Skora Spring Summer 2014 Line Launches

Skora Running Spring/Summer 2014

A quick update here. For those of you who are Skora fans and those of you who are not, their  Spring/Summer 2014 line has launched.

Flagshiped by their new model the Fit (reviewed here), a shoe that offers their traditional neutral platform with the addition of a tad more padding for the folks that need/want it, the line also brings in new color ways for their older models.

As seen to the left, the Form (reviewed here) and Core (reviewed here), both made from durable goat leather, have been released with an update in color options and a few cosmetic logo alterations (see top photo), but otherwise they remain the same shoes that have Skora has sold in the past.


Adding to the changes, the same updates have been employed with the Phase (reviewed here), a synthetic model very similar to the Core, one with a thin sole that lets you feel the ground more than any other model but the Core. The Phase-X, the shoe that glows at night, has been updated with new color ways as well, as you can see below.

The Altra Zero Drop One Shoe Review

I have had my eye on Altra Zero Drop from the company’s beginning, but I have always been hesitant to pull the trigger on one of their models. As I’ve written about before, I have been a minimalist runner for a few years, seeking flexibility first, ground feel second, and concentrating on zero drop last due to the fact that I have been a forefoot lander my whole life. Unless I’m exhausted, heel strike has never been a thought or issue. For a few years I used a rotation between Nike Free Runs, Merrell Trail Gloves, and Vibram Five Fingers Bikila, but I’ve been searching for a full answer. Around November of 2012, I made the decision to dump the Nikes on eBay and work on going Zero Drop all the time. Today my primary shoe rotation includes the Skora Form, which gets the bulk of my miles, the Skora Core, which I use for speed work, and now the Altra One, which I use for road runs and recovery.

Why hadn’t I pulled the trigger? At first they were a hard shoe to nail down and put your foot in, plus they had a reputation for running small (the One fits true to size). Another part of the issue was vanity. Altra had yet to make a shoe that piqued my interest stylistically. I loved the idea of a wide toe box, could deal with the odd look it provided, but I wanted the rest of the shoe to have a dose of swag. Enter the One—this shoe looks the part, a bright lime green color composed of mesh that gives excellent breathability, a fact I actively seek out in Florida. Next I had apprehension over flexibility, especially after having a negative experience when I tried Newton Running out (the shoes were too rigid for my tastes).

Flexibility was the first feature I looked for when I left traditional shoes, and it allowed me to run primarily injury free once I acclimated. While the One doesn’t flex as easily as my Skora models or the Nike Frees, the shoe has a good amount of give, moving the way it should and bending as I go. The shoe does not move as one box, but in sections, just as a foot does. The lightweight, racing design (under 8 oz) adds to the shoe’s flex, for the shoe is Altra’s racing model. All this in mind, I ended up with a pair.

So how does the One perform? In terms of road running, I was very impressed. I use this shoe when my feet are sore and worn down. The padding, a stack height of 18mm, gives them a reprieve and a chance to aid my recovery. They are a shoe of choice for one run on days I run multiple times. The padding took some getting used to, and on my first run, I almost felt constrained by the lack of road feel—it is there, but not to the degree I was used to. Yet, my legs felt good, there was no random pain, no undue side effects, and all in all, the run went well. As I worked to incorporate the shoe in, I grew to enjoy a day of less feel, a day to get my feet back. At the same time, I loved putting my Skora’s back on, to feel the ground again. I can’t describe why the juxtaposition feels so good, it just does.

In terms of speed, I’ve used the One for multiple Tempo workouts, and a couple interval based treks. Impact wise, the shoe flexes, allowing my forefoot to land and my heel to the kiss the ground. The shoe has a bulkier feel than my other models, a fact that can be attributed to their build—they are a racing flat, not a foot glove—but you can still move in it. They feel fast, which is a darn good thing considering they are a racing model. I’m still reluctant to take it on the track, a surface where if I don’t use spikes, I want a shoe that hugs my foot like a glove, and with the numbed ground feel I would avoid the trails, but if you are a road runner, one who wants to run fast, try this shoe out.

Pros:

1. The patented Altra Zero Drop toe box. They make a toe box that is wide, spacey, and foot shaped. Your toes are not to touch, are not to crammed together, and I often use one of their graphics, one showing the x-ray of a foot in Altra shoes and one without to illustrate the differences in conventional versus minimal, realistically shaped toe boxes.
2. A great zero drop shoe for those who want to have some padding under their feet. Typically I run in shoes with a lot ground feel—these are not those shoes. They are made for road running, have solid flexibility, but they do not push every pebble, stick, or bump into your foot. If you want a soft ride with a zero drop experience, this model is for you.
3. At $99, this shoe is very affordable. I am unsure on total durability, and typically shoes with this style of padding tend to fade away around 400-500 miles.

Cons:

1. The tongue drives me nuts. It is composed of a thin fabric and pulling on or adjusting it seems to have an adverse effect on the cloth at the toe of the shoe, pulling it a bit taunt. 
2.   In with the tongue, it took a few runs before the lacing felt comfortable. I like a tight shoe, but this shoe doesn’t conform to foot easily, thus I often felt that I laced them too tightly and would have to spend time adjusting the lacing system. On one run I had to stop and loosen them completely do to pain on the top of the foot. A longer run in them resulted in a small bruising of the top of my foot.
3. Lack of ground feel. You have very little, thus keep this shoe on the road and off the trails. I know I listed this as both a positive and negative, but it is. 
4. Rain. In a few recent rain runs, the shoe slipped a lot, you could hear it not holding on the way it should and my stride felt off.
5. The turn my feet green, as in the dye leaks off of them into my skin. That cannot be good.

Skora Core Shoe Review

Skora Family.

As a Skora Ambassador, I have been looking at photos of their new line for quite some time and salivating at their two new models: The Core and The Phase. Expanding the Skora line to four models (adding to The Form and The Base), the shoes, both extremely light weight and highly flexible, create a more natural, evolved experience that their predecessors. I’m quickly falling in love with The Core (if planning to buy the shoe, click the link to for a 10% price break).

Out of the box.

First off, the shoes look awesome. They have a great leather build, a futuristic look, and they hold up to their web appearance. When people see this shoe I get questions, lots of them, and interest. The curb appeal is high and I couldn’t wait to put them on and my wife couldn’t wait to play with them. Once I pried them from her hands, I went for a walk in them barefoot, and the ground spoke to me. My other Skora models have ground feel, but The Core, with a stack height of 11mm, hugs the earth. The insole, a meager 3mm fit, provides comfort without masking your foot’s sensations. You feel pebbles, bumps, and cracks in the concrete. Plus, when a headlight or flash hits the shoe, the outline of the shoe glows, a feature that provides a nice touch of safety for a mostly nighttime runner.

That said, I’ve used the shoes for both speed work and recovery. My first workout, a series of 300m intervals leading my middle school girls, felt fast and fleet of foot. The shoes grasped the ground and I felt more secure driving my legs off of them than in the Forms. Most of this sensation came from the flexibility of the shoe—it moved where I wanted it to at all times and grabbed the track with ease. Yet, I did notice the lack of padding in comparison with my everyday shoe, the Form. After about five miles, I detected some tenderness in my forefoot, something that will abate with time as I acclimate to the new ride.

Track Meet break.

Since then, I’ve taken the Cores off the track, hitting the road and the grass. On the grass, they outperform any trail model I’ve ever touched. They still feel fast, and at times I thought I was barefoot and actually was shocked when I noticed I was wearing shoes. Such thoughts only made the workout more fun, pushing me through my intervals. On the road, you miss the thickness of the insoles found in Skora’s other models, but in terms of an easy or recovery run on the road, they are perfect—you are forced to confront and work on form while stepping lightly.

Beyond running, the shoe is great for casual wear. I’ve already found myself wearing them in place of my Vivobarefoot Dharma when outside of work. My first such go around came at our regional track meet, where I sported the cores for over twelve hours without the calf and leg pain I had wearing old Nikes the week before. I felt great standing around and had no problem running across campus to deal with issues as they came up. After such a day, the Cores were nominated to walk across Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Winding through fantasy craziness, I never once thought about what was on my foot, instead enjoying the day with my daughter (minus the afternoon rain).

Pros:

• The toe box is amazing—wide, open, and perfect to allow your toes to spread out. You will not get blisters in this shoe, because your toes will not rub together.
• You feel everything, with or without the insole. You can walk and run the way you are intended to walk, with full sensation. 
•  Flexibility. These shoes bend every which way, and they do so with little to no effort.
• This shoe is sexy. Foot candy and I cannot say it any better. The leather looks and feels awesome. 
•  The heel is fixed. On the Form, it tended to sag at times, now it is a bit more rigid and hangs where it should.

A wide toe box versus a narrow.

Cons:

• You feel everything. I love this fact, but many people may not. Understand that Skora’s motto is run real. You will run real in this shoe. 
• Padding. This is an elaboration of con one. If you want to run on a pillow, don’t buy this shoe. If you want to run real, it has sufficient padding for speed workouts, trail runs, and road runs around the 5-7 mile range. 

Coaching Nostalgia

First off I consider myself lucky. I coach on the track I ran on in high school. I report to the man who coached me in high school. Not many people can say they have these rights. That said, today was a special day. It was not that I was able to run, I do that nearly every day, but I was able to run with my runners today who normally leaves me in the dust. He is a junior and I have redacted his name, but he is the last of our distance boys. Our girls team is well represented, but our boys fell apart at the district level. On Saturday, April 27, he will run the 3200m in the state meet, he is seeded 11^th based on season bests, but recent results put him in the running for a podium finish in a tactical race.

He was not always this good. I remember him as the awkward freshman that could barely finish a race, much less break 20:00 in a 5k (he runs in the low 16:00’s now). Pain was not his friend, pain was his crutch, his reason not to run. But he grew. The first time he broke 20:00 came on the beach, in a 5k I dragged him to in order to help pace me on a Mother’s Day morning. All he decided to do was win the thing, barefoot. So, we used to run together with little problem. Today, we only do so when he needs to go slow and I want to pick the pace up a bit, meeting in the middle on days where it meets our goals. Today was one of those days, a day where he wanted to recovery from his last speed session of the year and needed some company.

Before I go farther, I didn’t make this runner, in fact I’m not sure any runner is ever made—he made himself. Sweat, determination, and a growing immunity to pain have crafted him into the man he is. But for the last three years, I have been his sounding board. We discussed minimalist running together, barefoot training, and he now runs exclusively in the style, wearing Vivobarefoot Evo, New Balance Minimus, and Skora Form (often he will run workouts sans shoes regardless of the surface). He throws nutritional plans at me, personal training regimens for the offseason (he is famous for going outside our training plans), strength work, and seeks out inspiration. His questions keep me moving, digging, and searching for answers. Over the past few years, I’ve watched him change and grow, and even though we speak daily, the running part has become a distant past.

Today I was able to learn where he is, what he plans to do in his race Saturday—we literally discussed every lap, situation, scenario, and goal. More importantly, he has committed to guts. He wants to run on guts and determination, not just Saturday, but every day for the next 365 days, until his senior season comes to halt at next year’s state competition. Lofty summer mileage goals (700+), time commitments, team goals, and well a lifetime of running mark his mind. He wants to instill the idea in his teammates, to create a program based on want and power as much as natural talent. In his mind, the sky is the limit. Thus the nostalgia—I’ve had the pleasure of watching him grow. I have the pleasure of running on the same track I ran on high school, working for the same man that coached me. Hopefully, it doesn’t change, hopefully this runner reaches his goals, just as I aim to reach mine.

Current Goals:

Guana last year via Speedy Banana

• Break 20:00 again in a 5k. Last time I did this was high school. My recent PR was a 20:06 in February. 
• Target date is Race for the Pies on June 15, 2013
• Drop my marathon time in two stages:
• Stage one, a 3:30 during my July races (two of them: Make it by Midnight Marathon on July 13, 2013, and marathon portion of 24 hour Ultra around the Lake on July 26, 2013
• Stage two, a 3:20 or faster during the Jacksonville Bank Marathon on December 14, 2013
• Run my first Ultra, a 50k, on December 1, 2013. The Guana 50K Trail race.

Skora Cores

Current Shoe Rotation:

• Skora Form for recovery and length 
•  Altra One for recovery and length
• Skora Core for speed and shorter distances 

Skora Phase, a mesh version of the Core.