Running shoes with resilience built in, Anta claims
Sports brand Anta has worked with Rhode Island-based plastics company Teknor Apex on the development of “a custom-formulated” thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). It has used the TPE to make a running shoe that it describes as exhibiting “outstanding rebound resilience”, which could help wearers run for longer.
The new TPE, which the companies have called Monprene, has gone into the midsole of the new line of running shoe after the partner companies carried out 40,000 running impact tests to determine what they have called “the optimum solution” for delivering “the best rebound performance” over an extended period of time.
According to Anta, standard midsole materials offer 50% rebound resilience, but it said its new midsole returns even more energy to runners, 70% rebound resilience.
Business director for Teknor Apex’s thermoplastic elastomer division, Serene Cheng Sook Ee, said at the time of the announcement that this project had “challenged conventional thought about running shoes” by focusing on the resilience of the midsole rather than “just its cushioning property”.
