RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION
RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION

Airia One Review

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Last Updated on January 22, 2022 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been writing shoe reviews on this blog for the past 5 years.  I’ve seen a number of shoes come and go with various claim, from comfort to even correcting running form.  But I’ve never seen a shoe claim that it will actually make me run faster…until now.  Meet the Aria One.    The Swedish born running shoe company boldly claims that runners wearing Airia shave their running times by 1-2 percent (and some of them up to 7 percent), regardless of ability or running style.

Airia One Pin

I was looking forward to finding out for myself, and graciously accepted the offer to review a pair of Airia Ones.   Except upon arrival, it turned out I was sent a pair if men’s shoes.  As luck would have it, my wonderful running partner wears the exact same size shoes as me…except in a men’s shoe (so really, not the same size at all). I  assigned Geoffrey the task of running in and reviewing the Airia One.  He got right to work running in them, though the review has come reluctantly.

Out of the box you can immediately tell that the Airia One is not your typical running sneaker.   For lack of better terms, they look like elf shoes.  If that isn’t a scientific and biomechanically astute observation, I don’t know what is.   The forefoot and toe of the shoe visibly curve upwards.

Airia One
According to Airia, the biomechanically optimized geometry of the shoe, with an unstable and irregular, sharply angled sole to help you move forward as fast as possible.  Airia One has an asymmetric design which combines a zero drop with a 6 mm drop sole.  The sole is actually thicker on the lateral side than it is on the medial side.  The design as a whole allows you to run with less ground contact time and helps to keep the power in the stride more in line with the running direction.  In short, the shoe was engineered to alter muscular usage patterns, therefore maximizing your efforts and making you faster (this all according to Airia).   I’ll be the first to admit that while I try to cover technical aspects of shoes during reviews, specific biomechanical analysis is not my specialty.  For more in depth reviews on the biomechanical claims of this shoe, please refer to this well thought out blog post from Research Running Junkie.  Also available is this video from Airia.

Airia One Biomechanics

SPECS:

  • Weight: 9.0 oz. mens / 7.7 oz women’s
  • Profile (Heel): 25.4 mm  /  25.8 mm
  • Profile (Forefoot): 18.2 mm  /  17.6 mm
  • Drop from heel to forefoot: 7.2 mm  /  8.2 mm   (source)
  • Vibram rubber sole
  • OthoLite X40 insoles
  • MSRP:  $190 (237.50 EU) – only available for purchase online through manufacturer.
Airia One 3

Review:

It is important to note that these shoes come with a warning…a whole list of warnings actually.   In addition to the obvious warnings, that Airia One alters the biomechanical running pattern and therefore may cause initial muscle soreness until you become accustomed to the shoes, you are also warned against walking in them.  That would explain Geoff’s description that the Airia One’s aren’t uncomfortable, but they aren’t comfortable either.   He compared it to putting on ski boots: when you first put them on, they are awkward, but when you are actually skiing in them, they make perfect sense.  According to Geoff, despite the initial lack of comfort…or discomfort…when running in the Airia One’s he could not feel them at all.  This of course is a good design feature.

Geoff feels there is plenty of room in the toebox, and the fit is true to size.  He tested these shoes in a number of scenarios: road running, treadmill running, and a pouring, soaking wet pavement and dirt road run.  In all situations, he never experienced any chafing, hot spots, or discomfort.  Geoff claims to supinate normally, and the shape of the Airia One’s he feels makes him pronate.  If you are following runner’s math here, Geoff feels the shoe actually helps correct is strike.

But did the Airia One’s make Geoff run faster?  The jury is still out on that one.  Geoff truly likes the shoes, and reaches for them as one of his top running picks as of late.  However, he isn’t sure that he would use them for anything longer than 5 miles due to the unnatural feel.  But increased speed?  We’re not necessarily skeptical, but without specific testing it’s a really hard thing to determine.

 

Airia One 2

The downsides:  for those concerned with the aesthetics of their running shoes, the Airia One is currently only available in one color scheme- and it’s white.  Geoff’s Aira One’s are already quite dirty, something that is so commonly hidden with a brighter color scheme.   And $190 is undoubtedly a significant  amount of money for the average runner to pay out for a pair of running sneakers, especially one that is hard to find locally, and thus be able to try on.

That said, Airia does offer a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you really want to try them out, there is essentially no risk.    You can find out more about Airia on their Facebook page or their website.  If you have any questions about the shoe Geoff or I may be able to answer, please comment below.

 

Disclosure: Airia provided us with a pair of Airia Ones at no cost, however, all opinions stated are our own.
Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS
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Heather Hart is an ACSM certified Exercise Physiologist, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), UESCA certified Ultrarunning Coach, RRCA certified Running Coach, co-founder of Hart Strength and Endurance Coaching, and creator of this site, Relentless Forward Commotion.   She is a mom of two teen boys, and has been running and racing distances of 5K to 100+ miles for over a decade.  Heather has been writing and encouraging others to find a love for fitness and movement since 2009.

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Comments

  1. Okay, gonna get all science geeky here – dorsiflexion of the big toe initiates the windlass effect of hicks, which allows your foot to turn into rigid a lever on toe off. If you’re running with your toe constantly in dorsiflexion, your foot is going to be rigid through the entire gait cycle. Which may indeed increase your running speed, but it will decrease your proprioception as well as the ability to adapt your foot to terrain changes. So if these are shoes that additionally have very little cushioning and sole extras (like most barefoot running shoes), the concern for me would be damage to the foot that is unable to adapt to different terrains.

    Has Geoff used them on trails and road stuff? I’m curious if he noticed a difference with different terrains.

    Reply

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