What makes Altra Shoes so unique?
Altra has had a rapid rise to success from their humble beginnings in the back of a Wasatch shoe store just over five years ago. In the beginning, founder Golden Harper modified shoes in a toaster over to help encourage low impact running amongst his customers. He knows a thing or two about the sport as he’s a competitive runner who’s completed a marathon in a record 2:45 at the age of just 12 years old, plus he’s conducted research in college on running injuries.
Altra shoes have two unique features that set them apart from the competition, Zero Drop and Foot Shape shoes. Traditional running shoes have elevated heels which encourage high-impact overstriding, Altra shoes are built on a Zero-Drop platform which keeps the heel and forefoot at the same height from the ground. This naturally aligns your feet, back and body posture to encourage a low impact landing with each stride. Altra also uses a Footshape toe box on all of their shoes, this allows your toes to spread out and sit in a more natural position. The result is more stability, less over-pronation and increased comfort. While both of these design features seem fairly simple and logical only Altra is able to offer them in all of the shoes they produce.
Altra designs and produces shoes in three categories: Casual, Road and Trail. Each of their 21 models feature their Zero Drop and Foot Shape design. At Outdoor PressCamp 2017 Golden showed off a few of their new models, namely the Altra Lone Peak 3.5, Altra King NT 1.5, Altra Escalante, Altra Vali and Altra Hiit XT. Watch the following video overviews to learn more about each of these shoes.
Altra Lone Peak 3.5
Altra King NT 1.5
Altra Crossover Shoes
