Salomon’s new S/Lab Spectur is a high-performance race-day running shoe built to deliver the same benefits to everyday runners that elite-level marathoners receive from their shoes.
The Spectur will be available in May 2024. This racing shoe features the same premium materials and technologies used in the shoes of elite runners. But it comes in a design package that benefits middle-of-the-pack runners for their performance objectives. The S/LAB Spectur is not intended to be another training shoe. It is a race-day shoe that helps everyday runners perform their best.
Salomon’s footwear research and development team dove into the topic in 2021. It discovered that modern “super shoe” designs were benefitting only a small segment of the running population. This segment is the most elite 4 percent who run at 14 kilometers per hour or faster (a sub-3-hour marathon pace). The team asked how it could deliver a super shoe for runners who have different biomechanics.
“Pace and biomechanics determine what shoe design will be efficient for runners. As a consequence, most runners do not have the same functional needs as elite runners,” said Marlene Giandolini, sports and consumer scientist for Salomon. “Today’s super shoes have rocker shapes, carbon plates and narrow heels. They are built for an extremely exclusive group of elite runners. Our studies in the Salomon Sport and Consumer Sciences Lab found that for those who run slower, these super shoe designs were, in fact, impairing their efficiency.”
New Designs
Salomon’s design team set out to build a super shoe for the majority of runners. These are the people who take their running seriously and set goals, but do not have the same form, biomechanics or body types as elite-level runners.
“We believe that elites do not have a monopoly on performance,” Giandolini said. “At Salomon, we believe performance is a matter of mindset and commitment rather than pace and time. Therefore, our belief is that everyone who trains to beat his or her personal best deserves a super shoe that can help them do that.”
Whether your goal is a sub four-hour marathon or a 45-minute 10K road race, the S/LAB Spectur is lightweight at 235 grams / 8.2 ounces. It has a specifically engineered carbon plate, dual foam cushioning and an enhanced midsole geometry to improve stability. The difference is in how those features work together to provide the right balance between propulsion and stability.
“The question we asked was: How do you make running more efficient? Because that’s what ‘super shoes’ are doing for elite runners who are chasing world records,” said Gatien Airiau, Salomon’s product line manager for road running and an elite distance runner himself. “We’re not trying to change anyone’s running form. The S/LAB Spectur does not change how you run. We’re trying to leverage your biomechanics and your pace to make the fastest shoe possible for you. We didn’t take an elite athlete’s shoe and then take down it to amateur runners. We started from scratch to make a shoe that gives everyday runners the same access to shoe innovations that elites have.”
What’s In the S/Lab Spectur?
The patented design of the S/LAB Spectur features a more resilient full-length energyFOAM+ midsole. The top layer is made from premium PEBA material that delivers energy return and unrivalled cushioning. This works together with the rocker shape of the shoe to ease propulsion and improve the rocker effect by moving the pivot point backward from where it would be in an elite runner’s shoe.
As most everyday runners strike the ground with their heel first, stability and heel-to-toe transition have been major focus points in the S/LAB Spectur design. The carbon Energy Blade plate in the shoe has a unique shape that delivers a balanced transition from heel to toe. The shoe also has a wider heel platform than shoes designed for elite runners, to improve stability. Finally, the upper of the S/LAB Spectur features more padding than an elite runner’s racing shoe because most runners spend far more time in their shoes than the fastest runners on the planet, meaning they are looking for extra comfort. The shoe has an 8 mm drop.
The Project: Speed for All
To create the S/LAB Spectur, sports scientists at the Salomon Sport and Consumer Sciences Lab in Annecy, France, tested more than 200 different runners over more than two years in a project they called “The Democratization of Speed.” The goal was to help everyday runners.
The team started the project with a study that has since been published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology (Chollet et al. 2022). First, they administered various physiological (oxygen consumption/energy expansion), biomechanical (stability and gait analysis) and sensory (assessment of heel stability and heel cushioning) tests to elite and non-elite runners running in popular “super shoes” designed for elite runners.
“Since 2016, most brands were innovating with carbon-plated running shoes, but we thought maybe not all the people using them might be benefiting from them, so that was really the starting point,” says Airiau. “The speeds of elite runners and everyday runners are different, and the needs are completely different as well. Normally, the two groups do not have the same body shape or the same stride, meaning the technical answers that we bring to those sets of runners should be different. And that was the reason why we created S/LAB Spectur.”
S/Lab Spectur Testing
With the Sports Science Team, Salomon’s footwear R&D experts developed multiple prototype models of the shoe that would become the S/LAB Spectur. They adjusted the shoe’s features along the way and measured the effects on everyday runners using the same physiological, biomechanical and sensory tests. This allowed them to see what designs aided performance, and which impeded. When everyday runners performed the running test with the S/LAB Spectur and one of the best-selling shoes on the market, the team discovered the runners were able to reduce their oxygen consumption while using the S/LAB Spectur. *
“If you improve your efficiency, you save more energy and run faster later in the race,” Giandolini said. “Let’s say you are running at 10 km/hour. If you reduce your oxygen consumption by 4 percent, you may, in theory, increase your running velocity by approximately 4.5 percent. That could translate to a 7-minute gain in your marathon finishing time.”
The S/LAB Spectur will be available on Salomon.com and at select specialty retailers in May 2024.
* Blind study conducted with 50 runners, running alternatively with S/LAB Spectur and one of the best-selling running shoes on the market.
