Altra

Altra Running design and manufacture athletic shoes for road running, trail running, hiking and casualwear, constantly innovating their approaches to deliver top performance and ergonomic comfort that let you go the distance faster and farther than ever before.
Founded in 2009 in Utah, Altra Running, commonly known as Altra, was the brainchild of co-founder Golden Harper, who noticed that the stride and gait of barefoot runners changed when they wore traditional running shoes, suggesting that the heel height of most running shoes was therefore too high compared to the toe.

Harper began cutting open and modifying traditional running shoes, removing padding from the heat and glueing them back together to allow for a more natural running experience where the heel and forefoot were the same distance from the ground, allowing for footfalls to be in the mid-to-forefoot area, instead of the more usual heel strike. Harper dubbed this design the Zero Drop.

Quickly catching on, these hacked shoes were popular with the local running community, whereby Harper and a few business partners took the idea to venture capitalists and former Nike designers, founding Altra and establishing it as an international business, expanding from running shoes to hiking boots, casual shoes and also venturing into apparel and accessories. 

Altra also sponsors many prolific trail and ultra races in the United States each year, alongside an event to break the world record for the fastest 50 miles on a treadmill and winning numerous awards in magazines such as Runner's World for their continued innovations in running shoe design.