from skeptical passersby. But at this show, co-owner Nicolas Mermoud was swamped with retailers interested in picking up the line for their stores. Mermoud, formerly of Salomon, has compared the concept to the oversized tennis racket, widebody powder skis and oversized 29-inch mountain bike wheels.
Tecnica’s TRS Inferno Max is based on a similar rocker design as Hoka but it has a more traditional 12mm heel-toe drop. The company is saying it has 20 percent more cushioning under foot, 30 percent more platform and yet it’s 10 percent lighter. (The men’s size 9 weighs in at 12.1 oz.) Like the Hoka, it’s super stable on technical descents. Product line manager Tom Berry says the plush cushioning will create less fatigue on the quads and lower leg muscles that typically get overworked while running downhill.
“I don’t think there’s one shoe for every person every day,” he says. “People have to find their own solutions for their running, but looking for one single solution or one shoe is a bit myopic.”
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