Come Test Run Altra IQ™ Smart Shoe at CES 2016

Altra IQ powered by iFit smart shoe featuring flexible electronics
is available for demo at iFit Booth #73914 in Sands Expo Center

LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Altra IQ™ powered by iFit, a smart shoe for runners, is
available to demo at iFit, located at booth #73914 in Sands Expo
Center, known as Tech West.

Altra IQ powered by iFit is a smart running shoe that acts as
your personal stride coach, giving you real-time feedback during your
run. A razor-thin, multi-sensor system embedded the full length of the
midsole in each shoe tracks a range of running intelligence, such as
foot strike zone. Altra IQ shoes transmit data to an iFit app or iFit
tracker watch with BLE, which provides individual analysis and real-time
coaching on the run.

“For too long, ‘How far?’ and ‘How fast?’ have been the
only two metrics used to analyze your run,” said Altra’s VP of Sales,
co-founder and ultra runner Brian Beckstead. “Altra IQ gathers
intelligence on a full range of running biomechanics. For example,
you’ll learn right away – during your run – if you are landing harder on
one foot, which could easily turn out to be the reason your knee hurts.
Then with individual data collected from your running form, Altra
provides personal critiques, just like a coach, to improve your run,
every time you run.”

Altra founder Golden Harper said many running injuries can be prevented
by learning efficient, low impact running form.

“However, it’s really, really hard to analyze running form on yourself,”
Harper said. “This shoe is designed to help new runners avoid poor
technique and make experienced runners more efficient when pounding the
pavement. Much of this impact can be avoided with the elements of proper
running technique, like high cadence and a soft landing. Intelligence is
power, and Altra IQ can help like nothing else.”

The iFit Ridge watch and iFit app screen will show each of the various
metrics collected. Individual recommendations for improving running form
will be both visible and audible via your smartphone and visible on your
iFit GPS watch, sold separately. Runners can also collect the data
without any carrying a phone or watch during the run – the shoes
actually store the data. A select team of running experts, coaches and
exercise physiologists created the analytics and feedback suggestions.

A few devices in the market measure a few of these metrics, said Harper.

“However, nobody has something that will tell runners ‘You are
over-striding. Try pumping your elbows back and not letting them swing
forward past your hips,’” Harper said, as an example. “The Altra IQ
shoes are a running coach in a shoe: observing running form, analyzing
and suggesting real-time corrections to help the runner dial in their
form as they run.”

How it works: Altra IQ uses a
flexible multi-sensor system and BLE transmitter embedded in a hollowed
out groove of both the left and right shoes, for maximum accuracy. The
technology doesn’t alter the feel of the foot bed – it’s designed to be
invisible and totally imperceptible by the runner.

The Altra IQ smart shoe provides running form intelligence hosted at
iFit.com:

• Running cadence (with a target of 172-180 foot strikes per minute)
• Ground contact time
• Foot strike zone (heel vs. midfoot vs. forefoot)
• Left foot vs. right foot favoring (ground force calculation)
• Foot-specific pressure
• Pace
• Time
• Date
• Distance
• Splits

The Altra IQ shoe powered by iFit is built on the same last as
Altra’s new Impulse shoe.

Product highlights include:

• 360-degree reflectivity from the “circuit board” design welded into
  the upper
• Multi-sensor/transmitter/battery packet weighs less than half an ounce
  and is powered by replaceable CR2032 coin cell batteries, common in
  heart rate monitors and car key fobs. The batteries are dormant when
  the shoe is not in motion, to maximize battery life.
• The durability of the flexible electronics packet has been tested in
  an ISO
  9000-rated laboratory and is rated for 1 million+ cycles of
  bending, or about 600 miles.
• Designed and built for rain, puddles and normal outdoor running
• Lightweight at 8.6 ounces/243 grams
• Altra’s signature FootShape™ toebox, which allows toes to relax and
  splay naturally with each footfall and toe-off
• Altra’s groundbreaking Zero Drop™ sole, with balanced, level
  cushioning at the heel and forefoot
• Altra’s guaranteed replacement if the sensor system fails before the
  life of the shoe
• MSRP of $199.99
• Available Spring 2016 at specialty running shoe retailers and
  AltraRunning.com

“A tracker can’t do this. An insole can’t do this,” Beckstead continued.
“The new Altra IQ smart running shoe is the very first of its kind in
the world.”

Altra® Footwear and iFit® technology are registered trademarks of ICON
Health & Fitness, the world’s leading health & fitness innovator, based
in Logan, Utah.

Follow @iFit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
Follow
@AltraRunning on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and #EmbraceTheSpace
and #ZeroLimits.

Contacts

ICON Health & Fitness
Colleen Logan, 435-757-4601
VP
Marketing
clogan@iconfitness.com