Salomon is renowned for their trail running shoe range and among them were the S-Lab series where Salomon work closely with their Salomon Athletes to produce custom made shoes according to their specification.
Soon to be release to the public market will be the new Salomon S-Lab Sense which a special shoe which was design according to specification of one of their top Salomon Athlete, Kilian Jornet.
The S-Lab Sense is one of the most anticipated trail running shoes of 2012. The Sense was design with one thing in mind which is to make it light yet suitable for the trail. After finishing in third place at the 2010 Western States 100, Kilian Jornet wanted a pair of shoes that is ideally suited to his needs on that course. He needed a light shoe that drained well and provided traction from snow to desert. The Salomon S-Lab team took his feedback and went to work on an answer to his needs.
Determine Kilian train hard as always and took part in the same race a year later this time wearing the prototype pair that was design by the S-Lab team base on his specification and feedback from last years race. This time Kilian crossed the finish line at the Placer High track to win the 2011 Western States and prototype on his feet is given a name – the Salomon S-Lab Sense.
Design specifically for Racing, Salomon had slash down the weight of the shoe to as light as they could but still remain its attention to the midsole and outsole design. For the Sense, Salomon had redesigned the toggle for the Quicklace system, which does help to reduce a few grams of the total weight. Thus, the Sense only Weight at only about 180gram (US 10).
The Sense is made out of a mesh upper for breathability and for a comfort fit. Inside you will find The Sense’s EndoFit technology, which is an internal sock-like sleeve that wraps the foot and provide comfortable structure along with regulated breathability. You can run sockless with complete confidence in this model. The seamless constructions make the shoe look very streamline and simple.
Rather than putting a rock plate between the outsole and midsole or between the midsole and the foot, the Sense’s protective layer is sandwiched in the middle of the midsole. A thin TPU film-on-mesh called Pro Feel Film is used to provide feel while providing push-through protection in the midfoot, which means that while windows in the forefoot seemingly display a carbon-fiber shank, the forefoot remains flexible.
The Sense sticks to that principle with a minimally lugged outsole. Combining relatively soft outsole and flexibility of the Pro Feel Film had given birth to a new concept call “Dynamic Traction.”
Dynamic Traction is essentially the ability of the outsole to be able to deform itself according to the terrain, thus, providing more apparent lug height than a shoe with a less flexible outsole, whether due to the outsole’s inherent stiffness or the location of a stiff rock plate.
The Sense seats quite low on the ground with a 9mm height at the front and 13mm in the heel for a 4 mm heel-to-toe drop to help facilitate a fore-foot dominated stride and at the same time provide some extra cushion and protection at the tail end of a long-haul race.
The Salomon S-Lab Sense is set to launch in Singapore in the 3rd Quater of 2012.
Cheers! (:
My Running Addiction 
Hi Haffiz! Nice to meet you at Panasonic workshop today! See you at future events!
I’m impressed with the traction design of that shoe. I can only hope I can get my hands on a pair of that when I come over at the ecco shoes on sale.
Hi,
Will Slab sense be available on the first week of October? And what store in SG? I leave here in PH and I’ve talked to the product manager of Salomon and she told me that will be launch in PH next year, a lot of trail runners here can’t wait for that launch.
Thanks