Sole Searching: Arc’teryx Creates New Footwear Category With Vertex Alpine

Continuing our ongoing coverage of iconic footwear designs and the people who brought them to life, we’ve turned our attention to the new Arc’teryx Vertex Alpine to learn how athlete testing and Vibram sole technology helped create a light and capable approach shoe unlike any before it. Though the Canadian brand commonly receives credit for their industry-leading outerwear, for several seasons now its shoe program has steadily gained traction with highly-technical running, hiking, and alpine climbing footwear.

While planning its first Vertex shoe in 2023, the Arc’teryx footwear team set out to design a running shoe inspired by climbers by combining a lightweight upper, a deeply-lugged outsole, and an integrated knit collar to keep out debris. Now in 2024, the brand has flipped the script to bring the next generation Vertex Alpine to market by injecting climbing DNA into the original shoe concept—the result is the first alpine shoe to use Vibram XS Flash 2 rubber and an approach shoe slash trail runner in a category all its own.

“The definition of the word ‘vertex’ is both the summit and an intersection of two points,” Arc’teryx Senior Director of Global Footwear Design Josh Herr reminds us, “for us that’s where ascent and speed meet.” And where this innovative new shoe is defined.

As one might, Arc’teryx leaned on its outerwear construction expertise when designing the new Vertex Alpine upper. With a full GORE-TEX liner to seal out rain and snow, the upper is sewn from over thirty pieces and joined with the same lamination techniques found on jackets like their iconic Alpha SV alpine shell. But the big material innovation story—and what has come to define this second generation Vertex—is not the lower profile upper (which reportedly still does well at keeping debris at bay) but what anchors it, and its wearer, to the Earth.

But first let’s back up a bit. Broadly speaking, the most popular approach shoes win the hearts and minds of climbers by providing hiking boot support in a low top shape. After hiking a few (or many) miles to the base of a crag or boulder, climbers typically kick off the burly footwear in favor of their favorite grippy climbing shoes. Rethinking the approach shoe as a true lightweight alpine shoe, the Vertex Alpine’s goal was to provide capability to move through varied alpine environments with speed, and without the need for a second pair of shoes.

Consulting from their stacked roster of athletes, Arc’teryx Product Testing Specialist Adam Campbell (who is also an Arc’teryx athlete himself, of course) fed the product designer team detailed feedback from the likes of climbers Mike Gardner and Sam Hennessey, and mountain runner Janelle Smiley throughout the development of the Vertex Alpine. Working closely with these athletes, Adam bore the burden of getting out into the mountains with them to download the feedback as it occurred.

While discussing the importance of athlete testing and feedback, Herr tells us, “They wanted a shoe that they could trust in technical terrain—a precise fit that would also keep debris out with the stickiest rubber possible. A shoe that would withstand jamming and edging, with a softer heel and added protection on long descents.” At the same time, Vibram North American Sales Director Max Moody adds, their goal was to “design an outsole versatile enough to perform on rock while being able to withstand long excursions in a wide variety of technical terrain.”

These high-altitude athletes—and the shoe’s designers—were searching for a model to unlock fastest-known-time goals and lighten their burden while guiding. Culminating the shoe’s development, Arc’teryx athletes Janelle Smiley and Eric Carter made a record traverse over the Tantalus range right in the brand’s backyard of Squamish, BC, proving its potential before it even became available to potentially less-ambitious outdoors persons like you and I. From high-paced runs to vertical climbs, and even crampon-enhanced rambles over frozen snow, the route was the dream test for this shoe in the hands (well, feet?) of these two athletes.

Where the initial Vertex shoe implemented Vibram Megagrip for durable grip while running over scree and talus, the Vertex Alpine makes the move to a rock-climbing-specific XS Flash 2 for uncompromising grip on any rock surface. “Vibram are undoubtedly the industry experts in grip, so working with them always makes our products better,“ shares Herr, Arc’teryx Senior Director of Global Footwear Design. “The Vertex Alpine is the first mountain speed shoe that utilizes the Vibram XS Flash 2 technology. We wanted a sticky grip that would enable our athletes to defy vertical mountain terrain, and they delivered.“ Whether running, scrambling, smearing, or even working a footjam, this specialized outsole has you covered.

Despite our love for hyper-specific use-case gear, we’re excited by the depth of research and innovation that Arc’teryx committed themselves to in order to bring a true quiver-killer of an alpine shoe to the gear-hungry masses. Though we may not all be world class athletes, we can surely benefit from their expertise however we choose to recreate.

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