From the customer service files….

Questions in black, answers in blue.

Greetings,

I am on assignment in Baghdad and in need of some good running shoes. I heard of your line and I’m very interested.
1. Do you ship to APO AE addresses? Yes.
2. Do you have military discounts or other promotions? We do offer our military, police, and fire $25 off each pair of shoes ordered.
3. I’ve had seven knee surgeries and a year out from Achilles surgery – is the Gravity an appropriate shoe to prepare and race a half Marathon? (BTW I won the Disney Half Marathon in the Wheelchair division early this year and want to come back to Disney and RUN next January’s) Holy cow. I’d say that you qualify as tenacious. Seven knees and an Achilles makes me nervous, but if you’re running now, then let’s go with it. Our Gravity shoes are for neutral footed runners, so if you’re running in a neutral shoe right now, the Gravity is the best choice.

4. I used to run/race in Adidas but they have become too tight over the top of the foot. My high arch forces me to seek Wide sizes. A 10 that is built for my high arch would be great but a 10.5 is typically what I end up getting. Is your build wider than Adidas or should I get a 10.5? Our shoes run a half size short compared to traditional running shoes. If you’re in a 10.5 right now, I might even encourage you to go with an 11.0. The fit in Newton is most important under the forefoot where our lugs are. You want your metatarsal bones to be lined directly on top of those lugs; not too far forward or too far back. We only make a medium width in our shoes right now, so for that reason, too we may want to size up.

FYI – my 5k times are around 21 or so now. However, I have run in the 18s and 3:01 Marathon and many Halfs around 1:30 and hope to get in to the 1:30s (or 1:40s) in January’s race. I hope this is clear, and helps with your questions. Regardless of your injury past, I want you to take it slow as you adjust to Newton shoes. Take the first two weeks at 15 minutes per run – start in the Newton shoes and then switch into your Adidas for the mileage you are doing. Your body is going to take a little time to adapt to the style of running Newton encourages, so listen to it. Also, be sure to stretch your lower legs during your break-in time – since your calves will be working harder, they’ll fatigue faster and be sore as a result. Expect this, and take it as part of how Newton works. I’m always happy to help along the way, so feel free to contact me any time. Take care and run strong.

Thanks!

LCDR David Toellner
MNFI CJ3 – SA

People who wear Newtons have been called trendsetters, early adopters, a community, a cult, Newtonites and more. I like the “Newton Tribe” best…

Marketing guru Seth Godin has a new book out, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. As a way to promote and brainstorm the book, he invited an online “triiibe” to make a book of their own. It’s available for free on Seth’s blog.

Anyway, on page 12 of the user-submitted book, there’s a story about the Newton Running Tribe by Marcus Galica

Yesterday I received in the mail my first pair of Newtons. Since I’ve been struggling with chronic knee problems, I willingly parted with $175 of my hard-earned cash in order to buy this pair of running shoes. They’re rumored to reinforce a mid-foot strike (which is said to reduce impact on the knees). I took them for my first run this afternoon, on a pathway known as the Strand that goes from Manhattan Beach to Redondo. After a total distance of about 12.5 miles, I still felt light on my feet and no soreness in my knees, so they seem to work as advertised. Wonderful. However, it was one fleeting interaction with another runner on the Strand that alerted me to Newton’s Culting of Brands approach to marketing these new shoes:

1) You won’t find them at your local Sports Authority; only a handful of renowned running specialty stores across the country carry them.

2) Most of the early adopters are intense triathletes. We’re talking the Ironman crowd.

3) They only come in obscenely loud colors like orange, yellow, pink, and green.

4) They’re $175. If you’re buying a pair of these, you’re serious about running. (Or a poseur, maybe.)

What was the interaction? Well, if any of you have run on The Strand before, you’ll know that because of the sheer density of runners and joggers, you typically won’t receive the customary “runner’s wave” that you’d get if you were someplace more remote. This particular Saturday afternoon, after about 10 miles, I had probably passed close to 500 other runners and joggers, and I did not receive a single “wave”. But as I approached an intensely cut-up, triathlete-looking man, I noticed he was wearing bright green Newtons. At the same moment he noticed my brilliant orange pair, and we immediately exchanged a hearty wave. On top of the “wave”, our eyes locked momentarily as we passed each other, and we shared a “nod”. Within this “nod” was a profound understanding: we were part of the same tribe, and this was my initiation. Even though thousands of people were running on The Strand today, our Newtons were the secret handshake no one else knew about.

Newton pro athlete Hillary Biscay was featured in last Thursday’s New York Times. Ok, more specifically, Hillary’s toned, tanned legs were featured in the NYT for a review of compression socks. And best of all, she’s got those hot pink Newton Distance Cure shoes on her feet!

Check out the NYT slideshow of Hillary’s hot legs here.

We came across a couple of great mentions of Newton in the blogosphere this week.

The first is from Tri-Daddy, who apparently works with Thys Wind at Endurance Magazine in Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Daddy has been experimenting with forefoot running technique and we’re excited to read his review of Newton shoes soon.

The second is from new runner and dancer, Chevas in Seattle. He congratulated Crowie on his Ironman win and he’s excited to try the Motion AW, especially considering the rainy, wet winters in the Northwest.

Thanks for the support!

There’s been a rumor floating around that Craig Alexander, aka Crowie, shaves the lugs off his Newton shoes. Now, we do know that Crowie did shave his head, his face, his legs, and most importantly, a bunch of time off his run in Kona, but NOT his shoes. To quell the rumor mill once and for all, here’s Crowie’s response in his own words:

“For a while now I have been aware of a rumor circulating that I in some way alter my Newton Running Shoes.

To be brutally honest, this is insulting to me on every level. What is being suggested is that I would promote a product to my fellow athletes and then not actually use it myself. I feel this is a massive attack on my integrity. The truth of the matter is, I ran in Newton running shoes by choice for 3 months before I signed on as a sponsored athlete with the company. And in fact, when I placed second on debut in Kona last year, I was not under contract to Newton Running. I have not trained or raced in anything else since the end of July last year.

The great thing about being a consumer is you get to try products and choose what you like. So anyone considering buying running shoes, I urge you to do exactly what I did, and that is to try everything that is available and then choose the best.

If you look at the post- race photos of me at the finish line last Saturday (click photo above to enlarge), you will notice that my shoes are in no way altered from their intended state. Also, the photos of my little post-race celebration, which I heard has also been misinterpreted, will show on close inspection that nothing has been done to the shoes.

Just to clarify, I took my shoes off at the finish line to beat out the flames because they were ” smokin’ hot” after having just run a 2:45 marathon.

If in the future, anyone out there feels the need to make an ill-informed opinion about any of my sponsorships, please feel free to contact me before you make a total and utter fool out of yourself. All you are actually doing is bringing myself and a great product and company into disrepute. Have some backbone and question my integrity in person rather than through an anonymous chat site.

The people starting these rumors need to pull their heads in. You are out there intentionally spreading lies and mis-truths. I’m not sure what your agenda is, but you should have a good look at your own motives and integrity.”

Craig Alexander (2008 Ironman World Champion)

Now, to be clear, Newton’s head designers mad scientists, Danny Abshire and Ian Adamson, have and will continue to work with our pro athletes to experiment with Newton’s shoes, ‘tuning’ the technology to test new innovations. This is a critical component of Newton’s design process; real world tests with the world’s best athletes to continue to push the envelope of shoe technology.

Stay tuned here for an upcoming preview of Newton’s spring ‘09 shoes, featuring some really cool new innovations!

Anyone who follows the sport of triathlon knows that our boy Craig Alexander won the grand daddy of all races, the Ironman World Championships on Saturday, just as we predicted.

You can read the press release here, but all you really need to know is that Crowie laced up his Newton Distance S shoes at T2, 8:30 behind the leader. Crowie then hit the afterburner, averaging a 6:15 mile and by the halfway turnaround point he was in the lead. He finished 3 minutes ahead of Spaniard Enneko Llanos crossing the finish line in 8:17:45 after running an amazing 2:45:00 marathon (the fastest run split of the day).

Congrats Crowie! We’re proud of you!

Guys (and gals?) of Newton-

My friends and I took a few pics from the first annual Playa Del Rey Triathlon over the weekend and wanted to email ‘em to ya – after posing we realized we were all wearing the same Newton Racers Anyway, I myself own 2 pairs of trainers and a pair of racers and did my first Ironman (France-Nice on June 27th) in the racers and they were AWESOME. I’ve looked so long and hard for a pair of running shoes that work for me and let me just say that I will never wear any other brand of running shoes again! No more back, hip, knee or plantar pain since wearing Newtons! Zero! My brother lives near your original store in Boulder so I’ll definitely stop in next time I’m in town. Thanks for making such an awesome product!

Best,
Dan C.

I have been meaning to contact you guys to say thank you for all of your help with finding the right size shoe for me.  I worked in retail for 15 years and have to say I was extremely impressed with your customer service.  I love my shoes.  I just started running one year ago and was running 5K’s.  I decided to try a half marathon this year and was told about your shoes, purchased them and wouldn’t dream of running in anything else since then.

I have to tell you two things.  I ran (only the run leg) the 10K portion of the MightyMan Triathlon in Sag Harbor last month (to keep my friend who did the whole event company).  During the run I noticed a pair of Newtons ahead of me and struck up a conversation with that man as we ran.  He is on his second pair and loves them.

I just ran my half marathon last Saturday in 2 hours 10 minutes 5 seconds.  For a middle aged woman who never ran further than 3 miles prior to this July, I was thrilled.  My shoes were so comfortable and my body felt like it could have kept going!!!!!  Anyway, I just got an e mail with the race photos and thought you might want to take a look.  Again, I found another runner wearing Newtons.  I saw her as I came up to the last mile but just didn’t have the energy to strike up a conversation, I was too busy trying to maintain my pace!!!  If you have a second you should go to brightroom.com, my bib number was 1547.  There is a great shot of both of us sprinting to the finish line wearing YOUR SHOES.  I really did sprint.  It was the Hamptons Marathon race in East Hampton, NY on September 27th.

Anyway, just thought you might like to see them in action.

Thank you and happy running.

Vivienne K.

p.s.  My husband also bought a pair