Usain Bolt Lends a Helping Hand to PUMA's Energy Return Ignite Running Shoe

Thanks to achievements that include six Olympic gold medals, eight first-place finishes at the World Championships, and world records in both the 100m and 200m races, nobody embodies PUMA‘s “Forever Faster” mantra more fully than charismatic 6’5” Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. Effectively the fastest man in the world and thought by many to be the fastest man to ever set foot on this earth, Bolt’s unparalleled speed provides the basis for the latest performance innovation from PUMA: Ignite. Developed over the course of nine years and created by a team of eight designers with input from Bolt himself, Ignite is billed as PUMA’s most responsive runner to date, maximizing energy return for the wearer — simply put, the more energy you put into your runs, the more you’ll get out of the shoe. Plus, since the Ignite foam has been coupled with a strategically-placed ForEverFoam unit — a new-to-the-market compound that’s used heavily throughout the automotive industry — in the heel, the new shoe is perhaps PUMA’s most comfortable and durable to date.

While Bolt was tapped for his own feedback, much of the development and creation of Ignite can be attributed to two key players: Senior Head of Global Running PLM Footwear, Kohei Hagio, and footwear designer Jacob Garcia. A 13-year veteran of the progressive running and training footwear sector and the man who initiated adidas‘ lightweight adiZero concept back in 2004 (he joined PUMA in 2012), Hagio was able to channel the spirit of his previous work into the groundbreaking design — the result of which is a lightweight yet supportive silhouette that’s been tailor-made to fulfill the performance needs of any type of runner. Garcia, on the other hand, focused on the aesthetics of the design, ultimately looking to nature for a visual use of energy. In the end, he landed on one of the fastest moving objects in the universe and one perfectly suited to provide both an eye-catching colorway and unique sidewall design: a comet.

Which, naturally, brings us back to The World’s Fastest Man. With his sights set on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2017 World Championships in London — which could prove to be the culmination of his legacy if his plans for retirement do indeed come to fruition — Bolt plans to lace up the Ignite as he trains for the most important races of his career. Said Bolt of the shoe:

Training every day is pretty tough. I start out with a running shoe to warm up before going into a spike and I need a shoe that is comfortable and keeps my energy up. I love Ignite for that and can feel it make a real difference. It’s a pretty good looking shoe as well.

Only time will tell if Ignite pays dividends for Bolt, but both he and PUMA are betting on it. The flagship Ignite is due out this March while PUMA plans to incorporate the technology across the running and training categories in the seasons to come.