The Brand That Did What No Other Shoe Company Could Do: A Conversation With Nick Martire of norda

There exists a subset of athleisure fanatics, where technical advancement enthusiasts intersect with those who possess a sheer love of running. And their common denominator is norda.

A brand that quietly climbed the ranks of the ultimate running shoe, norda’s impressive growth stems from its minimalist essentialist aesthetic and state-of-the-art unprecedented running technology. Where most brands have large logos; norda’s is tiny. Where most brands have already tried to use Dyneema to create a running shoe but failed; norda succeeded. As expressed by its founder; “When they zig, we zag.”

Such a strong opposition towards conventional shoe manufacturing is manifested not only by 20+ years in the shoe industry but by dissatisfaction within the contemporary trail running shoe market. Crafted with the finest materials, including indestructible durable Dyneema, founder, Nick Martire, spotlights his desire for norda to “be the finest with the highest performance.”

With a fresh restock and new colorways coming to HBX, we caught up with the brand’s co-founder, Nick Martire, to discuss norda’s journey, athletic business philosophies, and the Porsche that’s made for your feet.

An excerpt from the interview can be found below. Read the interview in its entirety over at HBX Journal.

As of this moment, it’s been about four years since Norda first started – looking back, what has been your proudest moment?

I think a couple of things. One, just succeeding and making the shoe is an achievement. There’s a tremendous amount of innovation in the use of materials like Dyneema; it’s the lightest, strongest fiber and it’s the first time these sorts of materials have ever been used for shoemaking.

The other thing is just the global acceptance of Norda has been far beyond our expectations. We never even expected it.

When you first start a brand that’s pretty scary in itself. But you’re starting a brand with Dyneema, as you said, a material that has never been used before. What was your mindset like at the time taking on two challenges simultaneously?

So I’ve been in shoe making for a long time and we’ve been talking about this project for about 20 years. You just have to wait for that right moment, the right time. And that right moment came in our lives and we just got to work.

“We wanted to use the best technology, and so we found Dyneema. The funny thing is, we called them and they said, “Do you realize all the big companies have already tried to make a shoe with Dyneema? We’ll give you the support, we’ll give you materials, you can figure it out.” And it really took us two years to figure it out. We figured it out by weaving the material. ”

So weaving is what sets your shoe apart from all the other brands that have tried to use Dyneema in the past?

Yeah. Dyneema main material – it’s like a tent material and it’s very hard. So we had to get that into a filament. And then we were able to weave it through recycled nylon to make it flexible so that it could be used in shoe application. I mean, we could have made a shoe without it, but our whole purpose was lighter, stronger, and more durable. That was our strategy towards responsibility and sustainability.

In the past, norda has been compared to Land Rovers and Porsches. Do you think that norda aligns with either of them more between the two?

The norda 001 is the Porsche 911 Turbo. The back tab is like back in the 90s when cars used to have a very pronounced spoiler. People were like, “You can take a lot of weight off the shoe by taking [the back tab] off.” But this is the coolest part about the shoe. When you see it, walking through a city or wherever you can see it from a mile away. And then we always say, we’re huge fans of Land Rover defenders so that’s what represents for us the timelessness of that iconic vehicle.

So you can see it falling right in the middle of both the comparisons.

Somebody asked me once if I look to other footwear brands for inspiration. And I said, “If I’m totally honest, no.” I’m aware. I watch what’s going on in footwear. But we don’t want to be like any other footwear brand and assimilate. If you look at our first shoe, we intentionally put out a white gum trail shoe. If you look at a shoe wall, most gum soles are usually yellow or whatever. And we chose white because we wanted it to stand out on the wall. But you have to baptize the shoe by you know, jumping in the mud with this shoe you just spent like $2,100 on [laughs]. So Willa started this tagline, which was “Just add mud.” And then people started doing this thing where it was like before and after pictures.

So you’re encouraging people to get the shoes roughed up. It’s almost the opposite of a lot of the sneaker industry, there’s a lot of focus on keeping shoes pristine, but you’re doing the opposite of that.

If someone writes to us and asks, “How do we get the shoes clean?” We’re like, “You don’t.” Every time you go out, it’s your canvas.

You can shop norda‘s new-ins on HBX now. Read the full interview on HBX Journal now.