To figure out how to make smarter shoe designs, New Balance’s Studio Innovation Group analyzes how real people run–from star athletes to everyday volunteers.    Photo: Ravi Vora

Two years ago, Kim Conley was testing new track spikes for New Balance, and she was skeptical. New Balance’s engineers had taken data about her landing patterns, fed it into a state-of-the-art software program, and then used a 3D printer to tailor five different designs specifically for her running style. All of which sounded intriguing, but Conley, an Olympian and two-time US champion, wasn’t convinced. “To be totally honest, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be able to feel a difference with the finished project,” Conley says. Track spikes, after all, aren’t meant to be noticeable–they’re supposed to do their job and let elite racers focus on winning.

Then she started training in the prototypes. One pair stood out right away. “They had a snugger fit, and gave more traction,” Conley says.

A few months passed, and Conley qualified to race at the World Track and Field Championships, in Moscow. Shortly before the meet, Sean Murphy, who heads New Balance’s Sports Research Lab, asked Conley which shoes she planned to wear for the race. The same prototypes that she’d been wearing for six months, she responded. “We were like, are you kidding, you still have those?” Murphy says. The shoes weren’t meant to last more than a few workouts, but Conley had been using them for months. In fact, she wouldn’t wear anything else. “It was a really good moment for everyone who worked on the project,” Murphy says. It meant that the engineers’ ultimate goal–learning whether there was a new way to build shoes–was working.

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