Running Supply Roundup #29
Norda 005 launches, tiger striped shoes, Tracksmith's carbon plated racer, and some top American finishes in LA.
Quick Hits
Wrote a roundup of my favorite socks I’ve run in (and biked in) over the last few years.
I’m heading to Los Angeles for The Speed Project LA to LV mid next week. Hopefully see some of you there!
American Matt Richtman (Asics) won the LA marathon, his 2nd marathon ever. He ran 2:07:56 placing him 7th all time. First American to win in 31 years!
NYC Half was this past weekend, Under Armour athlete Sharon Lokedi won on the women’s side, with American Fiona O’Keeffe of Puma in second. Not a bad showing these brands that aren’t always seen as dominant running brands. Puma’s been recently crushing it on the (American) women’s distance side.
NCAA Indoor Championships was this weekend. Plenty of super exciiting racing. Lets Run put together a list of some of the stand out races. The The DMRs were particularly exciting.
ICYMI
Last week I wrote about a bunch of new spring releases from Unna, Literary Sport, Puma x Saysky, Tiempos, and an official look at SATISFY’s new trail shoe TheROCKER. Get the full read here
Recent Releases
The Norda 005
The super light trail race shoe from Norda dropped this past week. It’s a similar fit to their other shoes (half size down from normal) and quite well reviewed. If the price feels a bit rich at $320, you can get it at REI with a 20% discount if you have a coupon code, or take advantage of the Canadian exchange rates. Here to bring you those $aving$:
Buy at Enroute for $231, Buy at Haven for $244
Veja x Cesar Villalba Condor 3 Advanced
Veja released a new colorway of their Condor 3 Advanced in collaboration with fashion designer and distance athlete Cesar Villalba. Cesar has worked with a number of brands like Giordana, Article One, and Lou Equipment. He’s a known entity in the LA community, so the collab and activation I think hit particularly well there : they did a pop up out of LSD Running store, had some local brands do food and bev, and got a mariachi band to play a bit. Cool things coming out of LSD, one of the handful of “third wave” run lifestyle stores in the US. The tiger stripe pattern used here is similar to the one he had on his Giordana collab, so love that some of his personal style / brand is coming through.
Runners and Cyclists Unite
We’re seeing a lot of overlap these days with running and cycling. Portal, a new active wear brand, releasing a hiking + running + cycling line. Enroute (Run, Cycling), Le Club, and Renegade now share an overlap in their merchandise and in person meetups with both runs and rides. The crowds are similar, the vibes are similar, and the pipeline of injured runner to cyclist remains as strong as ever.
Erniold’s Limited Edition Boston Marathon Singlet
Erniold, an Australian running brand, made a heritage inspired singlet just for the Boston Marathon. Rob de Castella (commonly known as Deeks) won the 1986 Boston Marathon in 2:07:51, his best ever time and still the Australian record! Bonus, if you buy the singlet you can get a custom logo or design printed free of charge at their Boston Marathon popup on April 19th (feat. Brick Layer’s Union). I think this is super sick and well executed: it’s rooted in history related to the brand and race, it looks cool, and they’re going to have an in person event around the product leveraging a local group. Can’t wait to drop by!
SATISFY’s new Trail Master collection
SATISFY added some new colorways and made some updates to their tech. Their CloudMerino shirts are now CloudMerino Cordura, for extra durability. Perfect to reinforce an easy-to-snag wool based fabric. They’ve reinforced their TechSilk shorts with Cordura as well. They’ve also added AuraLite Tech which is a new superlight weight microperforated mesh top.
One of my favorite details are on their Cordura Half Tights. They have silicon patches on the thigh area where on steep climbs runners often will hold their thighs. Less likely to slide off.
Upcoming Releases
The Tracksmith Eliot Racer Launches March 18
Tracksmith is finally releasing the Eliot Racer online March 18th, a carbon plated high speed racing shoe with a drop in midsole. The shoe has been well reviewed, and plenty Olympic Trial marathoners raced in it this past year. It has a 38mm stack height, gentle rocker, and soft but responsive foam. The main thing here is that the shoe is good without being so tech forward that it looks ugly. The high performance racing shoes all tend to have a certain look to them—they look high tech, punchy colors, striking graphics and shapes. If you’re into the TS aesthetic, this will fit your kit perfectly.
It’s currently available at the Trackhouses in Boston, Brookly, and London as well as their LA Marathon Pop-up.
I honestly wish they did more marketing and storytelling with the shoe, and maybe they will ahead of the Boston Marathon. I would have loved to see video, photos, full content shoots with the amateur athletes that sponsored at the previous Olympic Trials where they wear tested them. Ahead of the release I expect that to be saturating my feed with inspiring warm toned photos of the grind. I miss this stuff and this stuff. Leaning into the romantic heritage of running is Tracksmith’s bread and butter.
On x PAF Current Form 2.0+
On x POST ARCHIVE FACTION of Korea teamed up again on some spring edition colorways. The On Cloudmonster 2 and Cloudventure Peak PAF drop March 20th at On and select retailers.
I like all of their high tech stuff with PAF – PAF nails the gorp look and is killing it in South Korea. Looking forward to more collabs with them and hopefully more apparel!
Salomon’s Spring Line
Salomon added some new colors and silhouettes to their spring apparel line. There’s soo much to even cover here but I love the grey-purples, chocolate browns, and soft buttery greens. The translucent shell continues to be on trend.
Luft in Venice has moved from cycling only to cycling and running, so be sure to check them out when you're here