The world’s first seamless, lightest, trail running shoe made
 with Dyneema®: Meet the co-founders behind norda™

Drawing inspiration from the toughest conditions in Canada and born out of a desire to develop a shoe that is lighter, stronger, and faster than everything else on the market, the team behind norda™ set out to make a trail running shoe using the most innovative materials from around the world. 

We had the opportunity to chat with the co-founder's Nick and Willa Martire to give us an insight into norda™ and why they make the best trail running shoe on the market.

We are very happy that norda has joined the ARYS family! You guys really made a statement with the shoes. We are big fans of the comfort, the unique design and especially the effortless composition of different technologies.  

Brooks, ASICS, HOKA, New Balance, Nike: the list of renowned running shoe brands seems to be endless. What does norda™ offer to the competition of making the best running shoe on the market?

Nick Martire: We were not satisfied with the products available today for trail running and we knew that if we used the best components available, we could build a product that we would want and be proud of. Commiting to the highest performance and doing it with the lightest footprint on the environment is our mission. Through the first ever use in a trail running shoe of bio-based Dyneema, the world's strongest and lightest fibre, we are breaking the historical boundaries of high performance and sustainability.

What makes a great brand are the people behind it. You are pushing the boundaries in the market with norda™ and we are interested in how you came up with this idea. You lived in Europe for a long time and are now back in Canada. What inspirations and personal experiences from your past flow into the final product?

NM: I’ll start by saying it was Willa’s idea. We would go on our runs literally every single weekend or wherever we were and we would be running in whatever shoes were available at the time. After every run, Willa kept saying to me “Can’t we make a better version of this?”

From a performance perspective but also from the sustainability perspective, a lot of the shoes that we were running in, [we felt] the whole trail or "offroad" aspect was always an afterthought for most brands. A lot of brands would just throw a shoe in the line at the end, throw some grip on it, make it dark grey and call it a trail shoe.

Willa Martire: Also, a lot of the trail shoes you see, they perform certain purposes but they’re not very pleasing to the eye, so we wanted to find a way to make a performance shoe that was also aesthetically pleasing. 

The ARYS Store is anything but a typical running shop and people in our community have different lifestyles and passions. The technology inside the shoe is sure to thrill any running shoe expert, but why is norda™ also a brand for people who are not specifically into trail running? 

NM: ARYS and norda™ have a common vision for the latest technology and pursuit of the most advanced new things. I think it’s an interesting point in time because we’re seeing design into the running space. It comes honestly by the nature of the make-up of our team because Willa, Louis (Norda's Head of Design) and I are very avid runners and athletes in different disciplines. And yet at the same time, Gerard, our creative director is also a runner ... but he only runs for coffee or Mars bars. He’s the fastest runner you’ll ever see if you put a cup of coffee in front of him. The sport of trail running is not just about health and wellness, it's about being outdoors.
We are looking forward to present the next norda™ shoe to our community soon. The focus this time is a bit more on trail running with further development on the sole. Can you tell us more about the upcoming model?
 
NM: Our next shoe is just 2 months away and will launch in November. It will be top level version of our norda™ 001, featuring the world's first ever shoe with a G+ graphene membrane - which will be waterproof and provide incredible properties of heat homogenization, plus antibacterial and anti-static properties from graphene, the world's strongest and most conductive natural material. The grip of the sole will also rise to the ultimate level with carbide steel spikes, permanently fixed into the norda 001 soleplate. 
 
Thank you.
September 27, 2021 — Frederik Sturm
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