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plus customers would have their shoes modified paying upward of $60 to have it done. To follow-up on the efficacy of the changes, the store had customers voluntarily fill out questionnaires regarding the customization. In doing so, the store created a database on what worked and what didn’t. Howlett assured Harper a running shoe niche was staring them in the face, and it was time to make their move to start a company. Having been unsuccessful pitching his shoe designs to the major running shoe labels but reluctant to start a new shoe company, a frustrated Harper, pushed by his doggedly insistent cousin, finally caved. Thus, the name Altra Sports, a nod to the alterations and the ultra-marathons that Howlett and Harper train for and compete in, punctuates this quest for a natural, foot-like running shoe. Harper bases Altra shoes on three main design principles: foot-like shape, gender specificity and no midsole height differential. Let’s look at foot shape and gender-specific features à la Altra Sports. FOOT-SHapED SHOES It’s pretty obvious when you look down, most of us have similarly shaped feet. However, over the years, shoe marketers have exerted their influence over the shape of shoes to drive sales. The human body, being what it is, has adapted to all manner of unnaturally shaped footwear. Stiletto heels and pointed toe cowboy boots, whose popularity today is as strong as ever, are two such examples. By the mid 1970s when athletic shoe companies started to exploit the growing ranks of fitness enthusiasts, most manufacturers adapted their shoe shapes from street shoes. As more athletes, bio-mechanists and exercise science professionals got involved in shoe design, the focus turned to the upper materials and the midsole’s shock-absorbing properties. A few companies and individuals dared to build shoes shaped like the human foot. Rick Vandertie and Carl Brandt of Movin’ Shoes, today one of the top 50 specialty running retailers in the U.S., were fed up with the running footwear de jour. In the mid-1980s, they shopped their Tara minimalist foot-shaped shoe design to most any 30 | <strong>Inside</strong><strong>Outdoor</strong> | Summer 2011 manufacturer that would listen. The companies wouldn’t listen to Vandertie and Brandt, and 25-plus years later, as Harper can attests, their hearing hasn’t improved much. “Healthy feet are shaped like our shoes,” says Harper. “Other shoes are not shaped like healthy feet and actually deform the shape of the foot and kill The Tara, circa mid 1980s, was minimal, basic, low-profile, footshaped, limited in production and before its time; photo by Carl Brandt balance, power and agility, as well as create many foot problems (bunions, neuromas, forefoot pain, etc.), the vast majority of which do not exist at all in unshod populations.” GENDEr-SpECIFIC DESIGNS With the help of a former Nike biomechanist and head of the Advanced Projects team, Altra Sports has taken a hard look at the differences between men’s and women’s feet. Again, Harper says the evidence is clear. “On average, women have longer arches, higher insteps, a slightly different ball of foot angle (metatarsal positioning), narrower heels and wider forefeet than men,” he says. In short women Altra Sports Zero Drop model generally are more V shape, and men more rectangular. Harper goes on to say his 20 years of retail floor sales mirror those findings. Armed with that data, Altra has developed at least four different gender-specific lasts (lasts are the plastic, foot-shaped forms on which footwear is constructed) tailored to accommodate pavement, trail or barefoot utility. ZErO DrOp Completing Altra’s design triumvirate, Zero Drop is where the rubber literally meets the road. To understand Zero Drop, let us look at midsoles in running shoe designs. As a standalone component, traditional midsoles have a 50 percent higher heel to forefoot height. So a typical wedge-shaped midsole measures approximately 26mm of platform under the heel tapering down to 13mm under the ball of the foot. Zero Drop simply means Altra’s shoes have a uniform midsole height from the heel to the ball of the foot or a zero percent midsole height differential. The idea here is to provide protection from real-world running surfaces yet foster a barefoot stride experience. Harper likens Zero Drop to “OEM for humans,” you were born barefoot so the shoe should accommodate our barefoot initial state. He also says independent biomechanical studies show zero midsole height differentials “allow for full Achilles loading, which means a more powerful, natural push off, which results in more speed and efficiency.” Harper also points to the other benefits most minimalist shoe manufacturers or barefoot runners claim: less injury, better running form and decreased initial impact forces.
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