Can Zara build a slow fashion running brand worthy of fast runners?

Zara, the fast fashion behemoth has launched an Athleticz startup brand, including affordable high-tech running shoes. Can we trust this gear to run a marathon in?

Despite the barefooted road runners, the zero-drop movement, the finger toes, and every other extreme running shoe doctrine out there, the carbon-plated marathoner conversation still reigns supreme, and Zara has joined it.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Spanish multinational fast fashion retailer launched a range of running apparel and became the talk of the town. While everyone had varying opinions on the accusations of stealing garment designs from indie brands, which I discussed last week, what I want to dig into today is the recent release of the Long-Distance Running Sneaker.

The marathon shoe is the thing that every runner I spoke to was the most wary of, so I asked Erik Coca Gonzalez-Albo, the lead footwear designer for the Zara Athleticz range why we should trust Zara with the only essential part of a runner’s wardrobe.

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The Athleticz project has been in action less than five years, but Erik has been designing footwear for Zara’s parent company, Inditex for 18 years. As someone who runs 10km at least three times a week, Erik tells me that working on creating a serious running shoe was a “very nice challenge.” Despite over a decade in footwear design, this would be his first time designing athletic shoes.

What did he come up with? A 39mm stack (legal for racing) and a very standard 8mm drop on a midsole made of EVA, and TPE-A outsole. There is recycled material in the upper (good!) and a removable insole (great!), and there’s a carbon plate in the shoe. That it costs $169, rather than the $260 a pair of Vaporflys costs, certainly raised some eyebrows.

Two colorways of the Long-Distance Running Sneaker by Zara Athleticz

The Long-Distance Running Sneaker, quietly released late in 2024, is the third running shoe from Athleticz, following the $69.90 Running Shoe – an entry-level running shoe – and the $59.90 Running Sneaker – a hybrid gym/running shoe, or maybe just something a little more comfortable and fashionable to wear to the office. This means that Erik and co have had some practice.

“There are some shoes that are more transversal — The typical shoe that people can run short runs with it, and then they can go to the gym. However, everything that we have learned on that high-level shoe, we have tried to apply in different ways to the rest of the running collection.”

While Zara Athleticz has quietly built a complete range of running shoes to choose from (as well as seasonal offerings in other sports), it’s clear that the Long-Distance Running Sneaker is Zara Athleticz’s year-round flagship shoe.

But how can we trust a premium Zara running shoe??

“This was one of the things that we were thinking from the very beginning. I am a runner as well, so how could I as a consumer trust the product? The question came by itself. How could we make a good product?”

Erik talks about collaborators and consultants who “know better than us some of the stuff we were doing.” He talks about an external laboratory to test and analyze the midsole – the most important part of the shoe. He talks about a thorough two-plus-year process of intense learning and rigorous testing to reach the product’s release.

He also talks about analyzing “the capacities and characteristics” of Zara’s prospective competitors like Brooks, Adidas, and Nike. It was market research. It was competitor analysis. It was finding the right foams in the sole. Is the foam any different to that in Adidas or Saucony shoes? It’s all likely made in the same Chinese factory.

Erik explains the idea behind Athleticz that, “every company wants to improve their service with new challenges.” They always want to offer their customers more products appropriate to their lifestyle.

Outside of the running world, we’ve seen Hermanos Koumori and 3sixteen – both from the boutique menswear world – launched suitably high-end running apparel. While a shoe is surely not far behind for either, collaborations are the safest first foray into expansion. We’ve seen Satisfy release shoes with Hoka, and Janji with Merrell, for instance. We can trust those shoe brand collaborators because they have a track record.

What about the likes of Lululemon and Tracksmith, who began with apparel and then launched their own running shoes once the brand was established? Soar are currently designing their first race shoe, for example. How can we trust their first running shoes any more than Zara’s? We don’t know the background of the individual designing them. Is enjoying their singlets and leggings enough to trust in their shoes?

And yet they’ve sold shoes. So why not Zara’s? They’ve come from an established footwear designer, they’ve been researched and tested thoroughly, and it’s a very good price point. If it looks good, and sounds good, maybe…

Who is this shoe (safe) for?

Shoe designers approach their product the same way that I do: with the customer/consumer/reader in mind. They ask themselves the same questions: what do they want, and how do I provide that?

In the same way another publication – even within the running category – might focus on a reader who might prefer a bullet-pointed digest rather than long-form or more data rather than an exploration of culture and lifestyle, another shoe designer might focus on a marathon runner, or a sprinter, and might be affected by budget or audience restraints.

So who is Erik designing this carbon-plated race shoe for? Is it for the guy on his fifth marathon looking for marginal gains? Probably not. This shoe is more likely for that runner who doesn’t come to run club. He either doesn’t have time or just isn’t comfortable being surrounded by VO2 Max chatter and Zone 2 ruminations. But he still wants to look the part. He already shops at Zara, of course, so this makes that bit easy. The ‘quality’ of the shoe is almost secondary. A certain level is expected.

And why not? That runner still deserves a good-looking shoe, which this is. That runner still deserves a functional running shoe at a decent price point, which this is.

I’ve previously been smoked in a 10k by my friend who runs every day on a treadmill as part of his gym workouts, but doesn’t engage in running culture in any way. He doesn’t identify as a runner, per se, but he runs. He couldn’t tell me what shoes he was running in that day. He just runs in… shoes. Like we did on the school playground. Would he try these shoes out? Perhaps.

A concern about a democratized, readily-available carbon-plated running shoe is the power getting into the wrong hands. Yes, I’ve framed that as gatekeeping, but it’s reasonable here. If the target customer – someone who buys running shoes from Zara – is a less experienced or less well-informed runner, they might not be aware of the injury risks of running on a carbon-plated shoe.

Every single instability and loss of balance in your body is magnified and multiplied when running, nay, racing in a carbon-plated shoe. That could lead to an injured runner, and there are few things I like to see less than that.

Building a slow fashion shoe brand in plain sight

One of the biggest reasons people have given for not trusting Zara Athleticz is that it’s running gear from a fast fashion outlet, so the quality is expected to be low. That’s where Zara’s lack of marketing is a hindrance.

Athleticz operates differently to the rest of the store, even appearing in its own section on the website menu. It’s positioned as separate; as special. It’s an interesting situation, as Erik explains.

“We’ve been working on Athleticz as if it’s a little startup inside a big machine.”

“[Zara] is very fast fashion and very much on trend for lifestyle, but we decided the shoe would go to market when the shoe was good for going to the market.”

Just as the shoe wasn’t rushed onto the shelves, it won’t be rushed off it either. The Long-Distance Running Sneaker has been available for three months, but Erik would rather evolve this model a few times – with new uppers, for instance – before releasing the next iteration.

“We think that one of the things that needs to happen is that the product talks by itself. We think this is a long-term brand. We will arrive at the point to get the trust, little by little, by having a good product.”

Erik has confidence in his shoe. That trust in the process might arise from the stability that his years of design experience have afforded him, or it might come from the trust that his company has put in him to spearhead this emerging venture. Either way, his vision is clear.

After talking with Erik, I’d love to be confident that this shoe is as marathon-ready as it was designed to be, but a naturally ingrained distrust of a fast fashion shoe persists. Clearly, though, we’ve got some time to put it to the test. Zara Athleticz is in it for the long run.

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- Raz