norda: Ultralight Trail Running Shoes Designed to Go the Distance

 

When norda's Nick and Willamina Martire couldn't find a shoe that could handle the rigors of trail running in their rugged Canadian homeland like they wanted one to, they decided to design their own.

The Quebec-based design duo – who are also endurance athletes – has decades of experience as footwear designers in the fashion industry, but it wasn’t until COVID forced the two of them indoors to finally sit down and solve their trail shoe dilemma that norda came to life.

“We knew there was an open space [in the industry] because big companies need to make decisions to cut costs and save money,” says Nick, “but we wanted to make Lamborghinis and Range Rovers. So, we set out to make the best shoes we could make.”

 

Photo: Moe Lauchert

 

Nick and Willa joined forces with designer Louis-Martin Tremblay and art director Gerald Cleal – two equally enthusiastic problem solvers – and the quartet put their heads together to source the best ingredients they could.

When the team came across Bio-Dyneema, which is conventional Dyneema but made with renewable or recyclable materials, they knew they had struck proverbial gold. Yet when they went to manufacturers, they hit a little snag.

“Bio-Dyneema was perfect, but nobody was able to do what we wanted with it,” Tremblay says. 

But in 2020, when the pandemic shut down mass production, a lot of collections were cancelled and product manufacturers were looking for work. Finally, a small production team was able to dedicate time to figuring out how to create a malleable shoe upper out of layers of carefully cut Bio-Dyneema lasered together. 

 

 

“It took sample after sample to figure out how to do it—and that was before we even got to testing mode, where there was a shoe that someone could actually wear!” Tremblay recalls. But the team's patience and persistence paid off, and after two years of troubleshooting they found their way, and the norda 001 supershoe was born.

“We’re the first to use bio-based Dyneema® in a shoe the way we used it,” explains Nick. “We got it in a filament, in a yarn, and then we worked with a mill that specializes in Dyneema®, and they wove it into our fabric.”

“What’s unique about our shoe is that everything is seamless. Everything is cut by laser and laminated. We have stitches in the back and a strobel stitch on the inside, so we say that shoes are cut by laser and sewn by hand - a mix of new with traditional shoe-making techniques.”

 

 

To take their high-performance shoes to the next level, the crew decided to team up with the industry veterans at Vibram and utilize their soft and responsive SLE foam for the 001’s midsole, which they attached to the MegaGrip bottom sole – which combined with Vibram’s LiteBase – give the shoes incredible traction, durability, and comfort, all without adding heavy weight. 

“The summer after we started working on the project, I was walking by the side of the St. Lawrence River, and I could see all these tracks across the Canadian Shield rocks,” recalls Tremblay. 

“I was walking barefoot, and I realized that the rock itself had a lot of traction. I was working on designing the lugs of the shoes at the time, and I came home and redesigned them to add lines going across, acting as secondary, smaller lugs.”

 

 

“That way if the major lugs are not holding onto the rocks, the smaller lines could catch on. No one was doing anything like that, but it worked to give a huge amount of traction, whether it was muddy, rooty, rocky, or icy.”

“My soul is in the sole,” Tremblay says with pride. And it’s not just any sole – it’s a full rubber sole, and as Nick explains – that’s very intentional. “A lot of the brands have rubber pods and exposed EVA. Rubber pods rip off. Rocks puncture the EVA. The full soleplate guarantees durability.” 

And while performance is paramount to the norda team, so is the comfort of the shoe – which has been specifically designed to tackle ultra long-distance runs and hikes in some of the harshest climates in the world – without causing discomfort or compromising posture.

For this, the foot shape was key. 

 

Photo: Julien Payette-Tessier

 

“We have a wider fit compared to other trail shoes,” says Tremblay. “That empty space allows your metatarsal to really be active. And especially on a very long run, your foot is going to swell. It’s going to need that space. The foot needs to express itself. But it also needs to feel stable, so we honed the lace lock system so the foot would be held in place where it’s less active, but able to move more in the front.” 

One would think with all this high-performance focus and terrifically technical materials, that the results would be a super futuristic, space-age looking shoe, but alas, norda has been able to lean on their high-fashion past and create a simple, clean, and ruggedly beautiful shoe akin to that super car they set out to design.

"When you first sit inside a Lamborghini, it feels almost like a shell, and you're thinking, 'what? I don't get it,'" explains Willa. "It's so light and minimal, which is the same feeling as lacing up a pair of nordas." 

"You got to learn how to drive it a little bit," adds Nick, "but once you do — oh man! You can see the community is freaking out because they've never been served anything like it."

 

 

With fabric, performance, comfort and aesthetics on lock, norda made sure to do one better. And in a world of disposable garments and quickwearing gear, the crew vowed to make it of utmost importance to also prioritize longevity in their line.

“For us, sustainability starts with durability,” says Nick. “There’s something crazy - like 20 billion shoes per year put into landfills. Our view is simple: the more we limit that, that can be our contribution.” 

“There are a lot of great innovations with castor beans and so-called natural fibers, and it’s great to make them, but they’re not durable enough today or suitable for trail purposes,” explains Nick. “There’s also a lot of talk about building a shoe with replaceable parts that you can break down after. Just think about the fuel involved in shipping a shoe back to a manufacturer and replacing different components and then shipping it back to you… it’s not sustainable at all.”

“We want to be very clear - not every part of the norda shoe is sustainable and bio-based. We’re a performance company. But we do what we can to use recycled and bio-based materials,” he continues. “Most people don’t know that most shoe boxes with those shiny coatings aren’t recyclable. Our boxes are made from FSC certified recycled craft paper and white aqueous based ink, so you can recycle them entirely a second time.”

 

 

While norda is relatively new to the footwear market – officially launching in 2020 – they have already taken the trail running world by storm, built an incredible team of norda athletes and a massive community (some would even say, a cult following) and been on the podiums of many of the most extreme endurance events in the world.

They’ve weathered the pandemic and the disbelief and criticisms of many manufacturers, and proved them all wrong with the success, durability, and resilience of the norda 001 – their supershoe, 002 – their more minimal running shoe, the 003 – their hiking/running/scrambling shoe.  Up next for a March 2025 release is the 005 which early testers claim to be their lightest, fastest, most stable race day shoes yet.

The nature of norda’s resilient and innovative design team, coupled with their unparalleled passion for supporting the trail running community while doing their best to be mindful of their impact on this precious planet is commendable, and their mission statement speaks volumes. 

“Our vision is to create the best performance trail footwear and equipment; striving to push the technical boundaries of what is possible, and acting with a conscious mind and heart — always.”

 

 

Ali Becker is a freelance writer and adventure storyteller who spends half the year backpacking and bikepacking and the other half sleeping in strangers' beds as a professional house sitter. She and her partner, Mathieu, share their ups and downs on their IG channel at @trip.longer and hope to inspire others to get outside, adventure in nature and find their own freedom.