Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/918219
70 runninginsight.com ©2017 Formula4media LLC. 70 runninginsight.com ©2017 Formula4media LLC. Recently, however, voices in science and medicine have questioned whether our prescriptions based on soles and the devices we build into them actually work. A new model posits that the best way to choose a shoe is to find one that feels the most comfortable throughout the stride, enhancing and supporting your natural, preferred movement path. With the role of the sole in decline as the single distinguishing factor between running shoes, the upper is receiving increasing attention—and rightfully so. In his on-foot shoe testing at his Heeluxe lab in Santa Barbara, Geoffrey Gray has observed that uppers affect function far more than previously understood. Given two shoes that have identical midsoles, outsoles and insoles, but different upper shapes, he finds, "People will always identify that the fit is the same, what they identify is different is flexibility, cushioning, stability." And it's not just perception: A 2017 study out of Brazil revealed that different shoe uppers created more consistently- measurable changes in runner's biomechanics than different midsole materials. Holistic Comfort "The upper is about fit," says podiatrist, biomechanist and Salomon shoe consultant Simon Bartold. "Which means it is incredibly important, because fit equals function. If it doesn't fit properly it doesn't work properly." Jonathan Tiepan, senior footwear product line manager at Salomon, adds, "The upper might have more to do with your preferred motion path than the bottom." Designers are increasingly realizing that the shoe works as a unit. "You can't look at the bottom as completely separate from the upper," says Under Armour's chief design officer Dave Dombrow. "How you solidify some zones, how you let NEW BALANCE HIERRO v3 New Balance combines a flexible, stretch-mesh inner booty with a stretchy film "HypoSkin" outer layer that has data-mapped laser cut slits to provide additional flexibility where desired in a shoe designed to adapt to the swelling foot during ultra-long runs.