Talkback: 1,000-mile Running Shoe Developed With The Army

Now there's a commendable idea :)

I do get a bit bothered by how often you seem to end up having to change lightweight shoes.

Surely the cushioning can't be plain EVA with that durability? It can compress quite fast. Certainly when I've used shoes with it to walk to/from work on tarmac they've given up (painfully!) somewhere around the ~350 mile mark they're quoting as usual.

Its different if you're on hills all the time of course, although thats a touch rare in the UK with all the paths.

Give me a pair - I'll ruin them; my last (brand new) pair of Salomon XAs did 10 days and 200km before wearing through to the plastic heel lining inside the shoe

Ouch!

Actually did occur to me that if the sole unit on these is designed to take 1k miles on hardish terrain, it might well not grip terribly well on rock. I guess thats why we've got a friendly gear tester

If they want I'd test them, now I'm getting back to 'normal' fittness I'm doing about 5hrs a day walking dog. O K not in serious hill mode yet, mostly roads, easy paths/trails near where I live.

 Normally I'd be walking, (with my own dog and ones I walk for people), for at least 5hrs a day, sometimes, if it's just me and dog can be a lot more. 8+hrs.

 If they are looking for some body to test durability, I could help. I would normaly average at least 4,000mls a year, so could give an assement in a maximum of 3mths. !!!

If the sole is anything like the quality of my Montrails compound then they could be onto a winner. Bit pricey though?

Surely the cushioning can't be plain EVA with that durability? It can compress quite fast. Certainly when I've used shoes with it to walk to/from work on tarmac they've given up (painfully!) somewhere around the ~350 mile mark they're quoting as usual.

EVA is made in different densities and in this case, there are additional areas of what I'm thinking is probably some sort of PU, plus it all feels quite stiff to start with - some shoes I've seen compress easily from new with just thumb pressure, these don't. I'll try and get some more details from UK Gear.

The build quality and sophistication feels impressive too, solid and with state of the art looks - I guess what I'm saying is that the shoe feels like it uses modern, sophisiticated technologies, it's not some heavy, overbuilt behemoth of a thing.

The price, I would guess, is down to the use of decent materials, but given that 500 miles is a usual sort of estimate for the life of a pair of running shoes, I'd guess UK Gear would argue that the price is more than justified by increased life span.

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OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Hi,
Does anyone have an update to this? Interested in purchasing.

Thanks,