1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,000 Race day is the ultimate test of your training, and a solid plan 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,120 can set you up for success. Strides Race Power Calculator 3 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:13,120 eliminates the uncertainty by analyzing the course, weather 4 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,040 and your personal capability to create a custom power target. 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:19,160 This lets you pace with precision, conquering hills, 6 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,680 battling headwinds, or enduring heat without overdoing it. 7 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:24,600 No more fading late or finishing with regrets. 8 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:26,560 Just race executed to perfection. 9 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,640 With Stride, you're strategizing for your best performance. 10 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,080 Ready to own race day? Visit stride.com and see how 11 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:34,960 Stride powers your plan to the finish line. 12 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,480 Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Doctors of Running podcast, 13 00:00:49,480 --> 00:00:52,120 where we, a group of doctors of physical therapy, discuss the 14 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,520 art and science of running and the stuff that we put on our 15 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:56,440 feet today. I'm Nathan Brown. 16 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:00,760 I get to host a special guest. This is a guest from ASICS, who 17 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,200 is a part of product development and distribution of all 18 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,760 information when it comes to new releases from ASICS. 19 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,520 And it is Paul Lang. He's the senior manager of 20 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,960 Global Performance Footwear. Paul, thank you for joining us 21 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:15,360 on the podcast today. Hey Nathan, it's my pleasure to 22 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:16,480 be here. Thanks for having me. 23 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:18,920 Absolutely. So first, we want to get to know 24 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:20,760 you a little bit. Could you just share a little 25 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:25,440 bit about how you got into the running shoe sphere and kind of 26 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,280 your history with running? Yeah, I started off just kind of 27 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,320 as a junior high wanting to do something as an athlete. 28 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:34,440 Got cut from baseball a couple times, found my way into the 29 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:36,920 cross country and track teams, and it's like a lot of athletes 30 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,920 in the sport do. Ran through high school and 31 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,680 college, worked a little bit of the running shoe store along the 32 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,360 way. After school found myself 33 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,520 starting off just as an hourly employee at the the run shop 34 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:50,840 selling shoes. You know, kind of worked up to a 35 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,400 buying position. Eventually ended up at New 36 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,880 Balance in a sales position and I've just entered my 9th year 37 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:01,520 now at ASICS in a myriad of roles, some North American 38 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,720 merchandising, some product creation and here we are. 39 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,760 Very cool. What is that's a long time to be 40 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:09,720 at ASICS. I think what we've noticed with 41 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,040 this industry is it's not uncommon for people to work for 42 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,480 many companies throughout their time and it can switch really 43 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,440 quickly. What is it that you love working 44 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:22,960 with ASICS knowing that you've been there for 9 years? 45 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:25,400 Yeah, it was pretty cool when the opportunity came up. 46 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,440 ASICS is the brand that I grew up running in my first spikes, 47 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:31,680 all of my training shoes. To me, it was kind of the OG 48 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,560 performance running brand. And so to have this opportunity 49 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:39,400 to work for a company that, you know, I grew up with, but also 50 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,040 that presented these incredible global opportunities, it was a 51 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:47,120 really kind of a magical thing. So, you know, as a kid working 52 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,480 in a running shoe store, you don't expect to be spending time 53 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,080 in Japan and, you know, traveling the world to all these 54 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,360 cool events. And, you know, it's just kind of 55 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,200 a a perfect storm. It let me live in a a city here, 56 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,800 Boston, that I love and I get to work with some really incredible 57 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,720 people and, you know, retail wholesale partners kind of 58 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:06,720 across the board. So it's like working with 59 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:07,920 friends. That's cool. 60 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:13,680 I, you know, thinking about where you come from and running 61 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:15,040 and then what you get to do with it. 62 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:18,960 I didn't enter the running world until I was in college because I 63 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:21,400 spent my high school time mainly wrestling, actually. 64 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,480 And then I also did soccer, which is where I ran the most. 65 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,680 And then in college it was like, I want to stay active, so why 66 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:28,600 don't I try running? And then when I got into 67 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:32,760 physical therapy, it was, wow, I'm really enjoying running. 68 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,400 It's been a great hobby. Maybe there's a way I can merge 69 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,240 my physical therapy career with that. 70 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,280 Ended up being able to treat a lot of runners and work 71 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:41,880 recreationally. And I'm in a small town in 72 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,920 Wisconsin. And then like I met Matt Klein 73 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,840 out at A at a continuing Ed course and then he invited me 74 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,920 into this sphere. And so this is a similar to you 75 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:52,440 in some ways. It's kind of like I would have 76 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,720 never thought I could get to talk with people who are this 77 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,480 deep into the development of running footwear and learn so 78 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:02,800 much about the industry, and it's kind of surreal to be able 79 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,200 to do that. So thanks for sharing some of 80 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:07,280 your story and thanks for joining us today. 81 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,120 Yeah, happy to be here. So the first thing that I want 82 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,640 to do, we've got a couple shoes that we're going to get to and 83 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:16,839 we're going to talk about that are pretty anticipated releases 84 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:21,120 from a six mainly because of what has been their predecessors 85 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,000 in this line. And I'm going to we're going to 86 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,600 leave it there for now. But I think what my mind has 87 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:31,960 been curious about learning from you is ASICS has come a long way 88 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:33,840 in the last 10 years with development. 89 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,160 What's your general like philosophical approach to 90 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:39,520 footwear development? How do y'all come up with the 91 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:41,560 new types of product that you come up with? 92 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,480 What's that process look like? Yeah, this is, this is easy 93 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:46,880 because this is the ASICS design philosophy. 94 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:51,440 So we actually have a kind of A4 tier system that everything 95 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,400 falls into. So as we're creating any new 96 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,480 product, it's got a couple things that we're looking 97 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,880 through the lens of. So in no particular order here, 98 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,440 we've got user testing. And so that's from, you know, 99 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:06,920 the elite athletes, you know, all the way down to the 100 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,920 beginner, you know, making sure that we're putting products on 101 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,160 human bodies in motion, you know, through all kinds of paces 102 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,360 and efforts, you know, from walking to running to racing, 103 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:20,040 just to make sure that, you know, we're getting that sensory 104 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,200 wear testing kind of across the board to to really get that 105 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,840 feedback. Of course, science, that's where 106 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:27,560 everything is really balanced from. 107 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,640 So for us, we have kind of a human centric approach. 108 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,600 It's balancing laboratory testing, you know, 109 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:38,400 biomechanical, physiological, the material sciences, 110 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,680 engineering, and that comes from a handful of different sources, 111 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:47,840 both internal and external labs. Excuse me, You know, we look at 112 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:49,680 those pieces then with innovation. 113 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,560 So that's always going to sit at the forefront of getting better, 114 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:56,000 right? But to US, innovation could be a 115 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,520 massive leap forward, or it could be that idea of Kaizen or 116 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:02,960 incremental improvement over those innovations to ensure that 117 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:06,240 we're continuing to deliver a product that meets the needs, 118 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,880 the desires, but also, you know, what the body's looking for 119 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:13,480 simply in a shoe. And then lastly, the idea of 120 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:17,120 sustainability. So, you know, taking action to 121 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,000 kind of implements more sustainable processes and 122 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,040 reducing carbon emissions. So those are really, they have 4 123 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,040 tiers and anytime we're looking at building a product, we're 124 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:28,920 going through those lenses. But then there's kind of a 125 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:33,640 whole, you know, process that rides parallel to that. 126 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,880 Yeah. And when a new shoe is coming 127 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:40,520 into the fold, where does the idea originally come from? 128 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:44,200 Does someone high up come down and like slap down a we need 129 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,840 this type of shoe? Or is it somebody who's just on 130 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:49,760 staff who has this idea? Like where do those things kind 131 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,120 of Genesis from? Yeah, it comes from a bunch of 132 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,040 different areas, honestly. You know, sometimes it's a 133 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,000 simple identification of like a consumer insight. 134 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,760 We've had this happen where, you know, we'll talk about a shoe 135 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:04,880 here in a second where we were doing some testing for a 136 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,880 different shoe and this insight just kept popping up to the top. 137 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:11,160 And it was like, OK, we've got something here. 138 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,200 So you take that insight, you know, that kind of leads to the 139 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,280 debrief or the idea of the product, what it's going to 140 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:17,840 stand for, how we're going to build it. 141 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,560 And then you start down the road, you know, in other 142 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,440 instances, it could be something just as simple as the 143 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,480 continuation of a product that we've had for years and years. 144 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:29,880 But, you know, how do we take that to the next step? 145 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:34,000 And that could be because, you know, changing trend, material 146 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,080 science accelerations, you know, there's all kinds of different, 147 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,600 you know, whatever is I think that can be pulled, you never 148 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:45,480 want to just update to update. You know, I think we hear that 149 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:46,920 often. You know, that was my favorite 150 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:48,880 shoe. You know, I just bought 5 pairs 151 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:52,840 of those to make sure I'm OK. So for us, it's the idea of 152 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:56,120 trying to be thoughtful in how we're updating, you know, 153 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,040 updating on a cadence that makes sense. 154 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:02,000 I think to us, it always makes sense because we we know what's 155 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:03,640 coming down the pipeline in the future. 156 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,880 To everyone else, maybe it isn't quite there, but then when the 157 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:10,240 products come out, it's like, oh OK, that all falls in the sense 158 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,440 and things ladder up and they all have their place, their 159 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,360 their reason for being. In that vein, you know the the 160 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,240 cycle of what you all are thinking about, you're like 161 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,720 thinking probably three years ahead of what's released. 162 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:23,440 Like these things are coming out, you're delivering the 163 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,120 message about the new things that are happening, but you're 164 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,680 working on stuff that's probably coming out years from now. 165 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:35,159 How does this the the consumer feedback or like our reviews, 166 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,000 all that kind of stuff, How, if any, does that get integrated 167 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,400 into the development process? It's further out than you would 168 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:44,520 think it is. You know, you've got, I'll use 169 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:48,720 Nimbus 27 as an example that's in the marketplace right now. 170 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:53,920 The, the Nimbus 28's done, the Nimbus 28's testing the Nimbus 171 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,160 30s in progress. So, you know, if we're to get, 172 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:02,040 you know, an insights, you know, I guess feedback sometimes is 173 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,920 what is wanted to be provided, but sometimes feedback is 174 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:07,840 difficult to work with. If it's directly, oh, we, we 175 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,040 need to change this little bit. Well, we may have moved on, but 176 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:13,720 insights is what we're looking for. 177 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:18,800 So, you know, feeling experience transitions, you know, those 178 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:21,680 kind of things. Regardless of where you stand, I 179 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:24,920 think in a generation of a shoe, consumer insight, it all is 180 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,680 always the most important. You know, you're going to say, 181 00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:30,640 Hey, we need to move the bevel back a millimeter, you know, on 182 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,200 this, it's like, well, that's that's a little more difficult. 183 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,360 But if we find that right consumer insight, you know, that 184 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,400 might be kind of fulfilling the the prophecy of the next couple 185 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,280 versions of the shoe. You know, that's actually a 186 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:43,560 really interesting thing for us because what we do in our 187 00:09:43,560 --> 00:09:46,520 reviews, we always have a little recommendation section and we 188 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,920 don't know, you know, what good those do necessarily for 189 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:51,880 companies. But our hope is that if we were 190 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:55,080 to give recommendations for a shoe that it can be found 191 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,240 somewhere or if there's room for improvement. 192 00:09:57,560 --> 00:10:00,960 I would say when I write that, I often think about specific 193 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,840 feedback to the model. Maybe there's a certain cut out 194 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:06,840 that I think could be modified to improve the stability without 195 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:10,200 taking away the transition or improve the bevel for like you 196 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:12,840 said, for example. But it sounded like what the 197 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:17,560 better kind of messaging back to the company that they can use 198 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:21,440 our insights about general experience, not so much specific 199 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,120 tweaks that could be made to the shoe because that may have been 200 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:26,600 made already or they've ditched that foam for like soften up the 201 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:28,120 foam a little bit. You're like, well, yeah, we're 202 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:29,880 using 2 new models of foam already. 203 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:32,720 So we can't really tweak that anymore. 204 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,240 So that's fast. A lot of that feedback too will 205 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:37,600 come through the actual wear test programs that we run. 206 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:41,840 So we'll have people testing in the new versions of things and 207 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,240 so we are able to pull some of those directly out. 208 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:46,800 That's where some of the lab testing comes in as well. 209 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,360 We're able to do kind of, you know, some of the durability 210 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:52,280 type testing over long wear. We're able to do some insight 211 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,720 testing, perception testing, machine testing. 212 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,000 So it's, you know, grabbing little bits of information from 213 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,080 all over to try and create the the best product we can. 214 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,000 So I don't know how much you can say about this, but with your 215 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,120 wear testing process, about how many people test a shoe before 216 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:11,280 it ends up moving to the next phase of development? 217 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,560 It's hard to substantiate because there's so many phases 218 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:19,480 and versions of testing. So we go through a handful of 219 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:22,560 rounds on every shoe. We may have prototype rounds. 220 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,120 We've got in person testing in a couple different locations 221 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:28,480 globally. We've got some labs that are 222 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:30,800 doing some some testing independent of that. 223 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:34,960 So it is, it is a lot of feet, but to give you an action 224 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:37,880 number, a number might be a little bit more challenging. 225 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:41,280 Yeah, that makes sense. And when it comes to the lab 226 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,920 testing, bio mechanics, physiological testing, how is it 227 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,480 every model that goes through that sort of testing or is that 228 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:51,640 reserved for certain aims that shoes may have? 229 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,280 No, I mean everything is getting tested to some degree, you know, 230 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,160 all the way out down to something like the gel content, 231 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:02,720 you know, a $75.00, you know, running shoe, you know, and we, 232 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:04,720 we go all the way up to the premium stuff. 233 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:06,200 You know what you're going to see. 234 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,400 The premium stuff may have a few extra testing rounds. 235 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,880 It may have some extra more specific tests if we're looking 236 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,840 for, you know, certain bounce levels or cushion levels or, or 237 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:19,440 we have a KPI baseline that we're trying to get to. 238 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:24,160 But yeah, everything is tested. You know, the Institute of 239 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:27,880 Sports Science, the ISS that we have is a great resource for us. 240 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,120 You know, we partner with some external labs and then, you 241 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,720 know, we do some testing out of Boston locally on feets as well. 242 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:38,720 So lots and lots of testing, lots and lots of insight 243 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:42,680 sourcing, spending a lot of time trying to make sure that we're 244 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:45,160 getting it right. Great, very cool. 245 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:48,560 Well, let's transition into talking about what probably most 246 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:51,960 people want to hear you talk about, and it's the two new 247 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:54,760 models of shoes. These two new models join some 248 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:58,360 of my favorites that I've ran in, you know, the blast line, I 249 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:00,080 suppose. So you have the Nova Blast and 250 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:03,280 the Super Blast. I ran my most recent half 251 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:06,360 marathon in the Super Blast. One of my trainers of the year 252 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:08,120 has been the Nova Blast in the last couple years. 253 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:12,120 So I've just loved these two shoes and that's been evidenced 254 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:15,520 by the like total miles that I put on the trainer and that I 255 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:16,920 actually pull it out for race day. 256 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:20,240 And so it's more than just talk, speak because I have the ASICS 257 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,520 person on the line with me. I've loved these shoes. 258 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:25,840 So when I saw that these two new shoes were coming, they're 259 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:27,920 really part of the Blast line, I was really excited to test them 260 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,800 out. And that is the Sonic Blast and 261 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:35,080 the Mega Blast 2 new shoes that are kind of coming into market. 262 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:39,360 And what I'm hoping we can do is kind of walk through each model, 263 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:42,240 probably one at a time, and learn a little bit more about 264 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,360 the inspiration behind them. And then I've had a chance to 265 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,160 get all of my testing miles in on these things. 266 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:51,480 And I'd love to kind of see how much those things match up with 267 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,000 each other and kind of hear your response to some of my 268 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,080 experiences and your thoughts on it as well. 269 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:59,520 So let's kind of start with the Sonic Blast. 270 00:13:59,680 --> 00:14:02,480 Can you tell us a little bit about kind of what inspired this 271 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:04,520 shoe and where it's coming from? Yeah. 272 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:09,240 So I'll kind of start back with that first Nova Blast in 2020 273 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:11,880 spring. So for us, that was a very 274 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,800 different shoe moving away from using gel that we've used in 275 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,360 some of the the models in the past. 276 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,000 We brought a little bit more energetic of a foam, this new 277 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000 kind of trampoline geometry. The idea was to bring kind of a 278 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,280 more lively under foot experience into the ASICS line. 279 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:30,280 And we saw a really great success, you know, that then led 280 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:32,720 to Super Blast. So you've got, you know, kind of 281 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:36,480 your your entry point and your super trainer version and as 282 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,080 many consumers as we saw starting to vote with their feet 283 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,920 for these shoes, we felt like there was an opportunity for us 284 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,440 to kind of expand that family, but we didn't want to do it just 285 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,800 to do it. And so I think we were working 286 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:53,120 on Nova Blast four and there was a big kind of global consumer 287 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:56,040 panel that we're working with and it was all runners that had 288 00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:59,760 worn Nova 123. And we're working through kind 289 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,960 of the rotation from what they wear from us, from competitors. 290 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,520 And the one thing that just kept coming up was, you know, I, I 291 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:09,520 wish I had a plated Nova Blast that I can pull out when it's 292 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:12,480 time to go a little bit faster. And you know, we talked about it 293 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:14,800 a bit and we said, you know, I think that's a great insight. 294 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,600 I just don't think that we've got, you know, the materials 295 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:21,480 quite ready yet to really deliver something that is that 296 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:23,440 experience. It wasn't worth just putting a 297 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,240 plate into an existing Nova Blast. 298 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:27,040 You know, we didn't want to provide a Band-Aid. 299 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,440 We wanted to provide an actual product solution. 300 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:34,360 And so when we had this new material, this FF Turbo squared 301 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:36,960 ready to go, it was like, OK, this this might be on to 302 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:39,600 something. So you know what you've got here 303 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,960 is a bottom layer of Blast Max. So that bottom layer is the same 304 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:47,000 material as the midsole of the Nova Blast. 305 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,240 We've got AP Max plate that sits kind of in between the two 306 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:53,800 layers there. It tear drops kind of off back 307 00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:56,600 towards the end. You can see the little wings 308 00:15:56,600 --> 00:16:00,120 kind of protrude there on the medial and lateral sides. 309 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:02,480 Little bit of a peekaboo there on the bottom as well. 310 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:06,480 And then that ATPU that turbo squared sits on the top layer. 311 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:11,120 And So what you've got is this really kind of lively ride, but 312 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,280 a more flexible plates, just knowing that some of the plates 313 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:19,280 and, and the racers and even some of the more premium, you 314 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:24,720 know, high stiffness, carbon type setups didn't lend 315 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,080 themselves to everyday training quite as much. 316 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,640 And we wanted a shoe that had that familiarity of Nova Blast 317 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,400 with kind of that snappiness and fun experience for everyday 318 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:36,200 running. And so that's where Sonic Blast 319 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:38,480 came from. It was really the Nova Blast 320 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,520 kind of taken to supersonic speeds for everyday training. 321 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:47,360 So besides that, we've got this really fun upper. 322 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,120 You can see it almost has like this pinhole finish in terms of 323 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:54,200 ventilation, a little bit of a thinner tongue, but it's still 324 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,400 padded nicely. So we're not going to get lace 325 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:59,400 bite and then a pretty nice collar lining too. 326 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:01,000 So you've got some padding back there. 327 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,119 So you know, we're stacked a little bit higher than we are on 328 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,720 Nova. We've got a little bit peppier 329 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,240 of a foam and then that P Max plate, you'll see it called the 330 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,960 Astro plate. That's kind of the brand that 331 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:16,800 we're we're naming it, but the make up of it is 5X itself. 332 00:17:17,599 --> 00:17:19,800 O we're really excited about having something that's a little 333 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,040 bit faster. You know, it's it's fun. 334 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,000 It's still, you know, a daily trainer, but it can get moving a 335 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,480 little bit quicker. And I think for someone that's a 336 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:31,360 Nova Blast user that wants a second shoe that speeds it up a 337 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:34,720 little bit, it's a great option. You know, if you are a peppier 338 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,280 runner and maybe you like that feeling of being a little bit 339 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,640 snappier, this can be the everyday trainer. 340 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:42,840 Or potentially if you're a runner that wants to kind of 341 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,600 experiment with plates for racing, but you're not quite 342 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:47,400 ready to go into that carbon space yet. 343 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,440 Another really good kind of, you know, proposition for you with 344 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,720 Sonic Blast School. Well, that's great. 345 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:58,160 I'm one thing that I was glad to hear you say was you didn't want 346 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,600 to just slap a plate in a Nova Blast. 347 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:03,880 And I would say that people who have been listening to the 348 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,760 podcast have heard me at least talk about this, if not others 349 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:08,920 as well. But I get annoyed at the plate 350 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:11,920 trend a little bit where not every shoe needs to have a plate 351 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,520 and the plate is not this magic sauce for something. 352 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:19,080 It has to be part of a cocktail. You know this better than I do. 353 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:20,920 You're in the actual like footwear development side of 354 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:23,200 things with looking at actual things in the lab. 355 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,720 But you know, the literature is showing that you don't just need 356 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,600 a plate. You need a plate plus the foam 357 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,080 plus the whatever. If you're going to make a 358 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,720 advanced footwear technology shoe that's giving you that 359 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,440 super shoe improved running economy and then the use of a 360 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,680 plate, if it's not for that true running economy, it should be 361 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:42,000 used thoughtfully for probably stabilizing a foam, giving you a 362 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000 little bit of rigidity, whatever it is. 363 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:47,280 And so I again, I appreciate that because I think that if you 364 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:49,400 would have just thrown a plate in here, it would have almost 365 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:53,280 felt just kind of meaningless in some ways because maybe you'd 366 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:55,360 have to put a too thin of a plate in where it like you don't 367 00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:58,280 even tell it's there or it's just too stiff and the shoe 368 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:02,760 doesn't get along with it. I yeah, so I have my testing in 369 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:06,920 with this shoe and you can give me your feedback on this and 370 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:09,080 I'll just share kind of what my testing. 371 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:11,600 Yeah. Because you know, there's shoes 372 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:13,920 that I get along with and then there's shoes that I don't. 373 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:18,400 And this one falls on that like I, my running type and style 374 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,960 hasn't gotten along with the ride of this shoe. 375 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,200 I was on a run with with some friends last week and they're 376 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,640 like, Dang man, you're running so loud. 377 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,200 And it was just slapping for me really hard. 378 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,880 And I think we are going in a really, really easy pace. 379 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:38,960 And I, I found in, in the, in the Sonic blast here, when I'm 380 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,760 going easy, I don't transition well up onto the toe and get 381 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,880 onto that rocker. And, and I think you 382 00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,920 intentionally put in some toe spring in here as well where the 383 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,040 platform kind of rocks up. I feel like the toe spring kind 384 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,840 of rocks me back on my foot. So I was landing even further 385 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,440 and then I would slap the forefoot and I couldn't quite 386 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:00,440 get over the rocker. And so I was slapping pretty 387 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:02,720 loud. And so it's better when you're 388 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:04,560 on the trails because I wasn't slapping as loud. 389 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:09,040 But yeah, I think that's been an interesting part with this shoe 390 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:13,160 compared to the Nova Blast. Nova Blast, I can go super easy 391 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,760 to a little bit of tempo. This one, it takes me getting up 392 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:21,240 onto my midfoot forefoot to like really get into the experience 393 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:25,280 of the shoe because the forefoot feels ridiculously cushioned, 394 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,760 different than some of the other, you know, trampoline like 395 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:31,240 feel that you have in that pod. I don't know exactly what you'll 396 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:33,200 call that, but you've got trampoline pod. 397 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,400 Yeah. OK well, yeah, but like that 398 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,560 feel, it's what it feels like. This one felt just more globally 399 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:43,360 just cushioned throughout and just a really soft up there, but 400 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:46,280 I couldn't it it it was only when I went faster that I could 401 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:48,880 actually feel that and kind of use it. 402 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:53,920 And so I, I don't know if you've had other kind of experiences or 403 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,680 that was intention where, hey, this is a shoe to get yourself 404 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:01,440 up and forward versus 1 to be a little bit more relaxed or where 405 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:03,120 you see it fitting for people like that. 406 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,880 Yeah, I mean, I think you're nailing it that, you know, not 407 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:08,280 every shoe is for every person, right? 408 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:10,800 Everything has their intended purpose. 409 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:12,400 Everybody runs a little bit different. 410 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:15,800 You know, my experience has been the way the way that I run. 411 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:17,600 Like, I like this as an everyday trainer. 412 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,080 I like something a little bit snappier, but it may just be 413 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:24,480 where my foot kind of falls in terms of that initial kind of 414 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,960 strike point. You did call it out the bounce 415 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,880 spot on this is here, but it's a lot more flush with the shoe 416 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:31,680 than what you'd see on some of the others. 417 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,320 So you do have a lot of that help coming from, you know, 418 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,680 running into that foam, the plate and then the toe spring 419 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:38,760 itself. So, you know, if you're coming 420 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,360 in a little bit more rear, you know, you may have a different 421 00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:43,680 experience than if you're coming in more mid or four. 422 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:45,960 And, you know, the speed that you're coming in at, you know, 423 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,760 may kind of dictate how that foot is contacting the ground as 424 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,280 well. So, you know, I think it depends 425 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:52,960 on who you are and, and what you're doing. 426 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,920 This one may not be for you, but if we've got Nova working well 427 00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,080 and Windows Super works well, and then we'll talk about Mega 428 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,400 here in a moment. And so it'll be interesting to 429 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:07,160 see, you know, if we're batting 750 or 500 across the Blast 430 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,040 family. Well, in the reality too, right, 431 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:14,160 is that most people are not going to buy all four shoes. 432 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:16,480 You know, I get, I get sent them to test them out. 433 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,720 Most people are going to find one, maybe 2, you know, if 434 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:21,560 you're in that shoe rotation world. 435 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:23,640 So it's just finding the right one. 436 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:25,880 And that's actually something that even though this shoe 437 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,280 didn't work for me, it's something I appreciate because 438 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,640 other members of our team have liked the shoe and it's worked 439 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,960 really well for them. And what you had said about not 440 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:38,160 every shoe is for every person. So having shoes that don't work 441 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:41,080 for some but do for others might actually be a good thing for the 442 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,040 for the people trying to run because you're going to probably 443 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:46,000 be able to find something that works for you, so. 444 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:50,360 And I think as more people come to the sport right now too, it's 445 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:53,920 a lot of new runners and there's a lot of different experiences 446 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,000 being looked for. So I think when you look at the 447 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,480 way that we built product over the years, you have shoes like 448 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,680 the Nimbus and the Cumulus that live more on kind of that plush 449 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,280 side of cushion where, you know, as we start to build out this 450 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,560 line a little bit more and kind of that bouncier side or 451 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,840 energetic side of cushion. You know, it's not that we're 452 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,600 trying to supplant 1 shoe with the other. 453 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,120 You know, our goal is that those experiences continue to kind of 454 00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:19,000 space out a little bit and find their own place. 455 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:24,000 I remember before it was the, I think the Nimbus 25 was the big 456 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:28,520 overhaul right before that it was kind of starting to be hard 457 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,800 to know what the difference between a Cumulus and Nimbus 458 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:32,800 was. And then the 25 came out. 459 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,000 It's like got it. Now we know what a Nimbus is and 460 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,120 now we know what a Cumulus is. So that's a cool, that's a cool 461 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:41,400 mission. Big picture of diversifying that 462 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:44,160 further. You just mentioned how, you 463 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,520 know, kind of flush this all is. Were there other decisions that 464 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,760 went into kind of outsole design? 465 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:52,160 You know, compared to the Nova Blast, which kind of spans the 466 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:53,840 whole region, this has a little bit less. 467 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,160 The texture on it is different. Were there outsole kind of 468 00:23:58,160 --> 00:23:59,880 considerations for the design here too? 469 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:03,680 Yeah, there's a few things here. Obviously being higher stack 470 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,840 than Nova Blast, you know, we had to work through some weight 471 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,080 reduction. So, you know, taking a little 472 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:12,720 bit of rubber off of that outsole just to to make sure 473 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:14,480 that we weren't putting too much under the foot. 474 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,240 You know, there are some, you know, thoughtful choices. 475 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,760 So you know on that rear kind of lateral heel, you'll see a 476 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,240 little bit of a release point there. 477 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:24,680 So if someone is coming in rear foot, hopefully we're able to 478 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:28,680 accept that a little bit easier, a bit more rubber as you run 479 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,120 around that lateral outside, you know, just to continue to help 480 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:35,680 with that transition depending on how you're striking. 481 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,760 And then honestly, you know, that bounce pod, that's kind of 482 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:40,360 been the hallmark of a lot of these shoes. 483 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,840 So continuing to build that up, but just a little bit more toned 484 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,280 down knowing now that we've got a more powerful foam sitting on 485 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,560 the top layer and then that plate working in between. 486 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:52,840 So I think all that working in harmony is, is kind of the idea. 487 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,560 And then of course, you know, a little peekaboo at that plate at 488 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,800 the midfoot reduces a little foam and then lets us kind of 489 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,480 show off the technology as well. That's great, Very cool. 490 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:07,040 And is this the same rubber as the Nova Blast or did you use a 491 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,320 different rubber compound? So this is ASICS Grip, which is 492 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:13,720 a little bit tackier, so loud and clear. 493 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,160 We'd heard, you know, some of the requests for a stronger grip 494 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:18,720 and traction story in the forefoot. 495 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,200 So both on this and then the mega that we'll talk about 496 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:24,520 shortly, they are going to be upgraded to ASICS Grip rubber 497 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,360 just to make sure we're we're grabbing that ground as best we 498 00:25:27,360 --> 00:25:28,960 can. Last thing I'll say about the 499 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,960 Sonic Blast and I don't want to too much compared to something 500 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,760 we haven't talked about yet, but because of the width of the 501 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:39,000 plate, it definitely is a more stable experience to it has that 502 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,240 structure to it. You have these softer foams, but 503 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,000 you have the dual density. So you've got that lower 504 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:48,480 experience of the what is it the Oh my gosh, blast Max right so 505 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,760 you have the blast Max on the bottom, which has just a little 506 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,440 bit more structure to it in general. 507 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,760 Then you have the more lively foam on top, but then you have 508 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:56,760 the plate. So Speaking of plates doing 509 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,040 different things, you can feel that in this shoe. 510 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,880 So if you're someone in my opinion, looking for a lively 511 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:06,240 shoe with some level of structure in it, this would be 512 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,120 the one to go to versus what we're going to talk about next. 513 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,120 So that's that's another part of my experience in the shoe. 514 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,440 I think that's an interesting point you bring up too, is a lot 515 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,440 of times, you know, people will get really hung up on a 516 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,360 particular foam or a particular plate material. 517 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,520 And I think that is we get further into kind of the 518 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,440 evolution of footwear. You're going to see construction 519 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,880 playing a lot more into that or it doesn't necessarily just have 520 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,960 to be a foam. I think we've, we found pretty 521 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,840 large success, Super Blast, Sonic Blast now with this kind 522 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,920 of smaller bottom layer, you know, working alongside. 523 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,880 So, you know, there's a lot of questions I think about, you 524 00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:45,960 know, why do we do this? You know, if we're able to kind 525 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,920 of help stabilize or smoothing a ride or you know, give some kind 526 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,560 of a net benefit. I do think construction will 527 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,680 continue to kind of be a larger talking point than just what's 528 00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,680 the material in the shoe. You know, as we work forward and 529 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:01,760 a lot of the brands start to use similar materials. 530 00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,480 It is funny even in hand and you know the you. 531 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,120 I know you can't necessarily share like what specific bending 532 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:11,720 stiffnesses are, but like if you try to longitudinally been the 533 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,760 Super blast, which is not plated, it's actually harder in 534 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:19,120 hand than the Sonic blast and the to to your point, well, 535 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:20,920 let's let's move into this next shoe. 536 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:27,600 The other one is the mega blast. This is I, I, I, I can't like 537 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,440 bury the lead here. I've just had so much fun 538 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,040 running in this shoe. I did 14 in it on Saturday 539 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,680 earlier. Yeah, like 14, little over 14. 540 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,600 And it's just been the blast to run in. 541 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,760 I didn't mean to say blast, but it was, it's been really, it's 542 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,720 been really fun to run in. So tell us about the inspiration 543 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,000 of this shoe and kind of where this one came from. 544 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,440 Yeah. So this the full midsole is that 545 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,400 turbo squared, so kind of turbo to the next level. 546 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,520 Anytime we get a new foam, typically we put that in one of 547 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:03,120 the previous shoes, you know, test it out. 548 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:05,920 You know, we want to, you know, see what the experience is like. 549 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,000 We want to see what durability is like, all those kind of 550 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,240 things. And so, you know, we've got a 551 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,160 pretty robust testing group. As I mentioned, we put this into 552 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,960 a super blast and we sent it out to a handful of testers and 553 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:20,880 they'd all run in previous super Blasts and we're really familiar 554 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,400 with the shoe. And so when we got the feedback 555 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,680 back, there were like 3 insights that just clicked almost every 556 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,680 tester. They were same thing as you. 557 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,200 They're like, this is fun as heck. 558 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,640 They're like, I just keep pulling this shoe out. 559 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:36,440 It's OK. Well, why is that? 560 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,960 It's like because two, it is just energetic. 561 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:42,280 The amount of balance in this thing for the weight is crazy. 562 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,680 OK, that's great. What's the what's the third 563 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,080 insight? This feels nothing like a super 564 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,720 blast and you're like, oh, OK, so you know, light bulb kind of 565 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:52,960 goes off. And we had talked about how we 566 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,000 wanted to expand that blast family and and make it a true 567 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,880 family. I think we always felt like 4 568 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:02,200 shoes, you know, Nova up, you know, we do have a few shoes 569 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,360 that that sit below Nova, but Nova Up 4 shoes are really kind 570 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,320 of round out, you know, every usage occasion for a blast shoe. 571 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,560 And you know, we wanted to have something that kind of sit at 572 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,440 the pinnacle in terms of energy return. 573 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,240 But we also know there's a prioritization of a lot of 574 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,480 runners for super lightweight and being able to move to this 575 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,200 new midsole material. We were able to combine those 576 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,880 two things. And so in a men's 9, I think 577 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,840 we've got it weigh in about 230 grams. 578 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:37,080 So you're, you know, somewhere around 8 oz or so for the amount 579 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,480 of stack that's under foot. The weight on this thing is, is 580 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,000 incredibly light. And then the bounce is just 581 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,520 something special. It's we're super has kind of a 582 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,160 protective, you know, guided ride along with bounce. 583 00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:52,320 This one to me just feels almost untamed a little bit, if you 584 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,000 will. You kind of like, you know, you 585 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,480 turn the turn the safety off and, and you can let this thing 586 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,040 RIP a little bit. I, I think the way you've 587 00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,880 described that really matches what my experience was in this 588 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,520 shoe because when I saw it, I also wondered like, OK, so when 589 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,080 I, so when I got these shoes, Full disclosure, like I got them 590 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,080 and y'all send us like information about them and I 591 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:16,400 chose not to look at any of that information. 592 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:17,800 I just wanted to like see what I felt. 593 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:22,680 And when I and I had and I did like a 10 mile run where I did 594 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,680 my first five in this in the Mega Blast, the second five in 595 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,840 the Sonic Blast, just to really feel the differences between the 596 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,720 shoe shoes. But just to speak to the Mega 597 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:37,040 Blast, it just felt really light, like super light on foot, 598 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:38,640 felt like there was nothing there. 599 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:43,160 Super kind of thin upper kind of that synthetic type material and 600 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,320 definitely has a more snug fit like the four foot. 601 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,360 I don't know how y'all create your uppers off of lasts or 602 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:51,080 whatever. This one feels much more snug 603 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,280 kind of race ready in some ways where you know I haven't been 604 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,280 doing any racing in it, but I would you know I did my half 605 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,560 marathon in the Super blast. But if I was in like good 606 00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:04,200 running shape for me as a runner who my best half marathon is at 607 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,520 like an hour and a half. I would love to pull this thing 608 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,240 out for that or like even longer races because it's got that pop 609 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,320 and when I would go faster it pop more. 610 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,000 And when I slowed down, it kind of tamed down a little bit and 611 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,840 it was just nice and smooth. The geometry is is really nice 612 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,240 on it. It just felt like everything 613 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,080 you'd want in a trainer. It's a little wobbly. 614 00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:28,280 It can be, even though there's a nice width on the base here a 615 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:32,000 little bit, just because of how much give there is to this foam. 616 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,520 It's not like a squishy experience. 617 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,920 It's a very lively experience. But even with that, it can have 618 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,120 a little bit of that wobble. But that's why I brought up the 619 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,120 stability of the Sonic Blast because you don't really get the 620 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,240 and honestly, the stability in the Super blast is much higher 621 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,040 in comparison to the mega blast. This is kind of that like turn 622 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:51,360 it up, go run a little bit faster or you know, if you don't 623 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,800 need any stability, like I did my 14 in it and it was super and 624 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:56,400 I did chill miles and it was awesome. 625 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,680 It just felt really rhythmic so. Yeah. 626 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:02,880 When we talked about that, that subset of runners, it's coming 627 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,560 and looking for like whatever the next experience is. 628 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:07,720 You know, I think this is what we're talking about. 629 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,160 Super, super still going to have a place. 630 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:11,960 I think it's that Swiss Army knife. 631 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,160 You know, for a lot of runners, it's kind of that magic shoe. 632 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,920 It's their long run shoe. But I think for Super Blast, if 633 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:19,800 you're efficient enough, it can do those things. 634 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:23,000 You know, it could be a race shoe for some people, but more 635 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,480 than anything, this is just the most balance you're going to get 636 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,160 out of a true daily trainer. Totally. 637 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,400 You you mentioned that upper, you know, it is kind of race 638 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,480 inspired. You can tell that it's got a 639 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,840 little bit of that transparency, a little bit of that gradiation, 640 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:40,040 almost like a meta speed would have, you know, the thinner 641 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,760 tongue. You know, we do have that pull 642 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,200 tab and a, you know, a little bit of a collar lining there, 643 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,560 but still really thin. So it's, you know, daily 644 00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,120 trainer, but trying to do everything we can do to reduce 645 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,200 weight. And then we gave you that a six 646 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:54,760 grip rubber on the outsole again. 647 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,680 So just making sure that you're clawing that ground and getting 648 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,240 the most traction to go along with your balance as possible. 649 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,360 Well, with this one, Speaking of grip, the the rubber is slightly 650 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,920 thicker on this one than it is on the OR it seems thicker on 651 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,320 this one than the Sonic blast and it's got some rivets in it. 652 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,880 And when I was running on our boardwalks, it was like 653 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,320 basketball shoes on a gym. I was squeaking because I was 654 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:23,080 just like it definitely grips. I can attest to that with the 655 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:27,840 with the mega blast. Super fun, super fun shoe. 656 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,280 What are what are both of these shoes coming in at price wise 657 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,240 and what are they releasing? Yeah. 658 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:35,840 So I'll take you through the whole line. 659 00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:37,800 If that works easy, sure. Yeah, that's great. 660 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:44,600 So Nova Blast out now $150, We go a little bit more up tempo 661 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:48,840 when we go to Sonic Blast, that'll be September 1st for 662 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:54,160 $180. Move to Super Three, that's in 663 00:33:54,160 --> 00:34:00,040 market now for $200 and then for Mega. 664 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,520 This. Yeah, that's the the the two 665 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,040 right the. Sorry, Super 2. 666 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:06,560 Yes, that's great. Super 2. 667 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:09,400 Super 80s in the back of my head, that'll be come out in the 668 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:14,960 spring of 26 and then $225.00 for Mega for that best 669 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,520 expression of bounce and weight. And that'll be September, 670 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:21,760 September 1st, just ahead of kind of Tokyo World Athletic 671 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,800 Championships track and field. And so even some of the color 672 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:29,120 inspiration you'll see on these kind of evoking an idea of the 673 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,480 speed we'll see in Tokyo for those track and field World 674 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:32,880 Championships. Very cool. 675 00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:37,000 So I think something that we got to talk about too, because both 676 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,239 of these shoes are featuring it is the new foam compound. 677 00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:42,679 So we got the flight from Turbo Squared. 678 00:34:43,159 --> 00:34:46,600 Can you tell us a little bit about kind of what is this foam 679 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:48,520 made out of? Kind of people sometimes get 680 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,040 hung up on type of foam. So I'd love to hear from you, 681 00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:55,120 what is this foam and how is it used in these shoes? 682 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,360 Yeah. So this is an ATPU. 683 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,680 You started to hear that a little bit as one of the Super 684 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:02,400 foams over the last couple years. 685 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,560 Super bouncy, very resilient, durable. 686 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:10,120 This particular blend lends itself really well to everyday 687 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,320 training. Obviously, like durability is 688 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,040 something we're concerned about as well as the performance. 689 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,360 So you know, this particular makeup, we're calling it FF 690 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,040 Turbo squared. You know, we felt was the the 691 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:25,400 perfect kind of balance of that bounce of that durability, you 692 00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:27,480 know, just, you know, stable enough. 693 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,840 So you know, this is the phone that we feel like can kind of be 694 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:35,120 the future of, you know, the at least foreseeable future of some 695 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,880 of those energetic shoes. So it's the full midsole here 696 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,400 and then as we get to Sonic, it takes misplaced my Sonic a bit 697 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,800 more than you know, half. So you can see it's that full 698 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,800 top layer all along. Those work together. 699 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:57,320 And so we'd had a Turbo plus, which you found in the Super. 700 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,720 The idea of Turbo squared was kind of turbo to the next power. 701 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,920 So you know, that was a peebo foam. 702 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:07,240 That was a great foam for what it was being used for. 703 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,160 You know, we're not saying that one phone is better than the 704 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:12,800 other. I think that there's a lot of 705 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,480 trends, you know, people will jump on and say, oh, then, you 706 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:16,760 know, a brand has moved to this phone. 707 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,760 This is the best phone. I think for us it's about 708 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:21,840 unlocking the properties of the different phones. 709 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,480 So a great example is, you know, like some of the new racing 710 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,680 shoes we've got, what actually uses some of the Turbo Squared 711 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,960 and our new racing foam, I'm sorry, not Turbo Squared, Turbo 712 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,240 Plus and our new racing foam Leap. 713 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:38,000 And so it goes back to that idea of construction and depending on 714 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,960 what you're trying to get out of a shoe, you know, certain foams 715 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,680 lend themselves to, you know, different experiences and 716 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:46,680 opportunities. So for right now, you know, 717 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:49,960 Turbo Squared is a foam that's really working well for us. 718 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,280 But the next time we talk, it could be something different. 719 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,600 It could be back to a people based, it could be, you know, a 720 00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:58,240 third phone that we're talking about. 721 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,280 So for us, it's all about that consumer experience, validating 722 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,320 it through testing, you know, and making sure that it's, you 723 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,800 know, performing to, you know, what we want to build for the 724 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:08,720 runner. That's great. 725 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:11,920 I, I think it's, I'll kind of reiterate something that I think 726 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,480 is pretty important that our team has learned in the last 727 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,080 like 6 months. And talking to some companies, 728 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:21,120 you're saying that ATPU, it's not like you can create an 729 00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:27,280 equation with ATP and PBA and PBA and Eva necessarily and 730 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,640 create greater than or less than signs between them. 731 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,080 It's not like 1 is better than the other. 732 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:35,440 It's all of these can actually have very similar properties. 733 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:37,600 This is going to be a bad analogy, but I'm going to try 734 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,560 it. It's like if you eat an apple 735 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:43,600 that's 80 calories and you eat a banana that's also 80 calories, 736 00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,160 they both are 80 calories. So you can like get the caloric 737 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,600 intake you need, but they're also going to give you different 738 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:51,640 things in the moment. And so they have some 739 00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:53,960 similarities and some differences in our ability to 740 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:57,640 play with foam properties is much higher now than it was in 741 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,040 the past. And so it's not like a foam to 742 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,760 be a super foam even needs to be a certain kind of derivative. 743 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,000 You can get the same properties out of multiple things. 744 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,120 Am I? Do we agree on that kind of 745 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:11,320 concept? Yeah, we're, we're we're cooking 746 00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:13,960 different recipes every day, trying to get a little bit 747 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,840 closer to the perfect cake. And the perfect cake is just 748 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:18,560 what you're in the mood for that day. 749 00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:21,880 You know, we're just never going to be 1 absolutely perfect. 750 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,640 It's just, you know, getting us to what a runner is looking for, 751 00:38:26,720 --> 00:38:29,480 you know, today, tomorrow and on race day. 752 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,120 Right. Actually a another question I 753 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,480 had for you, something that is that we're experiencing when 754 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,080 we're chatting with companies who are bringing out new phones. 755 00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:42,520 So I'm going to give a couple examples like Zoom X or you have 756 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:47,280 phones like power on PB and the companies will tell us they tune 757 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:50,960 their power on PB differently for different shoes based on the 758 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,200 based on the the desire for the shoe itself. 759 00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,560 For you, did you do you tune your foams differently? 760 00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:02,760 Like is this the same FF you know turbo squared in each or do 761 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,480 you tune it for the shoes kind of intended purpose? 762 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,600 These two we are using the same. We found that the the setup that 763 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:12,920 we've got is working pretty well. 764 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,480 And so the difference is in the amount of the foam, the way the 765 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,160 foam's shaped and even Sonic playing with the second foam and 766 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:24,400 a plate, we felt like that did enough for the experience that 767 00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:28,640 it really gets us to differentiated under foot rides. 768 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:32,080 So other shoes we may see that in the future, but on these two 769 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:33,680 we are set up pretty much the same. 770 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,680 OK, great. And then I had one more question 771 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,400 about this phone, but also maybe more about the Mega Blast. 772 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:42,920 I know y'all do like physiologic testing. 773 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,760 Is this one of the shoes that got brought through any running 774 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,960 economy testing that you can share any result? 775 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,520 And I know you can't share everything, but you know, 776 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,880 curious about people ask us all the time like hey, do these 777 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,120 super shoes work for me as a slower runner or you know, that 778 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,960 kind of question. Do you have anything that y'all 779 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,120 have learned about this phone when it comes to running 780 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,160 economy? So we can share some of our 781 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:11,400 increases in like bounce and weight reduction, but I don't 782 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,640 have anything that is economy just yet for you. 783 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,720 So maybe we can circle back on that one. 784 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:18,640 OK. And then what I want to do next 785 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,480 is kind of look towards the future. 786 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,800 I don't know how much you can share, but you know you've got 787 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:26,960 these shoes to come in this fall and September. 788 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,200 What else is kind of on the horizons for ASICS? 789 00:40:30,240 --> 00:40:33,880 Either specifics on shoes or kind of big picture ideas that 790 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:35,880 y'all are playing around with? Yeah. 791 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:37,960 So I think, you know, this is really exciting for us. 792 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:42,200 September kind of re energizes the the blast silo, if you will. 793 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,520 So we'll have these two new as we'll get into the spring. 794 00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:49,040 You will see a new gel nimbus, which has always been our, you 795 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:53,920 know, kind of plush soft, you know, kind of hero cushion daily 796 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:55,880 trainer. So that will update with some 797 00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:59,600 weight reduction to it. A new Super Blast will come in 798 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:06,480 the spring as well and we'll be set up nicely with try not to 799 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:10,360 give too much away. I think a fresh reset to Super 800 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,640 Blast that we're going to bring it in line with the the few 801 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,640 other shoes that we've got here. And then as we get into the 802 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:22,080 summer of 2026, Nova will update and then we'll have kind of four 803 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,320 shoes all playing at the the same kind of level. 804 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,640 And it'll be a very easy step ladder to understand the 805 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:32,480 movement from Nova to Sonic to Super to Mega. 806 00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,560 You know why you might be able to use a couple of those in in 807 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,640 your rotation, or you know, why one or two of those might work 808 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:40,360 best for you depending on what you're doing with it. 809 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,680 Think the way we, yeah, the way we build, we've kind of got that 810 00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:46,480 plus Shiloh. So if you want something nice 811 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,200 and soft, you know, you've got you know, the Nimbus, you've got 812 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:52,360 the Cumulus, you might need to count. 813 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,840 Or if you're a little bit more on the stability side, you know, 814 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,680 those kind of run in the the more traditional style of a 815 00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:00,880 running shoe, if you will. You move into the blast series, 816 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:03,720 you have a slightly more energized shoes, you know, you 817 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:08,000 move over to the race category. You've got in the meta speed 818 00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:12,920 family now, 3 shoes, 1 ultra lightweights at 130 grams, you 819 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:16,080 know, then two that sits side by side depending on you know, what 820 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,960 the foots doing as it kind of makes contact with the ground. 821 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,840 You know what your strides doing as you're speeding up, you move 822 00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:25,120 down the magic speed. We'll see a nice update towards 823 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,680 the end of this year that will bring that kind of in line and I 824 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,400 think Sonic will make a a bit more sense as a plated trainer 825 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:33,240 to people. I know that's going to be a good 826 00:42:33,240 --> 00:42:35,920 question. I was just going to bring that 827 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:37,720 was like, you know what, That's the other shoe. 828 00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:40,480 It's like, where does that fit? Especially with Sonic Blast but. 829 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:42,400 Yeah, cool. I think Magic Speed will fall 830 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,640 back into a little bit more traditional of a racer. 831 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,080 It kind of it adapted to a plated trainer for a bit. 832 00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:51,000 I think Sonic Blast will be able to take that mantle. 833 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,040 And you know, we'll let Magic get back to being fast and 834 00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:56,360 speedy like it was intended. Yeah. 835 00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:58,720 No, that's great. Very cool. 836 00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:01,200 So I have one more question for you and then I'll let you go. 837 00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:07,120 And my question is what is your either current or has been your 838 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,080 favorite A6 shoe to run it? Oh. 839 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:14,040 All time or just right now? You could go both, but if you if 840 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,440 you've got them with you. So I'll, I'll give you 2. 841 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:21,320 One is years and years old. It was the DS Trainer 7 in the 842 00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:25,480 limeade green color. It was, it was giving the color, 843 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,200 yeah, it was tiger stripes that had tiger stripes within the 844 00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:30,520 tiger stripes. It's like some inception type 845 00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:34,080 stuff, but that was, you know, back then what a performance 846 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:38,280 trainer was, you know, a little closer to the ground, you know, 847 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:42,160 slight post that was that was a really fun shoot for me. 848 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:47,200 The last couple years it's predominantly been Nova Blast, 849 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:50,640 but I think for probably the last six months now it's been 850 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:54,480 mega blast for me since I've had a pair of those in my size and I 851 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,440 just, I love the excitement, the fun. 852 00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,240 It's a shoe you keep by your door and like you smile, 'cause 853 00:43:59,240 --> 00:44:01,440 you're ready to go out when you've got that to put on your 854 00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:03,600 feet. Well, Paul, thank you for giving 855 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:07,880 up for recording at If you're out in Boston, it is very late 856 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,200 over by you. So thank you for giving us your 857 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,480 time to chat about kind of these new releases and a lot more 858 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,280 about ASICS and kind of bringing us behind the curtain a little 859 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,880 bit. If people have more questions 860 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:22,480 for us about everything that we talked about, don't be afraid to 861 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:24,480 drop comments or shoot us an e-mail at 862 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,520 doctorsrunning@gmail.com. And we can make sure that we try 863 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,240 to answer it to the best of our abilities, all the questions 864 00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:32,640 that you have. So, Paul, thank you again for 865 00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:34,680 joining us on the podcast. Yeah, my pleasure, Nathan. 866 00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:36,480 Thanks for having me and hopefully we'll be back soon. 867 00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:38,160 Absolutely. Take care. 868 00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:38,440 Bye.