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TrailCon 2025 Interview: Nnormal Kejrag 02 presented by NNormal CEO Luis Salas
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Jun 28, 2025
Interview with Sito Luis Salas, CEO of Nnormal, about the new Kjerag 2 with 5mm stack height, more rocker and new foam. Same Megagrip Litebase outsole as 01. Data from 500 runners for 01 indicates life average of 1000km. Expecting 02 will last longer. $195. Available now.
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0:00
so hi Jen Schmidt here with Roadt Trail
0:02
Run again um and I'll have you introduce
0:04
yourself and what you do at Normal yeah
0:06
thank you Jennifer for having me it's a
0:08
pleasure to be in your show no and yeah
0:11
my name is Sito Louis i'm serving as co
0:15
of uh Norman for the last three years
0:18
since we launched the brand and my
0:20
background is been working in camper
0:23
which is a family business and is the
0:25
co-founder of normal together with Kian
0:28
for 21 years so that's it and also
0:31
personally I I am a trail running so yes
0:36
I so now uh I join my professional
0:40
career with my passion which is the my
0:42
hobby how are you really happy this
0:45
opportunity and you were saying you just
0:46
did the the ascent at Broken Arrow on
0:49
Friday wearing this shoe so maybe you
0:51
can tell us a little bit about um your
0:53
favorite normal shoe and what made you
0:55
choose that yeah yeah we have uh we only
0:57
have two shoes so you know we are a
1:00
small brand uh and we are focusing our
1:02
energies in in two products so we have
1:05
the the Jerk uh that we launched three
1:09
years ago with the brand and just today
1:12
we are launching the second version of
1:14
this shoe which is the Jerto and yeah
1:16
myself was using this shoe in the ascent
1:20
it was super tough for me but a good
1:22
experience
1:24
and then during the weekend and Joy they
1:26
won the 23k so both winners of the 23k
1:30
in that and Kian is running the western
1:33
with this shoe so there is a high
1:34
expectation of the shoe so I think that
1:38
really speaks to the versatility of the
1:39
shoe that you can wear it Oops um that
1:42
you can wear it for the ascent and also
1:44
for a 23k and also for western states um
1:48
so talk a little bit about the changes
1:50
in this shoe and what makes it work for
1:52
all those different kinds of races good
1:54
well you know this shoe was developed to
1:56
be a fast shoe as you said very
1:58
versatile uh but it's true that the
2:00
first version was mainly used by elite
2:03
or fast runners
2:06
as is a shoe that is very low to the
2:09
ground that you can feel the the ground
2:12
and is very fast it's for technical
2:14
terrains so the feedback we got is that
2:17
if if we could increase a bit the
2:19
cushioning without losing the stability
2:22
and the speed would be a better show so
2:25
I would say the biggest change is that
2:27
we increase 2.5 mm
2:29
okay so that's a big increase in stock
2:31
height yeah and also we change the
2:33
material to more reactive uh foam which
2:37
is a super critical TP okay and at the
2:40
same time we increase the rubber of the
2:41
shoe so now is I would say a faster shoe
2:45
and we believe that more people can
2:47
enjoy this shoe yeah so more stack
2:50
height more super critical foam DPA and
2:53
then a little more rocker so more
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reactive responsive so I believe that
2:57
maybe people which is not so lightweight
2:59
can use it no and for also for longer
3:02
distances I don't know if it's myself
3:04
for me was been always running this shoe
3:07
but I could do 20 or 30 kilometers then
3:10
over marathon wise a bit uh and now with
3:13
the Ju I I could do an ultra yeah so
3:18
let's see then also it's for this kind
3:21
of uh runner that likes to to feel the
3:24
ground and go go fast so as you know uh
3:28
each not all the shoes are good for
3:30
everybody so you have to understand
3:32
yourself and understand the Yeah and has
3:34
the outsole stayed the same here looking
3:37
at Yeah the outsole is Yeah yeah the
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outsole for us uh is working really well
3:43
is
3:44
Vibbra Mega Grip light base okay so
3:47
still looking yeah yeah this is a design
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we did and uh we invest in the molds and
3:53
the feedback has been really good for
3:54
this shoe i think it's very versatile
3:56
works everywhere maybe at this lower um
4:00
I say lower ls maybe when it's very
4:03
muddy it's not the right shoe but in the
4:06
rest of terrain even wet rock or or or
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fast trails uh you can use Yeah i love
4:13
mine for winter running on the wet wet
4:15
trails
4:16
yeah that's great so I know one of the
4:18
big focuses for normal is sustainability
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and how long the shoe lasts how long
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would you expect this kind of We have
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the data of the Jaguan and we had
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feedback from 500 users and the average
4:31
was 1,000 km wow this is around what 600
4:35
miles something like this but this was
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an average so you have people 600 km and
4:39
some people 2,000 so obviously depends
4:41
on the terrain and and I expect this
4:43
shoe to last two or threeund kilometers
4:47
more so 1300 1500 this is the target uh
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but we still don't have proof of it
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because we are just launching to the
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market and I have mine uh prototype uh
4:59
and has for the moment I I am in 1,000
5:01
km and still there and Kian he told me
5:05
he has run 1500 mhm but he doesn't count
5:08
because the guy is so light yeah doesn't
5:10
touch the ground and run on the the fore
5:12
foot but I would say we could be close
5:15
to between,000 and500
5:19
that's really impressive yeah so it
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launches today you said yeah and what's
5:24
the price point on it is uh in euros is
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€190 i think in dollars is $195 if and
5:32
for you know 1,000 km 1300 km for that
5:37
that's that's pretty good as you said uh
5:40
for when we when we think uh that we
5:43
have to uh have a positive impact uh in
5:46
sustainability we say which what can we
5:49
do because then you have to be specific
5:50
and we say okay let's vet for dutability
5:52
because if we believe that yeah this
5:54
shoe last double then another show then
5:58
the the impact uh on the planet is half
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so this is the easiest way to to to have
6:05
a positive impact in sustainability so
6:07
we met with Yeah and maybe you can tell
6:10
me a little bit about where normal would
6:14
want to go from here like thinking again
6:15
about sustainability keeping two shoes
6:18
do you ever think you'll do another shoe
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or is it more about perfecting kind of
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what you've got we have this idea of not
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having a huge collection so I only have
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three shoes uh next year we will launch
6:26
the third line oh wow which is more for
6:29
entry level more for everybody the shoes
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we have now are quite technical yeah so
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next year we're launching a show more
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for everybody and but the idea is to
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stay with these three lines i think with
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three lines we can cover most of runners
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and most of the range and the idea is to
6:47
stick with these three franchise lines
6:48
we call them and then keep improving
6:50
with versions every two or three years
6:53
when we have a big improvement improve
6:55
the and this is our product strategy
6:58
yeah very cool oh well I can't wait yeah
7:02
try the next one too great i think
7:05
that's all I all I have for now