APL Women’s TechLoom Zipline

£385.00

Typhoon, Ultra Speed and Atomics trainers by Gola

Our office has a surprising number of runners, and they were all extremely excited when a giant box arrived FILLED with trainers from Gola. Gola were kind enough to let us review not one but six pairs of their top-end designs - the his and hers of their Typhoon, Atomics and Ultra trainers. We handed them out to our review team and gathered together their opinions, as well as giving all the designs a careful side-by-side in the office. These were our thoughts:

The new Cloudventure Peak running shoes have been designed for race day on the mixed and trail surfaces, it comes in a white and black design which seems a rather unusual choice for trail running as they certainly won’t look this pretty for long. Best suitable from fast running on uneven surfaces, cross country and fell running for example, the grip pattern on the outsole has been put together in away to give you the best traction and support during your run.

Following on from my recent run with the impressive urban CloudSwift trainers, I am now excited to be testing out another pair. This time the OnCloud Men's Cloud Venture Peak. I set to the hills. These are tougher shoes and are specialised for trail running and long off-road runs in mind. Heavier than the Cloudswift, weighing in at just 295 grams, it’s still a lightweight trail running shoe that's big on cushioning, protection and grip.

After my 15-minute warm up exercise routine, I set out on bi-weekly 4-mile city run. I wanted to put these Cloudswift trainers to the test. Before I put them on, I had to re-lace the trainers. Call it what you like but since an early age I have to make sure the lengths are correct on the laces as well as the tension across the top of my feet. This process was over quickly and soon were upon my feet. The first thing I noticed was how light they felt, very bouncy and springy too.

Freewaters was set up in 2010, San Francisco, by two surfers/product designers with the dream of producing footwear for those who want to travel without limitation, but at the same time help give something positive back to the world. This has been achieved by ensuring that each pair sold helps to fund clean drinking water projects in small communities in Kenya, Haiti and the Philippines and have so far completed 80 water projects to date.

As soon as I unboxed the San Francisco’s I was charmed by the design. The upper is made from Nubuck, a full-grain leather that has been sanded lightly for texture giving it a velvety appearance, minimal seams create a streamline appearance and the open sole construction gives them a stylish unique look. We received the brown with orange soles and laces in the men’s and brown with pink soles and laces for the women’s (also available in green and yellow in men’s and grey and mint for women).

Five Ten was established in California, 1985, and focus on creating footwear and apparel for mountain biking, rock climbing, slack lining - basically anything dangerous and exciting!