Yahoo News Altra launches the FWD Experience – the brand's first non-zero drop shoe
Weight: 201g (W), 240g (M)
Stack height: 26mm/30mm
Heel-to-toe drop: 4mm
Type: Neutral/road
The shoe
Not many brands can say they were born out of an experiment with a toaster oven and a hackshaw, but that’s exactly where Altra met its humble beginnings. Co-founder Golden Harper found that he was able to heat a pair of his running shoes just enough to remove the heel and balance it out – creating a shoe that he felt wasn’t obstructing the way he ran.
Ever since, the brand’s ethos has been to create shoes built around the foot’s natural shape, with its signature wide toe boxes and zero-millimetre offsets. This is a specific shoe architecture characterised by the heel and toe sitting level with each other to create the 0mm drop.
But all that has changed. Enter the Altra FWD Experience – the brand’s first non-zero drop shoe. While Altra zealots may frown upon it, even thinking the brand is selling out, really it’s a response to runners wanting to experiment with shoe styles outside the industry standard, who might not be ready to make the jump to zero drop.
Altra FWD Experience: First impressions
We attended the UK launch of the AltraFWD Experience to take the shoe out for an initial test run.
One of the most noticeable things about the shoe is it's rocker shape geometry, which really helps to roll you forwards during toe-off to create a smoother ride. The compression-molded EVA foam used in the midsole feels cushioned but not super soft, retaining a good amount of firmness that adds to the Experience's overall responsiveness and 'poppiness'.
'We’ve really homed in on efficiency with a bit more toe spring and more of that natural roll underfoot,' said Alex Lind, senior product line manager at Altra.
In fact, the AltraFWD feels quite similar to the Hoka Clifton 9 in this respect. Where the shoes differ is the Altra's generous foot-shaped toe box, which offers a new option for those who find other brands, like Hoka, too snug. We found it to be the perfect fit – not too narrow but not too wide and sloppy either, running true to our usual shoe sizes.
Up top, there's an engineered mesh upper. It's too early to comment on how this feels during different conditions, but initial thoughts were that it was relatively breathable and offered a secure fit around the midfoot. The tongue is lightly padded – but not gusseted – and there's some significant padding on the heel collar too, which helps with locking the heel down. We didn't experience any hotspots or blisters running in them right out of the box either.
That said, there's nothing particularly innovative about the AltraFWD Experience apart from that it deviates from the brand's usual ESP. It is however a decent running shoe that will serve a lot of runners well for the majority of their training runs and – as per Altra's ambitions – provides a good segway into lower drop shoes.
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