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...for the Military

UK Gear’s training shoes were originally designed in association with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC). These elite fitness professionals were closely involved in the development and tested our products in some of the most inhospitable conditions on Earth. Only when approved by the Military do we consider our products... Built to survive.

Sporting Goods Business - PT-1000 Armed Forces

>>03 November 2010

UK Gear’s CEO David Hinde explains how the company’s new PT-1000, a thousand-mile running shoe, came into being, and what makes it a bit special.

“What makes it survive a thousand miles? The new shoe comes under a category of technology we call our Force Dynamic System, which is the accumulation of all the different components in the shoe that have been specifically designed with longevity in mind. So the trick is to make them last as long as possible while being as light as possible. We’ve used the best chemists and modern material technology to achieve increased durability.

Component by component, we stripped down the shoe and looked at everything that could fail in a shoe over a thousand miles, then built every piece to survive that distance and put them all together. We set out three years ago when we first came up with the idea to look at durability next. We thought that perhaps durability was the one area that the running shoe industry wasn’t really taking care of ; you look at any other industry in the world, more miles for your money is a key factor, yet that seems to have completely bypassed the running shoe industry.

Working with the military, they’re always of a mind to get the best value for money, for themselves and for the taxpayer. One of the biggest gripes we always heard when we talked to the military around the world is that soldiers wanted a shoe that lasts. I can’t tell you how many soldiers I’ve spoken to who have said, ‘I need a shoe that will last me for more than 12 weeks’. Most soldiers want that, they’ll burn 300 or 350 miles in 12 weeks. I was standing in a military store in San Diego talking to a Navy Seal and he explained simply, ‘I can’t afford $120 every 12 weeks for a pair of running shoes, so I end up running in them for too long, then my knees and hips start to ache... Then I come to the store begrudgingly looking for a pair of shoes.’ All those meetings and talking to people got us to thinking that should be our next mission, to develop the longest lasting running shoe in the world.

To quote one of our military testers, Captain Barry Stoddard, who does 50-60 miles a week, these shoes take a few miles to bed in. He felt perfectly smooth in them after that bedding in period; this is the guy who did all his training in PT-1000 prototypes before breaking the world record for completing a half marathon wearing a full army pack. His time was 1 hour 44 minutes, 53 seconds. A respectable time without a 40lb rucksack on your back.

It will feel different to your more mainstream running shoe, but as we like to say it will not compromise on biomechanical performance and comfort to get to that 1,000 miles – but it will feel different to run in. The actual 1,000 miles – as to whether the shoe will last for that, more or less – depends on the runner’s weight, their running style, all sorts of things – but we think it should be good for just about everyone up to 1,000 miles. It also depends on how much road to trail running you do, it is designed for both. If you only do road running, it’s possible that you might get fewer miles out of them. The RRP is around £100, depending on whether you have the neutral or motion control model. £95 for the neutral shoe, £100 for the motion control.”

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