Personally, I love outdoor activities like walking and running and I would love doing it even more without suffering from back and knees pains. And I am sure I am not the only one…
I thought about how to make walking and jogging activities more attractive, safe and comfortable.
Do you have any previous experience with designing footwear?
I know there are many people here with strong opinions and lots of experience in this field, but I’ll say I’d be really nervous to run in a pair of those shoes, it seems like there would be less stability and a higher chance for a rolled ankle. Is there any video of it being used by an actual runner? That may be good for the promo vid!
I’m a runner (about 60km/week) and a shoe designer (including designing running shoes). I’m highly skeptical these would be good for running. I’d expect a higher rate of injury and discomfort as you are trying to mechanically prevent the foot and body from doing what it is supposed to do in terms of absorbing shock, providing motion control, rebound, etc.
Your outsoles also don’t look like they have any toe spring (where the toe area is off the ground) so would likely catch on the pavement and send you face first into the ground, especially being so off balance up so high.
Frankly these look really dangerous.
While I may be a bit biased as I typically run and design more minimal/natural shoes (but also have ran and designed traditional running shoes), I think the best shoe is as little shoe as possible, and one that lets your body feel the ground, provide priopreception and control.
This is feedback from one of first users of soaring shoes:
“Surprisingly, these shoes are stable. It is a pleasure to walk with, especially after high heels.
My feet have never felt so comfortable. At that moment I felt like I was walking on the clouds”.
One advice regarding feedback from users, don’t cherry-pick the good feedback. All the opportunities to making a successful product are in the negative feedback, those will tell you what problems to solve. Kill your darlings, as they say.