Few brands have shucked the norms as much Altra. Its wide-toe, zero-drop shoes looked and felt distinctly different than almost any other running shoe out there. And while it proved a turnoff for some, the Utah-based brand earned a passionate cult following within the trail running community.
In the last couple of years, Altra took heed of some of the aesthetic feedback and softened its stance on the wide-or-die profile — streamlining its splay-friendly toebox to look more like typical running shoes. And today, the brand takes another step (literally) toward winning over even more runners, this time with a 4mm drop running shoe: the AltraFWD Experience.
“The AltraFWD Experience is all about brand expansion, product evolution and continuing to create shoes that work for more and more runners,” Altra co-founder Brian Beckstead said in a press release. “We’ll never stop catering towards the Altra loyalists that are all about zero-drop, but we are super excited to expand our line-up and create a low-drop shoe that helps make Altra accessible to more runners –especially those that haven’t wanted to take the full leap into zero-drop.”
Here are the specs and details on the AltraFWD Experience shoe, which will go live for purchase on October 3.
AltraFWD Experience: Shoe With Drop
The AltraFWD Experience carries a 4mm stack height. For the men’s shoe, that translates to a 32-38mm heel-toe stack. And for women, a more modest 30-26mm stack.
In other words, these aren’t maximal shoes, but they carry plenty of midsole foam.
The last uses Altra’s “standard footshape fit” — not as pronounced a toebox as the brand’s original, but also not a slim profile.
Rebound and cushion come from compression-molded EVA foam. And the upper comprises breathable mesh.
