With the Los Angeles Summer time Olympics simply 2 years away, we’ve formally entered “OTQ season.” That acquainted rush is on as aggressive marathoners chase the two:16:00 (males) and a couple of:37:00 (girls) requirements wanted to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Workforce Trials.
And should you nonetheless consider Salomon as a trail-only model, its new S/LAB Illusion 3 ($280) ought to put that notion to relaxation. The model now fields a legitimately aggressive highway roster, with a number of of its athletes aiming squarely at Olympic qualification.
To assist that effort and to additional advance its road-racing bona fides, Salomon requested a easy query with an unconventional reply: What if trainers borrowed aerodynamic rules from biking and triathlon?
Extra particularly, Salomon needed to know whether or not decreasing drag on the foot — notably for ladies racing the marathon — may produce significant efficiency positive factors over 26.2 miles. After operating superior wind tunnel assessments in Switzerland, the outcomes appear constructive.
Salomon S/LAB Illusion 3 Assessment
Stack the S/LAB Illusion 3 up in opposition to as we speak’s marathon tremendous footwear — Nike’s Alphafly and Puma’s Quick-R Nitro Elite 3 — and it instantly seems to be completely different. Sure, it shares the ballooned, max-stack silhouette that now defines the class, however practically every part else goes its personal means.
There are faint echoes of On’s Cloudboom Strike with LightSpray, the robot-built tremendous shoe unveiled 2 years in the past. The place LightSpray seems to be chalky and industrial on foot, the Illusion 3 is nearly liquid-smooth. It’s the uncommon racing shoe the place you may virtually visualize airflow slipping cleanly over the floor.
The higher is in contrast to something we’ve seen in highway racing footwear. A seamless “cache-coeur” development covers the laces with an built-in gaiter, designed to scale back drag by smoothing the transition from shoe to ankle.
Working with Swiss Facet — an aerodynamics agency with Method 1 roots — Salomon additionally rethought the midsole form. The purpose was to maintain it as spherical as attainable, eradicate sharp edges, and create a clear interface between the midsole and the higher. It weighs a scant 7 ounces and has a drop of 6mm.
Underfoot, the Illusion 3 will get extra optiFOAM+ with a PEBA-based compound that’s softer and extra resilient than earlier than. A spoon-shaped Power Blade carbon plate pairs with an up to date rocker and a decrease drop. Stack top will increase to 39mm/33mm — just below World Athletics’ 40mm restrict — with a extra aggressive geometry to advertise excessive velocity late in a marathon.
Inside Salomon’s Wind Tunnel Experiment
“We all know the way to make footwear; they know the way to make objects quicker,” Gatien Airiau, Product Advertising Supervisor for Salomon efficiency footwear, stated in a press release.
That mindset led Salomon to Swiss Facet, greatest identified for optimizing bikes, vehicles, and different high-end gear. The query was whether or not comparable aerodynamic positive factors may apply to trainers, the place drag has largely been ignored till now.
Utilizing a treadmill setup, Salomon examined shoe aerodynamics at 50- and 25-degree foot angles inside Swiss Facet’s wind tunnel. The S/LAB Illusion 2 was benchmarked in opposition to 12 competitor fashions, revealing important drag variations pushed solely by form and development.
Engineers then modified the Illusion 2 utilizing plasticine and tape — protecting laces, reshaping the outsole, and altering dimensions — to isolate which modifications delivered actual aerodynamic positive factors.
The ultimate design made the midsole spherical and built-in the totally lined higher to scale back turbulence across the ankle. The result’s a reported 16-28% discount in aerodynamic drag at peak foot velocity — that means extra velocity is delivered with much less human vitality wanted.
Dauwalter Steps Onto the Highway
Path operating icon Courtney Dauwalter has lengthy been synonymous with Salomon, and whereas her off-road résumé wants no embellishment, she quietly made waves on the highway final fall.
Dauwalter lined up for 2 marathons — not simply as a private problem, however with an eye fixed towards the aforementioned Olympic Trials commonplace.
In simply her second highway marathon, she ran 2:38:54 on the California Worldwide Marathon, an 11-minute private greatest that left her lower than 2 minutes shy of the OTQ. Whereas no single shoe makes that sort of leap by itself, the efficiency underscores Salomon’s rising seriousness about highway racing — and the Illusion 3’s supposed position inside it.
What Comes Subsequent
If you happen to, too, are chasing an OTQ — or just searching a brand new marathon PR — the S/LAB Illusion 3 provides a genuinely completely different choice to the increasing tremendous shoe panorama. The place Tracksmith’s Eliot Racer pushed again in opposition to the class’s visible garishness, Salomon affords its personal different—one constructed round smoothness, subtlety, and aerodynamic intent.
The actual verdict, as at all times, will come from racing outcomes. GearJunkie shall be testing the S/LAB Illusion 3 this spring, with a full efficiency overview to comply with later this yr.
