Kiprun’s Kipnext Connect puts a wear sensor inside the midsole

The most consequential running shoe of 2026 may not be the lightest, fastest or most cushioned. Kiprun, Decathlon’s running brand, has unveiled the Kipnext Connect, a premium daily trainer incorporating an electromagnetic wear sensor directly into the midsole – a development that reframes what running footwear is capable of doing.

The technology comes from Movmenta, a London-based startup that developed the SOLLO sensor specifically for the project. Battery-free and weighing approximately three grams, the component is embedded across the midsole and upper. It monitors how the foam compresses in its resting state, with measurements focused on the heel – the region most runners load on impact.

Accessing the data requires no charging, no pairing and no wearable. Runners hold a smartphone over the shoe, as they would for a contactless payment, and a companion app then returns a cushioning degradation percentage: a number representing how much protective performance remains in the midsole.

Why worn-out cushioning matters more than it looks

Foam cushioning degrades long before a shoe shows outward signs of wear. Outsoles can still look intact while the midsole – the component that absorbs impact and protects joints – has already lost much of its protective capacity. Until now, runners have had no objective way to detect this, relying instead on mileage estimates or feel.

The commercial implication runs in two directions. For consumers, the data could help prevent injury by flagging degraded shoes that would otherwise pass a visual check. For retailers and brands, it introduces a structured replacement signal grounded in measured performance rather than habit or guesswork – a potentially significant shift in how product end-of-life is communicated and acted on at point of sale.

Kipnext Connect

The Kipnext Connect is a high-stack daily trainer built around a 53-millimeter rear heel stack. Its midsole uses supercritical A-TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) foam, which Kiprun says delivers 20 percent more cushioning than the Kipride Max, the brand’s previous maximum-cushion model. The shoe weighs around 265 grams in EU size 43 and has an 8-millimetre drop.

At €218 (£190 / $257), it sits in the premium segment, a step up from the value positioning Kiprun has traditionally occupied. That price puts the shoe in direct competition with leading high-stack trainers from Nike, Adidas and Hoka.

Intelligent equipment beyond footwear and a startup with ambiton

Movmenta’s SOLLO sensor debuted publicly at the Paris Marathon’s Run Experience expo, ahead of a planned retail launch at the end of 2026. The collaboration marks a significant distribution moment for the startup.

The Kipnext Connect is a footwear product, but its relevance extends across the sporting goods sector. The principle – passive, battery-free sensing integrated at the point of manufacture – could apply to any equipment subject to wear or progressive fatigue: ski boots, cycle helmets, racket frames, protective padding.

The main constraint on earlier connected-equipment efforts has been power: if a battery is required, so is a charging routine, and most consumers eventually abandon it. The Sollo sensor sidesteps that problem entirely. If the approach proves reliable at scale, it could set a template for embedding performance intelligence into gear without adding maintenance burden – a meaningful design shift for the sports shoewear sector.