Did you know that the men's marathon has been an Olympic event since 1896, yet it took almost ninety years for the women's event to be included in the schedule when it debuted at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles?? Bizarre, thankfully we have come a long way since.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of when the Boston Marathon officially created a women’s division, PUMA donated funds to Girls Gotta Run, an organization that invests in girls who use running and education to empower themselves and their communities in Ethiopia. We really like that.
PUMA more recently conducted a large-scale study on female runners to help us shape their approach to women’s running shoes. In collaboration with the University of Massachusetts biomechanics lab, PUMA's research study recruited 224 runners who logged more than 50 000 kays over 2 months. Their goal is to "continue to support female runners and keep them running longer.” Indeed, for many years men's shoe lasts were used to design shoes which were retro tweaked to suit women's needs which is a half measure given that ladies feet are typically shaped differently to men's.
Named for the woman specific double X chromosome DNA sequence, the Run XX stands behind PUMA’s ‘Run for Her’ mission.
The brand new RUN XX Nitro design was created to more snugly fit a woman’s narrower heel & instep plus more pronounced arch. It's been said that women have a wider base of support relative to their height, much like cyclists refer to the 'Q factor' for pedal width. This structural difference influences how women’s feet hit the ground, meaning that in general women tend to pronate more than men. To support this the combination of lightweight yet firm support, made easier for PUMA by the now proven NITRO foam midsole, the very visible reflective outer Run Guide is likely to promote alignment to aid stability over longer distances.
We have just received a cool looking test pair and will report back soon on the performance & feel of these and other interesting design aspects such as the decoupled outsole which we can see protruding behind the heel.
These cool new kicks are available at PUMA.com, PUMA Stores, Totalsports, Superbalist and selected retailers with a retail price of R3 199.