Running Insight - May 2022

Page 6

FEELING

SUPER The super shoe category continues to morph and chase different targets as footwear brands pick up the pace. / By Daniel P. Smith

W

hen Puma returned to the performance run category early last year, it did so rejecting the safe, traditional stylings of running footwear. Rather than leaning into a familiar pragmatic formula resulting in a perfectly fine and capable $120 neutral training shoe, the German company’s Bostonbased design office tapped into the rising “super shoe” wave. With the $160 Deviate Nitro, Puma inserted a carbon fiber composite plate between two layers of its bouncy Nitro midsole foam, a mixture concocted to give the everyday training shoe an extrapeppy feel. With the $200 Deviate Nitro Elite, then, Puma leaned on a stiffer, thermo-formed carbon plate, slicing 2.3 ounces from its Deviate sibling to deliver 6

runninginsight.com

ri may1 layout.indd 6

a faster, lighter and more propulsive ride. “We needed to establish ourselves and we risked getting lost if we put out something like everyone else,” says Todd Falker, Puma Running’s senior product line manager. “These models allowed us to come to market with something strong and on trend.” But The Cat wasn’t done. At The Running Event last winter, Puma generated substantial buzz with its most ambitious shoe to date, the Fast-R Nitro Elite. A high-end marathon racing shoe in a bright neon colorway and punctuated by a plastic shark fin protruding from the heel, the $250 Fast-R Nitro includes a full-length carbon fiber plate running through a decoupled midsole. While the rear midsole features a shock-absorbing EVA foam, the forefoot

is generously packed with Puma’s biobased Pebax foam (Nitro Elite) to shoot runners forward. “We want to be cutting edge,” Falker says of the clearly cutting-edge Fast-R Nitro’s design. “We are the forever faster brand and we want to push the limits.” Puma’s attention-grabbing return to the running marketplace underscores the continued ascent of the super shoe category and underscores a definitive reality for the performance running marketplace: super shoes haven’t peaked. Far from it, in fact. Super Shoe Innovations Charge Ahead In the last two years alone, the super shoe category has accelerated from a field dominated by a few racing-oriented road shoes with high stack heights and carbon

© 2022 Diversified Communications

4/23/22 6:03 PM


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.