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If trail running could be a brand, it would be norda. The beauty of a narrow trail opening into an alpine meadow. The pain of an uphill, snowy slog. The elation at the sight of a mountain vista. The gut-clenching realization that, 50 miles into a race, you’ve actually only just hit the halfway mark. The deep sense of accomplishment when you do cross the finish line. The absolute love and devotion—the everything—that you give to the sport. Trail running has a way of tearing us down to the bare essentials, opening us up and showing us who we are, deep inside. The same could be said of running a business—which may explain why norda’s founders, Nick and Willa Martire, are still avid trail runners themselves. And it definitely explains norda’s unique approach to what a trail shoe should be.
“Every day, it feels like we run an ultramarathon,” says Nick, sitting in the norda “bunkie” office in Quebec, nestled behind their home and near the trails. “People ask if we’re still racing, but I just say that every day here is an ultra. We do 12-hour days. My lunch break looks more like I’m running through the aid station. We spend a lot of time in the pain cave. And like an ultra, it’s all absolutely worth it.”
And like ultrarunning, once you’ve done one race (or launched one shoe), you’re hooked. You need to keep running, keep innovating, keep training, keep creating.
Norda is the shoe that you’ve seen at trail races, but weren’t sure what it was. That’s intentional: the Canadian brand purposely isn’t ostentatious with its logos, and the shoe colours tend to be muted. But once the race starts, the shoes speak for themselves. The grippiness over roots and rocks is unparalleled. The shoes allow your feet to speak to the trail, to finesse your way over obstacles—it’s not barefoot running, but it has almost the same sense of freedom, thanks to the shoe’s construction and materials.
“It’s not a technical explanation, but I feel like other shoes add cushioning that softens the ground, but norda has reversed that to soften against your foot,” says Frankfurt-based norda ambassador, trail runner and (seriously) former Olympic heptathlete Alena Pantis. “There’s just something that feels different with how they connect your foot to the ground.”
Nordas can often be spotted on podiums—but just as often are seen on the feet of mid-packers and those who are hiking more than they’re running. They’re shoes for everyone who loves to be out in nature on the trails.
Combining durability and sustainability
How do you build a trail shoe that’s long-lasting, that can stand up to any trail conditions and that grips any rocks or roots? You have to do something that no one else is doing.
“When we were living in France, we’d be high up in the mountains in Chamonix, and I’d keep talking about how we could create a better trail shoe,” says Willa. “We had the experience. We were extremely passionate about sport. And we weren’t satisfied.”
By 2017, the Canadian couple had come home to Quebec and finally had what Nick refers to as their now-or-never moment, and they went all in on creating the first norda. They saw a gap in the market, but weren’t sure exactly how to fill it. They had decades of experience in the shoe design industry, from fashion to fitness, but there was nothing on the market like what they were envisioning.
That is, until Nick discovered Bio-Dyneema–a material that was essentially bombproof, that was being used in body armour and netting, or ultralight backpacks or tents. Dyneema was the answer. The only problem was, no one was using it for shoes. Bigger brands had tried, but hadn’t been able to crack the code. Sometimes, it takes a small brand to make big things happen.
That was the challenge that Quebec native Louis-Martin Tremblay signed on for when Nick, a former work colleague, pitched the somewhat wild idea to make a shoe with the material. “The number-one priority in a trail shoe for me was durability,” he recalls. “My trail shoes would last 100 kilometres, and then rip. It just gets very frustrating, spending so much on footwear, then throwing away the shoe after a month.”
“Bio-Dyneema was perfect, but nobody was able to do what we wanted with it,” he says. But in 2020, when the pandemic shut down mass production, a lot of collections were cancelled and product manufacturers were looking for work. Finally, a small production team was able to dedicate time to figuring out how to create a malleable shoe upper out of layers of carefully cut Bio-Dyneema, lasered together. “It took sample after sample to figure out how to do it—and that was before we even got to testing mode, where there was a shoe that someone could actually wear!” Tremblay recalls.
“There were some shoes that would use it for stitching, but no one made an upper with it,” adds Nick. “It took us two years to figure out how to weave Bio-Dyneema into a shoe so that it was malleable and flexible. Then, we wanted to make our shoe as light and seamless as possible. Inside the shoes, there are no seams, which means there are no weak points or friction. But Dyneema cannot be cut. It has to be lasered together and heated. Essentially, it was an origami experiment.”
Even the sole was reimagined; the goal was to have a shoe that would grip any trail obstacle, but wouldn’t immediately begin to wear down. That meant a different tread pattern and grip. Enter Vibram’s MegaGrip, combined with their LiteBase to give traction without heavy weight.
“The summer after we started working on the project, I was walking by the side of the St. Lawrence River, and I could see all these tracks across the Canadian Shield rocks,” recalls Tremblay. “I was walking barefoot, and I realized that the rock itself had a lot of traction. I was working on designing the lugs of the shoes at the time, and I came home and redesigned them to add lines going across, acting as secondary, smaller lugs. That way if the major lugs are not holding onto the rocks, the smaller lines could catch on. No one was doing anything like that, but it worked to give a huge amount of traction, whether it was muddy, rooty, rocky or icy.”
“No one else was using MegaGrip at the time,” recalls Canadian adventurer Ray Zahab, who signed on as one of norda’s earliest athletes, advocates and shoe testers. He’s since become norda’s most trusted adviser. Zahab has tested every iteration of the shoes, offering feedback before the shoe hits the market, and also partners with norda on special colours of the norda 001 trail shoe—known as the RZ edition—to support his impossible2possible charity.
“Everything about their shoe was different, but it worked,” Zahab says. “When I got the first pair of shoes, I immediately noticed the grip and traction, the smoothness of the upper with the Bio-Dyneema, and the anatomical foot shape of the shoe. I thought it was brilliant, the way they used their years of shoe design to create a shoe that actually worked on every level. They didn’t just say, ‘let’s use this colour, because it’s really cool looking, and we’ll slap this rubber on it, and maybe it’ll be grippy, but it sure looks freaking hot.’ They made it very functional, and they made it look really cool at the same time.”
The foot shape was key. “We have a wider fit compared to other trail shoes,” says Tremblay. “That empty space allows your metatarsal to really be active. And especially on a very long run, your foot is going to swell. It’s going to need that space. The foot needs to express itself. But it also needs to feel stable, so we honed the lace lock system so the foot would be held in place where it’s less active, but able to move more in the front.”
Beyond the technical aspects of the shoe, aesthetics did play a role in the design process. A glance at the shoe wall in Nick and Willa’s office offers a sense of peace, rather than an urge to put on sunglasses. There are no neon colours here—it’s a sea of calm, with simple colors that can seamlessly be used for season after season without feeling dated. The logo is small. The colors are muted. It’s the ultimate in subtlety, which may explain why it’s become as much a fashion statement as it has a well-known shoe for its on-trail performance.
“Design has always been part of my life,” says Tremblay. “When the Martires came to me, they said they wanted a shoe that was tasteful, that didn’t necessarily look sporty on a daily basis. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. There are enough sporty shoes on the market—to create something completely different was a challenge. I wanted runners to understand that it’s a running shoe, but it doesn’t have to scream, ‘I’m going racing!’”
Shoes designed with the Canadian runner in mind
A typical shoe brand would launch dozens of iterations of its models on a yearly basis, regularly changing up colours, fit and materials. Remember the last time you ordered the new version of your favourite sneaker, only to find that it was completely different? Norda refuses to do that—and they are well aware that their approach of creating footwear that lasts for years while still offering high performance isn’t the best profit-maker. But norda is a value-driven company, and if their shoes last people for several seasons rather than one, they’re OK with that.
Norda began with a basic trail shoe, the 001. From the 001, the line has developed—but with a capsule approach to a shoe wardrobe. The 002 was a nod to runners who prefer more connection to the ground, Tremblay says.
Zahab says, “Most of the deserts that I’ve crossed, I run in my shoes without socks. In Death Valley this summer, I wore a brand new pair of norda 002, out of the box. I crossed 170 kilometres in 53 hours of the worst terrain on Earth, in world record temperatures, and there wasn’t a hint of a blister on my feet.”
Because the brand is based in Canada, it stands to reason that the next challenge they’d focus on would be creating the perfect winter running shoe. So, the G+ Spike model came next, with its thermo-regulating graphene membrane with carbide ice spikes built into the sole, speaking to the winter runners who brave snowdrifts and icy trails to log miles.
“I was looking for shoes to run in snow when I found norda,” says Pantis. “I loved the design of the G+ Spike nordas. I loved the colour. I loved the idea of just putting on a shoe and not having crampons. I ordered a pair, and it was love at first step. I had a great winter of running in the snow, never worrying that I might slip and fall or anything, just enjoying going out in the dark and making it to the top of a climb to see the sunrise.”
Norda also added a slip-on model that, at first glance, doesn’t seem like part of a capsule collection of essential footwear. But it’s actually become one of their most popular shoes, because it’s perfect for casual hikes and rambles, post-race walkabouts and easy dog walks. It turns out most norda runners aren’t just runners, they’re movers.
In fact, the shoes are so durable that when their “665 athletes”—the brand’s elite trail team—were asking for a race-day shoe akin to the super shoes hitting the market for other brands, norda refused to comply. Instead, they created the Race Days shoe, the 005, coming in early 2025. Rather than being designed as single-use, it’s lighter and speedier than their other shoes, but can last through at least a few race days—on any terrain. “It has so much traction,” Nick Martire enthuses. “It almost feels like it has suction cups on it if you’re walking indoors. It’s a super sticky rubber, but it’s also extremely light. We were able to remove half the lugs because the material itself has so much grip.”
Building the norda fam
Trail running is a community–a family. Whether you’re at a local group run or race, or you’re at one of the biggest races in the world, you feel like you’re part of something. And that’s what norda has created with their athletes and ambassadors, a rich tapestry of runners who span from global adventurers like Zahab to well-known ultrarunners like Jenny Quilty to those who simply exemplify a deep passion for the sport, like Pantis.
“We always wanted to prioritize athletes who had the same values as we did at norda,” says Willa. “Where most brands are just about winning, we wanted to cultivate a team where there’s a wide range of types of athletes, but they all support each other on equal terms.”
As Nick says, norda’s tendency has always been to zig when other brands zag. They look less at the numbers and more at the people who are wearing their shoes: What do they need? Who do they want to be on the trails?
Quilty has been racing ultras for a decade, and coaching for the last couple of years as the passion for trails consumed her life. She found norda while racing Ultra Harricana in Quebec. She wasn’t looking for new shoes, but noticed that quite a few of the runners around her in the race were wearing shoes that looked just a little different, though she couldn’t see any obvious logo. At a post-race dinner with some athletes, she realized there were several pairs left outside the door, and she looked closer. Norda.
Pantis’s journey from heptathlon to hundred-milers wasn’t smooth. “Heptathlon is all about speed and explosive power and jumping and throwing stuff… So, nothing like running!” she says. A torn Achilles tendon put a stop to her Olympic dreams in 2008 and forced her into early retirement. But after a nearly decade-long gap of less-than-healthy living, Pantis found herself longing to move. “I was not happy with myself, and I started jogging,” she recalls. “It escalated, and four years later, now I’m running 100 miles. I hated it at first, especially the trails, because I couldn’t go fast. But one day, I was on a trail run and I reached a height where the clouds had dissipated and the sun was breaking through the mist, and there was this beautiful light. And I thought, OK, probably this is why people love being on the trails. That moment that felt so magical–connecting with nature and seeing that light changed me.”
That same winter, she bought her first pair of nordas to keep that feeling alive. Willa spotted her on Instagram when she began tagging the brand, and messaged her. Pantis became one of the first members of the extended norda fam. “Having that connection with other people felt amazing,” Pantis says. “Generally, I run alone. I do a lot of things alone. But just being seen by someone who is across the world and reaching out to connect, that was really special.”
When Pantis raced her first hundred-miler this summer, it didn’t go according to plan. “I had the worst day I’ve ever had, in all the races that I’ve done,” she says. “I’ve never felt so bad, and I’ve never had so many things go wrong. But in the end, it was also the most beautiful day I’ve ever had.”
“It took me 44 hours to get to the finish line, which was a lot more than I thought it would take, and I was in shambles until about 2 km from the finish line,” she recalls. “I hadn’t slept for 50 hours or so, but I was so happy, and I was so thrilled to have met this person that lived somewhere inside myself, who could do this thing despite everything going wrong and nothing being the way I had dreamt of it being. In retrospect, it was exactly the day that I was hoping for.”
It’s worth mentioning that while she experienced crashes, gut distress, chafing and every other issue an ultrarunner typically goes through, the one problem she never had was blisters. “Everything else was banged up, but my feet weren’t,” she says. “I had put on the shoes at the start line, and I never even redid the shoelaces for the whole 44 hours. I never had to worry about my feet in my nordas, despite taking 230,000 steps.”
But more than just being shoes, norda truly is a family—when Pantis crossed the finish line, Nick was there. Her coach and fellow norda athlete, Quilty, was on the phone. “There’s something special about knowing the founders of the company are the ones tracking me on the livestream when I race, and not just because they want to see me do well, but because they care how I’m doing,” Pantis says. “They’re the first to message me whether I’ve had a good or bad day. That’s the top-down approach of norda. It’s not this mass marketing strategy, it’s actually a family. I feel like we’re all rooting for each other and want to help each other in this sport.”
Zahab concurs. “When I first met the Martires, I instantly thought, I could be friends with these people,” he says. “At my age, I’ve learned to trust when I instantly connect with someone, when there’s an automatic synergy.”
Trail running teaches us more lessons in the hard moments than it does on a great race day—and it makes us better people. Zahab’s impossible2possible brings young people on epic adventures at no cost; but that takes money. That’s why five per cent of sales from the RZ editions of nordas go towards supporting the charity.
“That’s at the heart of norda,” says Willa. “We also support Nordiq Canada, which is the cross-country national ski team. We don’t talk about it much, the same way we don’t put our logos in huge letters on the shoes. We don’t talk much about the number of women we work with, from athletes to the women who run the factory where the shoes are made.
“Our mantra at norda is ‘Show me, don’t tell me,’” she adds. “Just show the world what you’re doing.”
This story is presented by norda.
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