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.

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.

Can Zara build a slow fashion running brand…

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