norda™, a young and innovative Canadian brand of running shoes, introduced the first seamless trail running shoe made from bio-based Dyneema® fiber. There are no plans for this new brand to move into road running in the near future.
Norda is the brainchild of Willamina and Nick Martire from the Eastern Townships near Montréal, Québec. Both are footwear industry veterans and avid trail and endurance runners. Nick ran Elan Polo’s European business from 2000-2008 and worked for Aldo Group for eight years in 2010 before taking over responsibility for La Canadienne in 2019 after a scant year as president International at Authentic Brands Group. Since 2017, he is also president of Oak House, a private company that builds global footwear and apparel brands from initial design concept to global omnichannel strategy. His wife Willamina founded her own footwear company, Pretty Ballerinas, in 2009 and ran it until 2015.
With a desire to create the ultimate technical trail running shoe, the Martires began in 2020 to take advantage of the constraints and career changes brought on by the early Covid pandemic to host Zoom meetings with athletes, developers and materials specialists from around the world and tap into their global footwear network to define what was possible. Louis Martin Tremblay, head of design, and Gerard Cleal, creative director, joined as partners. The four began developing the first norda prototypes using some of the most advanced materials available.
The result is the brand’s flagship shoe, the norda™001, which uses bio-based Dyneema fiber to create a seamlessly constructed shoe upper. Dyneema, developed by Royal DSM, a global science company for nutrition, health and sustainable living founded in 1902 and listed on Euronext Amsterdam, is engineered at the molecular level to provide high strength, lightweight, waterproofing and breathability. In addition to the increased foot stability and comfort of the upper, Dyneema fibers are also used to increase abrasion resistance and stretch in the laces - providing four times the strength of standard lace materials such as nylon and polyester, DSM claims.
Royal DSM, which says it is committed to protecting people and the environment, explains that its bio-based Dyneema performs exactly the same as conventional Dyneema, with a carbon footprint 90 percent lower than conventional HMPE (high-performance polyethylene). DSM’s bio-based Dyneema fiber is made from renewable, bio-based feedstock. It uses the mass balance approach to further reduce dependence on fossil fuels while contributing to a circular economy.
At DSM, meanwhile, efforts continue to accelerate a circular economy for materials and one day close the loop completely. The company just announced a collaboration to produce Dyneema on a recycled basis. In a joint pilot project with several CirculariTeam® members (led by DSM and SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry), the production and use of Dyneema using mixed plastic waste as feedstock (via a mass balance approach) will be successfully demonstrated, DSM said.
