A Portland performance shoe company just released its newest product: a trail running shoe inspired by the rocky terrain of Huntsville, Alabama.
Speedland’s first shoe, the SL:PDX, was tailored for trail running in Portland and its surrounding areas. Even though its new shoe, called the SL:HSV, is designed to reflect the Alabama terrain where its athlete Liz Canty runs the most, all runners can benefit from its features, according to founders David Dombrow and Kevin Fallon.
“We want to highlight those things that we're doing that big brands can't and won't do to separate ourselves from the rest of the market. We don't feel like we're necessarily compromising by tailoring it for a specific region, it just gives us a great way to highlight the features of the shoe,” Dombrow said.
The SL:HSV is highly customizable, Dombrow said, with dials instead of laces to adjust the shoe’s tightness, a removable carbon plate so runners can adjust the boost they get from each step and an outsole made by tire manufacturer Michelin for increased grip over wet terrain.
“Our whole thing is really treating this like equipment, not treating it like a commodity product,” Dombrow said.
Combined, Dombrow and Fallon have decades of experience at companies like Nike, Under Armour and Puma, though Fallon’s background is more engineering and technical while Dombrow's is more on the creative side.
With a price tag of $375, Dombrow said Speedland’s shoes are made for the ultra particular runner who doesn’t feel like compromising on a shoe made by the big brands.
“I think for the last 30 years, the big brands have convinced people that shoes should be inexpensive and disposable. We see it a little differently, and think that for the certain consumer that we're going after, they want a better product,” Dombrow said. “They want the best things that they can get assembled into one shoe. They don't necessarily want to compromise.”
Speedland is still focusing on e-commerce, Dombrow said, for its business and making a limited supply of shoes for a small target audience.
The SL:HSV is available for purchase and shipping now, while Speedland works on a new shoe to release in the fall that will be a departure from its previous two trail running shoes.
