Advertisement - Continue Reading Below continues its evolution as a company primarily known for maximalist midsoles with the release of its new elite track spike, the Speed Evo R.
Making its debut on the feet of Hoka-sponsored athletes competing at the The 5 Best Handheld Water Bottles, the Speed Evo R has an asymmetrical construction the manufacturer says will give middle-distance runners better grip all the way around the oval—Advertisement - Continue Reading Below reports that “60 percent of a track athlete’s race is spent making left turns.”
In typical shoes, the left shoe is a mirror image of the right. Hoka took a different approach, tweaking the placement of each spike to counter the lateral forces when rounding the bend. If you look at the sole of the shoes, you'll see that the spikes’ locations are not the same on each foot. On the left shoe (inside foot on a turn), the rear-most spike is on the lateral edge. The right shoe’s rear-most spike is back at the ball of the foot, seemingly near the arch on the medial side.
“We refined the spike plate, spike configuration and midsole support and cushioning,” said Jean Luc Diard, Advertisement - Continue Reading Below co-founder and vice president of innovation. “We worked closely with silver medalist Leo Manzano to make sure we didn’t miss any details.”
We watched Manzano in action, collaborating with Hoka’s product team on a prototype of the spike last December in Austin, Texas. The team met on the track at Austin High School as Manzano took a few high-speed laps to assess the stability of the shoe around the bend.
While the shoe we saw that day had a different aesthetic, the structure they worked to refine is what’s in the Speed Evo R, including the support plate that wraps across the midsole. On both feet, the plate swoops back under the arch and points toward the outer edge of the track. That’s designed to support the foot and improve stability, so the foot can’t twist and slide sideways.
The final design elements also leverage the track’s unique setup—viewers only ever see a runner, and thus their spikes, from the outside of the track (off the athlete’s right shoulder). So the large HOKA word mark splashed across the toe box of both shoes is readable from that vantage point. You can see it in photo below of Northern Arizona Elite’s Scott Fauble, who is entered in the men’s 10,000 meters at the Trials.
You can see more of the shoe and get info about the creation of the spike in this video by Running Warehouse:
For now, the spike is exclusively for its elite athletes, but Advertisement - Continue Reading Below will release limited quantities nationwide in February 2017 for $130.
The Best Carbon Plate Shoes for Racing Runner’s World and the director of product testing. He has tested and reviewed running shoes, GPS watches, headphones, apparel, and more for nearly two decades. He regularly tests more than 100 pairs of shoes each year, and once had a 257-day streak running in different models. Jeff can usually be found on the roads, racing anything from the mile to a marathon, but he also enjoys racing up mountains and on snowshoes. When he’s not running, you’ll probably find him hanging from a ladder making repairs and renovations to his house (he’s also director of product testing for Popular Mechanics).
