Altra Escalante Racer
Altra is new brand, it released the first pair of running shoes in 2011. If you don’t like running, you may haven’t heard this brand before.
The founder of Altra is Golden Harper who is a legend. He was born on 1980. His marathon scores is 3 :8’ when he was 10 years old, and his record 2:57’ on 11 years old and 2:45’34’’ on 12 years old are still the best American and world marathon record. As he said, ‘Basically, I ran before I walked’. Indeed, he was born to be a excellent runner.
In the beginning, the appearance and colorways of Altra running shoes can’t attract me. But Altra is keeping on developing, not only the appearance and colorway, but also the technology. Except the original core technology ZERO DROP, FOOTSHAPE and FIT4HER, now it also has INNERFLIX, ALTRA EGO and other new technologies.
Today, I want to share my review for the performance of Altra Escalante Racer.
The appearance is cool. And the insole is not so thick as cross-country shoes.
The vamp material is thin, and it has big grid mesh. The air permeability is good. It’s visible. The shoe tongue is traditional design, it’s not reinforced on the side and insole. There is a reflecting tap in the middle of shoe tongue to improve the steadiness. So the shoe tongue won’t be easy to off tracking.
The foam of upper is not thick, but the padding is soft, it’s very comfortable. There is no TPU supporting plate on the shoe heel.
The insole uses EGO material which is similar to BOOST, it has great resilience and cushion performance. But it’s lighter than BOOST. It also has shell frame model design. I bought the Paris colorway. It looks cool. I love it.
Altra Escalante Racer has 4 different colorways which are named according to the city name, that it, London, Boston, Paris and Tokyo. These 4 cities have the Marathon competitions.
We can see ZERO DROP on the insole. This technology is the core idea of Altra. As I know, Altra hasn’t produced a pair of shoes without ZERO DROP. ZERO DROP means that your foot is paralleled with the ground. It likes the state of bared feet.
The outsole uses FOOTPOD technology. It can simulate the curve of foot, so we can run more natural without constraint.
As it’s ZERO DROP, it’s stable when walking and running.
Most of people run on heels firstly. But if you are not good at running on heels, it has impact force to ankle and knees.
So, to reduce the impact force to knees and arthro, many runners improve the running way, they run on forefoot firstly, then the arch and heel tendon can afford most of the impact force. But it needs a long time to adjust and practice.
If you run on forefoot, Altra Escalante Racer is suitable to you, or it can say that Altra brand running shoes are very suitable to you. You can run easier with ZERO DROP insole. It’s hard to describe in words. I suggest you to have a try. You will love it.
But it also has disadvantages. How should the runner who run on heel or whole foot get used to Altra? It needs time to adjust if wearing Altra for running.
The second core technology of Altra is FOOTSHAPE. It offers very wide space for forefoot. It’s also suitable for wide foot.
The half-sole is a little empty for me. But you don’t need to worry about the stability. As it’s only wide forefoot, but the midsole and rear sole is not wide.
Overall, if you run on forefoot and your toes can separate when running, then you don’t need to hesitate to purchase Altra. It’s made for you. If you run on rear sole, you need some times to breaking-in. The EGO technology material of Escalante Racer insole is soft and elastic.