If you’ve been following along for a descent amount of time you know that I love my Altra’s! If you’ve met me in person, I was probably wearing them. Some may call it a slight addiction, but I say when you’ve found a great thing, stick with it! I love their story. If you aren’t familiar with it, here’s a little excerpt from the founder, Golden Harper:
“For decades, virtually every running shoe has featured pointy toe boxes and heels that were twice as thick and heavy as the forefoot. While shoe companies claimed this design would protect your body from running injuries, the scientific research did not agree.
After unsuccessfully lobbying shoe companies for years to change their design, I decided to modify shoes into something that could encourage low impact running technique and prevent injury.
Using the research as my guide, I went to work with my trusty toaster oven to try and solve my customers’ injury problems. I melted outsoles off of traditional running shoes and removed the excess heel elevation. It was ugly, but it worked! I coined the term "Zero Drop™" to describe how the level cushioning no longer dropped from the heel down to the forefoot. We enlisted our local shoe cobbler to modify our customers’ current running shoes to Zero Drop™. This worked so well at reducing injuries that we had nearly 1,000 customers buy and modify their shoes that first year!” You can read the rest of the companies story here.
My love for Altra’s started about 3 years ago. It was pretty much love at first run. What’s there to love about them? Well if you’re asking this question you most likely have never tried them on, so I’ll fill you in with the inside scoop, then go get your feet in some and discover for yourself!