Introducing the New TevaSphere Collection

It's always quite exciting when a new product is launched in the UK and being a triathlete I'm partial to a nice bit of kit. TriBlogs was lucky enough to be invited to the launch event of the new TevaSphere collection (by outdoor brand Teva). The afternoon began with a talk about the product development and then later on a chance to try out the shoes with an extremely muddy run on Hamstead Heath.

Development of the Shoe

From the presentation we found out that the new TevaSphere technology was over four years in development. The main features are the spherical heel (in contrast to the usual squared-off heels of other athletic shoes) and the pod-arch system. Both designed to deliver a more natural point of impact, efficient transition and superior stability on varied terrains. The shoes were described as a hybrid between a stability and minimalist shoe.

Testing

The shoe had been tested by leading sports science and human performance institute P3 (Peak Performance Project). This groundbreaking lab sounded like the sports science equivalent of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory (in short just a bit awesome). P3 has the ability to test beyond the traditional flat environments of a lab and included testing both uphill and downhill movements and mimicking the various terrains of the outdoors.

Testing showed that the spherical heel lowers the userÂ's point of contact with terrain for a more natural point of impact and more efficient transition Being closer to the ground also meant they were more stable. The pod-arch system provides specific support only where needed, offering stability (in terms of the pronation/supination measurement) without restricting freedom of movement or adding unnecessary weight to the shoe (they described the pods as being like "guard rails" kicking in when you need them).

These shoes were also said to have the best breaking to acceleration ratio they'd ever tested, nice!

Another claim was that the shoe did not to force consumers to change their stride (i.e. not forcing runners to adopt a forefoot strike) which has, in the past, been a criticism of other minimalist shoes.

This all sounded good to me but as a forefoot striker I was interested to know if these shoes were also a good fit for me. I was reassured that they were because the shoe was designed to work at all three phases of the foot strike.

TevaSphere in Action

The shoes feel comfortable when you first put them on and look nice as well. I'm a neutral runner so I wasn't expecting to feel much action from the pods but other users said that they could feel them. We were trying the road version of the shoe, but even then I felt they fared pretty well in the extremely muddy conditions (see after pic below). I'm looking forward to trying them out a few more times once I've go them cleaned up!

TevaSphere product offerings will be available in the UK from March 2013 in styles for men and women and will be available exclusively from Cotswold Outdoor.