SUPER SHOES 2.0 Intriguing options emerge for run shops as super shoes evolve beyond race-oriented models and experiment with different propulsive plates. / By Daniel P. Smith
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t all started with a singular discovery. Following the 2018 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the 106mile race that winds through the Alps, a research team from The North Face tested finishers and identified a 40 percent reduction in lower-leg muscle strength. That finding created a question that would become all-consuming for the Alameda, CA-based brand, one itching to make deeper inroads into trail running. “How can we make athletes finish with a bit more tick in their legs and improve performance?” recalls Michael Thompson, senior product director of footwear at The North Face. That simple question unleashed a multiyear product development endeavor at The North Face to create a trail shoe blending stability for technical terrain with forward propulsion. “We shot big out of the gate,” Thompson says. Over 2.5 years, almost 30 prototypes and near-constant dialogue with its core athlete team, The North Face chased a pioneering effort: To bring a carbonplated running shoe – something that had only recently begun stirring interest in the performance run marketplace – to the trails. “At that point, plated technology was geared toward predictable road surfaces, not unpredictable trail surfaces,” Thompson reminds. “There was no playbook here.” 34
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The North Face broke ground with the release of the Flight Vectiv trail shoe with a carbon fiber plate.
When The North Face launched its Flight Vectiv trail shoe in January, that singular question Thompson and his colleagues confronted in late 2018 celebrated a most glorious answer. Welcome to Super Shoes 2.0. Until recently, propulsive “super shoes” have overwhelmingly, though not exclusively, been limited to race-oriented road models featuring carbon fiber plates. Now, however, footwear brands are pushing far beyond the performance PR silo. In bringing carbon fiber into trail shoes and everyday trainers while also experimenting with alternatives to carbon fiber plates, distinct underfoot feels and varied price
points are quickly filling – and redefining – the super shoe category. Carbon Fiber’s Mainstream Ascent Truth be told, carbon fiber isn’t new to running footwear. In the 1990s, in fact, Reebok and Adidas integrated carbon fiber into select models, though neither brand could gain market share traction. Into the early 2000s, carbon fiber remained an intriguing ingredient in footwear design, though cost and rigidity concerns largely plagued development. Fast forward to May 2017, however, and carbon fiber entered with a bang. The buzz around Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour
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