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The brand’s latest super shoe takes performance to a new level.
Running is at the forefront of innovation and sport at the highest level.
In recent years, carbon fiber platers, responsive foams, lightweight uppers, and other features have been integral in this new Running Renaissance.
Saucony, one of the oldest and most consistent running brands, has been revered as a fan-favorite from 5Ks to marathons. With its wide offering of products, the brand continues to elevate through innovation — seen primarily in the Saucony Endorphin Elite 1 in early 2023 following the success of the Endorphin Pro 3.
A year later, on the cusp of the Paris Olympics, the Boston-born brand has unveiled its newest offering: the Saucony Endorphin Elite 2.
The Elite 2 carries the same essence as its predecessor while adding new features, including a secret foam that Saucony is keeping behind red tape.
To learn more about the newest Elite, we spoke with Philo Germano, Product Line Manager for Saucony’s fast and light shoes which encompasses racing shoes as well as other key models and competition shoes, like spikes.
Read the Endorphin Elite 2 interview below.
What Was The Journey From The Endorphin Elite 1 to The Endorphin Elite 2?
We rely on and work closely with the athletes, so that makes it makes it fun. It also makes it easier to make very good performance products because we’re able to have them in the lab in our office, and we’re able to have them test the shoe. We get them on a treadmill, we can do different things.
We take a lot of the data that we get from those tests, and it informs the direction that we go or the ways we optimize things. Any sort of characteristic that you can hone in on or elevate makes a big difference because everybody’s just accelerating in this innovation. Another part of that is trying to find materials that are going to translate into the next big innovation.
We have very good engineers who are honed in innovation and helped us deliver the final product in the Elite 2.
What’s The Wear-Testing Process For a High-Performance Racing Shoe with World-Class Athletes?
One of the main tests that we like to get done with the athletes is a metabolic test. We’ll bring athletes like Jared [Ward] and Malindi [Elmore] and (depending on how they’re feeling how they’re; if they’re coming off a race) we’ll set up a lineup of shoes that they can test against.
Our control variable would be what a normal racing shoe would have been 10 years ago, or something that’s going to be very lightweight, minimal, like a Kinvara — something that’s not super foam, something pretty average.
We test off that with a couple of different models. In this case, the Elite 2 and then maybe a couple of other racing models. We’re testing what their effort is, and what the metabolic savings of each shoe is. The gold standard in the industry in terms of what’s making a difference is 4% (savings). We’d like to get it on multiple days, so if someone comes in and tests for shoes twice in one session, and then comes back another day and tests the same set of shoes to get more data points.
When we get all of that presented to us. some of the numbers that we’ve seen on some athletes were up over 10% for the Elite 2, which is insane. That’s why we want to get as much data as possible. The more people you test, the more accurate you’re going to feel that number is. Across the board, we’ve seen some pretty staggering results for this shoe.
What Features of The Endorphin Elite 1 Carried Over to The Endorphin Elite 2?
There are a lot of things that we wanted to keep similar, like the last that it’s built on, so the fit of the shoe is the same. We kept the stack heights the same, so it’s right on that World Athletics line of being under 40 millimeters for all racing products on the road going from 39.5 and then in the forefoot, it’s 31.5, so an eight-millimeter drop. The geometry of the shoe and how it rides is the same but done a little bit differently.
In the Elite 1, the outsole was more carved out through the center. And now in the Elite 2, there’s a groove line that comes in. The thought process here is that we wanted to optimize what you’re going through in a gait cycle, and what area of the foot has the most pressure. That was one thing that we wanted to see in this shoe is if you can get a really good foam underfoot, and what that feels like on the high pressure points. It works well for the shoe. We added some rubber to it as well in some different spots.
But the heel fit is completely different. We have a molded beveled heel that’s going to be more of an anatomical fit for your foot. The Elite 1 had an extremely minimal back. Some people liked it for that reason, but then some people didn’t for other reasons. Part of going into making an update is listening to feedback, and that was one of the things we heard called out a lot. It gave us a chance to try something new, and something that we thought was going to be a really good fit since it comes back a little bit. For being higher up, at least visually, you might think it would rub on your Achilles, but doesn’t because it comes back; it gives you a little bit of room for movement.
Another thing is a connected tongue. Some of the feedback from the first model is that the tongue was moving around a little bit. We wanted to get a more of a race sock-like feel.
And with any racing product, you try and make that upper as lightweight as possible, something that’s going to be durable, especially over the course of a marathon to let out some of the heat as well as having something cool visually, as well as functionally.
What’s The Longevity/Mileage Expectancy of The Endorphin Elite 2?
We’ve found that the shoe is testing out with a 96% energy return, which is a big number for just the foam, and then for the shoe itself is 92%. When you pack it into something, you can run in, it’s going to come down a little bit.
But we’re seeing it test over 90%, even after a couple of 100 miles. The foam is still alive, it’s still working. We’ve had a couple of different athletes put upwards of 300-400 miles on it, and they’ve thought it felt still like it was new.
That’s exciting for us.
What Other Design Components Make The Endorphin Elite 2 Special?
The carbon plate worked well with the Elite 1 and especially with Elite 2. The ride of the shoe is very propulsive with its slotted carbon plate. The Elite 2 has a little bit of give to it, allowing you to more freely toe-off as opposed to something that would be straight without slots.
The comfort of that, while still providing that energy return, is such a nice race feeling.
How Exciting is it to Launch The Shoe Ahead of The Olympics?
It’s going to be exciting for us to see the Elite 2 on the line in Paris, for sure.
One because now we get to see it on the highest of stages, which is one of the most exciting parts of innovation in footwear and industry is to see at the pinnacle of what our sport is.
The second reason is being able to give that experience to everyone. People getting pairs and seeing what the reactions are is going to be huge.
Will The Endorphin Elite 2 Also Serve as A Collab Product?
It’s something that’s generated a lot of interest because it’s such a unique shoe. It’s such a niche product that I feel like if [a collab] comes in the right way, we can execute it. It’s something that we would want to do, but we can’t say definitively if there’s something on the docket that’s coming out soon.
But it’s something that comes up in conversations.
How Has The Experience On Working with The Endorphin Elite 2 Been Like?
It’s always an exciting experience to take something that we thought was good and people had a lot of success in it, like the Elite 1, and challenge ourselves on how we’re going to make it better.
With the Elite 2, we’re excited to see it on everybody’s feet and see what they see and the feedback on how would they feel about it.
We’re very proud of where it ended up. So, I’m excited that people will have it on their feet, and give us feedback. We’re always curious; we’re always asking people who try it.
We’re very excited for the shoe.
On a personal note, coming to work feels crazy because this is what I always wanted to do. When I was running at Syracuse school, there was so much energy. I feel like performance footwear was more aesthetic than anything 10 years ago. But, we’ve seen what a tool it is for racing success.
You need to be a player in the game to fight for your piece of the pie in the industry. Selfishly, it feels amazing to be a part of this team with so many great minds that are part of this innovation and putting the work in to make this shoe as good as it can be. Everybody’s excited to be part of this process because the result gets extrapolated out to everyone running.
In our home spot of Boston, we see people run [the] Boston [Marathon] and see the shoes on people’s feet. It’s a cool feeling that I wasn’t ready for. I started my first-day last year at the Boston Marathon. You see all these Elite 1s running by and it was surreal.
And then now, we work on as a unit and we’re going to see the Elite 2 out there. It’s going to be cool.
The Saucony Endorphin Elite 2 retails for $275 and will be available on Saucony.com and select retailers.
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