For a brand long associated with uncompromising cushioning and comfort, HOKA’s latest release, the much-hyped Carbon X, represents its recent attempts to broaden its image.
‘This shoe is built to be fast,’ explains HOKA’s Footwear Design Director Matt Head. ‘We want people to feel fast when they put the shoe on. The reason we’ve been successful as a brand is because our shoes communicate comfort and plushness and they make you feel fresh. With these shoes we want you turn over a little bit quicker.’
The Carbon Plate
Compared to the recently released Carbon Rocket – HOKA’s first carbon-crafted racing shoe – the Carbon X looks more like a conventional HOKA product, with a substantial stack height and plenty of cushioning. Like in the Rocket, though, the use of the material of the moment, carbon, sets the two shoes apart from previous HOKA models.
The aim of the carbon plate is, as Head explains, to support and maintain the shoe’s aggressive Metarocker™: ‘Traditionally, when we use a foam midsole with a rocker, eventually the rocker starts to sag a little bit, but the carbon fibre plate allows us to keep the shape and integrity of the rocker.’
The rocker is a defining feature of many HOKA models, and it’s one of the main reasons behind the brand’s popularity: allowing the runner to move through the gait cycle, as Head puts it, ‘like a wheel’. With traditional foam material you eventually lose the shape of the rocker, but the carbon plate – running the full length of the shoe, from heel to forefoot – prevents that from happening.
Metarocker
But while the carbon plate is the unsung hero of the shoe, that Metarocker™ is the star of the show. Fresh out the box, the effect of such an obvious rocker is unsettling – like you might topple head over heels at any moment – but after a couple of acclimatising runs the rocker’s effectiveness shines through, and that rolling gait cycle kicks into gear.
Matt Head explains more about shoe:
‘We realised that although people love the cushioning and comfort of our products, some runners wanted a little bit more – they want to be able to turn over a bit quicker,’ says Head. ‘So we looked at the shoes we already had and how we could improve. One of the main things we realised was that by improving the efficiency of the rocker we could make a much quicker shoe.’
Speed was certainly no issue for ultrarunner Jim Walmsley, who christened his pair at HOKA’s Project Carbon X event – a 100k race in Sacramento, California – last weekend. Averaging a barely human 5:48min/miles for close to five hours, Walmsley smashed the 50-mile world record with a time of 4:50:08 (although the full 100k proved too much on a scorching day, and he was forced to finish the race at a comparative jog).
There is a contradiction, of course, in selling a shoe as quick and efficient then showcasing it during a 100 kilometre run. Even for seasoned ultrarunners, that is a huge distance (just ask Walmsley); for regular runners, it’s inconceivable. But HOKA insist the shoe is not just for athletes: it’s for everyone.
‘As a brand we pride ourselves on enabling everyone to run in our product,’ says Head, ‘and there are a lot of people who can only run in HOKAs, so when we created the Carbon X we wanted to create a product that everyone could move fast in. It’s inherently stable – you can land on the rear, mid, or forefoot, and you have a nice, stable platform – and it has loads of cushioning: a 32 stack rear to a 27 stack in the forefoot.’
At 241g, it’s not the lightest shoe, but HOKA’s point is that the aggressive rocker counters the need for a completely stripped-back product (there is also the Carbon Rocket for runners seeking that sort of thing).
‘This shoe is the weight we ended up with once we had created the ideal rocker and Premiata else,’ explains Head. ‘If you look at the upper, that is built purely through the lens of speed, so that is as stripped back as we could make it, but we will never compromise on our tooling, because that is where all the performance comes from in a HOKA shoe.’
zapatillas de running ASICS mujer talla 32 azules | The record
Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley made history by breaking the 50-mile World Record (Unofficial), clocking a time of 4:50:08 in the new Carbon X racing shoe.
Competing as part of the HOKA Project Carbon X race in Sacramento, California, Walmsley was aiming to break the 100km record but high temperatures meant a change of strategy and 50 miles became the goal as he ran the course at an average speed of 5:48 per mile, and in doing so unofficially beat Bruce Fordyce’s 35-year record time of 4:50:51.
And Japanese star, Hideaki Yamauchi – also wearing the Carbon X – crossed the 100K finish line in first place, registering an impressive time of 6:19:54, just over 10 minutes outside the World Record.
Meanwhile, on the same course, a mix of athletes from HOKA and select retail partners broke the World Record (Unofficial) for the mixed-gender 10x10K relay. The top two teams came in at times of 5:45:51 and 5:46:17, finishing ahead of the previous best time of just over six hours and one minute.
zapatillas de running ASICS mujer talla 32 azules:
Despite current trends, carbon plates in running shoes has been happening for some time and the latest to increase its range is HOKA, with the Carbon X (it already has the Carbon Rocket).
According to HOKA, 'Project Carbon X' is a racing shoe that embodies the impossibly-cushioned, impossibly-lightweight construction that the brand Dalida when it launched 10 years ago.
