Outdoor Retailer Winter 15: Oofos Goes Stylish and Colorful, the OO Foam Still the Star for Comfort

Oofos is our favorite recovery sandal, clog, or thong as they make all three styles.
The thongs are now made on both women's and mens lasts.
The fun at Oofos for 2015 are the colors and the style.

The OOCloog Luxe ($64.98) is now available with the toe covering in cool shiny colors. Note that there will even be a "nurse's" white later this year.

OOFOS OOCloog Luxe

 The new OOLala thong has a thinner strap, a women last and will come in 5 shiny strap colors

OOFOS OOlala Thong

adidas Ultra Boost-Translation of Part of Runners.fr Review Post

Frederic Brossard of Runners.ft is an incredible running blogger combining wonderfully written reviews with bio metric data. He writes in French and since I am a bit handy asked him if I could paraphrase some of his review of the brand new adidas Ultra Boost. adidas is calling the Ultra "the Greatest Running Shoe Ever". We will see, but it is one heck of an interesting and promising update around the incredible Boost midsole technology.

Photo Courtesy Runners.fr

While just released in limited initial quantities in the US click here to order, while they last. In a matter of hours the men's sold out with the women's still in stock in some sizes as of 1/28/15.  Official release date is February 11th. Frederic was lucky enough to have already run a variety of workouts in the Ultra Boost. I have my own pair on order. My review soon.

Outdoor Retailer W15: Saucony Pre-Reviews-ISO Reedemer, Ride 8 and Ride 8 GTX, KInvara 6 and Kinvara 6 Runshield, Nomad TR, Xodus 6, Apparel

Saucony 
Saucony really wooed us with their shoe and apparel line. New technologies, careful beautiful designs and style that my wife and also friend Wendy found amazing from shoe uppers to apparel.

IsoFit Redeemer is a all new heavy duty stability shoe with 8mm drop. Built to accommodate orthotics it comes with a 6mm thick insole that can be replaced with orthotics as well as a hinged tongue to ease putting on the shoe with orthotics.

ISOFit Redeemer

ISOFit Redeemer. 

 Vertical dark lines are posting that are complimented for flexibility by scoring of the out and midsoles

ISOFit Reedemer- Hinged Tongue to help put on when used with orthotics.

Ride 8
Seams are gone from the forefoot, replaced by a FlexFilm upper. Greater flexibility up front. 9.4 oz, 26mm heel/18mm forefoot. $120. 6/1/2015 release.

Saucony Ride 8

Outdoor Retailer Winter 2015 Running Introductions and Previews

Pictures and commentary (at links) about all the running goodies I found at Outdoor Retailer Winter 2015.

Saucony

Ride 8 GTX

Saucony Pre-Reviews-ISO Reedemer, Ride 8 and Ride 8 GTX, KInvara 6 and Kinvara 6 Runshield, Nomad TR, Xodus 6, Apparel

New Balance

New Balance Vazee Pace

New Balance Vazee and Fresh Foam Lines Explained, Fresh Foam Hierro Trail, 910v2 Trail Runner.

La Sportiva, Saucony, Montrail

La Sportiva Helios SR

Saucony Nomad TR

New Saucony Nomad TR, La Sportiva Helios SR and Montrail Flex ST-Lightweight Trail Runners Offer More Protection and Stay Svelte

Salomon

Salomon S-Lab Wings

Salomon S-Lab Wings, S-Lab Speed, Speedcross Pro and Vario

adidas, Hoka, Altra

Altra Running Halo

Hoka One One Speedgoat

Hoka One One Tor Ultra WP

adidas adizero Boost

Day 1 Photo Album and Commentary: adidas, Hoka One One, Altra

Outdoor Retailer W15 Run Introductions: New Balance Vazee and Fresh Foam Lines Explained, Fresh Foam Hierro Trail, 910v2 Trail Runner, 1400v3

New Balance is always gracious and complete in presenting their lines to me. After the "false start" of the initial Fresh Foam 980 (review here) they have come back strong in the last year with Fresh Foam Trail (review here) and the Fresh Foam Zante, a lightweight trainer racer (review here).

Late last year New Balance announced the Vazee line. Side story on the name, it is "Vas-y" or Go or Go for It! in French. When my family spent a few years living in France, when I was young, everyone called out Vazee Jazy, as France's Michel Jazy was a fantastic middle distance in the 50's and 60's with an Olympic Silver and 9 world records.

So, what is Vazee?

• Vazee are shoes that NB characterizes as their "zippiest", with clean design lines, the most responsive. Call them the sleek fast movers. On sale 7/1/2015. 

New Balance Vazee Pace

• Fresh Foam are shoes that are versatile, most cushioned, smoothest running with classy looks, even for everyday wear I was told. Call them the sophisticated line. The line for Fall 15 includes the Fresh Foam Zante, Boracay(updated 980), and Hierro(updated 980 Trail)
• NBx-are shoes for the core consumer, the old favorites in the line.

Outdoor Retailer W15: New Saucony Nomad TR, La Sportiva Helios SR and Montrail FluidFlex ST-Lightweight Trail Runners Offer More Protection and Stay Svelte

Trail runners seem to be trending towards a happy medium. Less super maximal in the case of Hoka and in the case of these 3 new shoes less super minimal and super flexible but still light and agile with rock protection and some support underfoot.

Saucony

Saucony introduced its Nomad TR a 9.2oz 22mm heel/ 18mm forefoot trail runner available 6/1/15 for $110. It has a new oblique, natural shaped last and one piece upper with a super tacky PWRTRAC outsole. To enhance shoe flexibility and over terrain agility the forefoot pods are siped (cut).

As with all the Saucony shoes and apparel, I along with my wife and friend Wendy, both serious runners, were very impressed with Saucony's sophisticated design aesthetic.

Saucony Nomad TR- new oblique last and gaiter clip

Sacouny Nomad TR- Men and Women Colors

Saucony Nomad TR- siped outsole for flexibility and agility

Outdoor Retailer W15 Photos and Preview: Salomon S-Lab Wings, S-Lab Speed, Speedcross Pro and Vario

Salomon finally launched an S-Lab trail shoe, the S-Lab Wings "for the rest of us" i.e. for runners not quite as agile on any terrain as Kilian Jornet.... something I could run in.

The S-Lab Wings is 9.9 oz with 11mm forefoot/ 20mm heel. The price is a steep $180 but you get what you pay for at the S-Lab, the highest quality materials and immaculate functional design. My 2014 Innovation, Gear, and Apparel of the Year (here).

The S-Lab Wings has a relatively beefy outsole of Contragrip. The literature says the S-Lab Wings is designed to "give our athletes an advantage on technical terrain and dry terrain in ultra-distance races."

For those seeking even more grip in sloppy terrain there is a Soft Ground version with even beefier lugs reminding me of the adidas Terrex Boost.

Salomon S-Lab Wings

Outdoor Retailer W15 Day 1 Photo Album and Commentary: adidas, Hoka One One, Altra

As always an exciting first day at Outdoor Retailer. Full previews to come but here is a taste of what I found. Most models illustrated will be available Summer-Fall 2015. 

HOKA ONE ONE

SpeedGoat was the star of show so far.  9.7 oz. Vibram outsole. Flex grooves. 28mm forefoot /33 heel. $130, July. I have now run and reviewed the SpeedGoat here.

Hoka One One Speedgoat