British trail running brand Inov-8 is a small company with less than 100 employees in total. Headquartered in the town of Staveley in the Lake District, a sacred place for trail running, in other words, a small company in the English countryside. Such a company was the first in the world to develop an out-sole using Graphene, and has been selling it since 2018. It is a material that Inov-8 uses for the out-sole of shoes under the name of G-Grip, but by mixing Graphene and rubber material, it is more flexible and stretchable than conventional rubber, and it has excellent strength and durability.At present, no other company has released similar materials using Graphene. This is the Inov-8 patent pending technology.. I would like to tell you the background why such a small company in the English countryside was able to develop the world’s first out-sole material using Graphene.
I myself was not involved in the development of this product. I was in the position of listening to the story when Inov-8 members were developing it. To be honest, when I first heard about the development, I was wondering what this small company was saying crazy, but after the announcement, the reaction of top athletes and market evaluation was amazing.
Secret behind Inov-8’s innovation
Inov-8 was founded in 2003. The company was founded by Zimbabwe-born Wayne Edy who was in his late thirties at the time, and started with a small office in a warehouse. The founding members who still remain are mainly young people who have just graduated university. Young guys who loves running run aimed for shoes suitable for trail running in the mountains. They aimed to develop a super light shoe which has strong grips so that it does not slip on not only muddy slopes but also wet rocks.
The first Inov-8 product, Mudroc 290, showed surprising results. A New Zealand female runner, Melissa Moon, wearing these shoes, won 2003 World Mountain Running Trophy in Alaska. From the first year of its founding, it has been strongly supported by many top trail running athletes due to its light weight and high grip. They also received the 2003 Product of the Year Award from Runners World.
Inov-8 expanded its product line after their first success. In the world of trail running, they quickly became popular, but there were three major reasons for their success.
1. They themselves knew all about trail running.
2. Having a very close communication path with the top trail running athletes.
3. The development and test cycle was overwhelmingly fast.
The Mudroc290 used “sticky rubber” which was much softer and had a stronger grip than those normally used for shoes at the time. Members who do trail running knew what is important for trail running and challenged new materials with the aim of making shoes that are the best for trail running that shoes at the time did not have. They conducted various developments and tests on the softness of the material, the shape of the out-sole, etc.. They conducted development and test cycle very quickly time not only their own tests but also getting the opinions of the top runners, and finally they developed world first sticky grip shoes for trail running.
The culture of Inov-8 remains strong even 17 years after its founding. The picture of the entrance of this company is what I use to explain what kind of company the Inov-8 company is, and it shows the atmosphere of this company well.
Inov-8, a sacred place for trail running in the Lake District, is still a vibrant company with many young members. Many of the employees commute to the company by running or cycling, and they run more than 10 km on the back mountain during their lunch break before finishing their meals. Since it is a lake region with a lot of rain, they often run on muddy mountain roads, but even if it rains they enjoy running in the mountains without worrying at all, so muddy shoes are always rolling at the entrance.
Because of such employees, as soon as new shoes are developed, testing by employees begins. At the same time, testing by the top runners living in the neighborhood also started very quickly.
The success of Mudroc 290 was that young employees, who love to run, aim to develop products that they also want, had managed development and testing cycle very quickly. The corporate culture is still alive, and it must have been one of the major factors that led to the development of innovative products using Graphene.
The Lake District, where Inov-8 is located, is simply called a trail running sanctuary and is home to many trail running top athletes. Even during the year I was at Inov-8, I was able to see frequent occasions when such top athletes came to the office frequently to exchange ideas about new test shoes.
What is Graphene?
Before I start talking about Graphene development by Inov-8, let’s take a brief look at Graphene.
Graphene was discovered in 2004 by two scientist at the University of Manchester, Dr. Andre Geim and Dr. Konstantin Novoselv.
Graphene was taken out from the graphite used for the pencil lead, but it is “world’s strongest and lightest material known to man”, which is 200 times stronger then steel. It is a dream material that also said to have the highest electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity at room temperature among the currently known substances.
The two scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, six years after their discovery, for their “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material Graphene”. It is said that it is usually about 20 years after the actual discovery that the Nobel Prize is won. The fact that it was awarded just 6 years after its discovery demonstrates the potential of this material as a true dream material.
And as a center of Graphene research and development, the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute (NGI) opened with a total fund of 61 million euros funded by the British government and the EU. At a research facility of 7825 square meters and 5 floors, the aim is not basic research but research aimed at actual industrialization. They opened 2015 and more than 300 researchers are here to doing research and development every day.
I was really amazed when I saw this National Graphene Institute in 2017. Now there is much bigger building – Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC). The potential of Graphene is truly endless.
Why could Inov-8 start material development using Graphene?
Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, who had researched Graphene with excellent staff at the National Graphene Institute, discovered that the properties of rubber changed significantly when Graphene was added to the rubber material. Inov-8 saw his research paper, and immediately proposed joint development.
In the UK there is a government program called Knowledge Transfer Partnership aimed at transferring knowledge and technology to UK companies. If projects approved, a part of the development costs will be supported by the UK government, and UK companies will be able to conduct research using university research facilities. The Inov-8 and the University of Manchester projects were approved as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, so under the guidance of Dr. Aravind, a dedicated developer for Inov-8 started research and development by using the state-of-the-art facility at the National Graphene Institute. With the cooperation of the University of Manchester, Inov-8 started joint project to develop new material using Graphene.
The role played by the Inov-8 in this joint development was to manage development and test cycle very quickly, which is similar to waht they have done for their first model Mudroc 290. They created more than 300 prototypes with outsoles made from more than 50 different formulations. With the cooperation of 45 top athletes, a total of over 8,000 km of tests run were carried out. The speed of development and test cycle was amazing, and result is also amazing.
It’s a test shoe used by British trail-running top athlete Ben Mounsey after wearing the shoe in 15 races in eight countries over seven months. It is generally said that running shoes will need to be replaced from 500km to 1000km, but after running 226 total runs, 1807km of all weather conditions on all types of train, this shoe still have enough grip..
In case of trail running, you normally needs to replace shoe much faster than road running because of tough train condition, but Ben ran through the tournament for seven months with this pair of prototype shoes. Ben described this shoe as “having more grip than any other shoe to date” and even after 1800 km of running it has sufficient grip.
The Inov-8 has improved its maturity as a product through thorough prototyping and testing, and released the first three models in 2018. As a result of its high market reputation, Inov-8 has expanded its line of Graphene shoes, and now there are 15 models with this Graphene out-sole.
Inov-8 promote this Graphene out-sole “G-Grip” to claim the World Toughest Grip – 50% stronger, 50% more elastic and 50% more harder wearing. However, given the test results and high reputation from top athletes, it seems that this appeal is a rather modest one.When you actually touch G-Grip, you can immediately see that it has high grip due to its softness.
Another Graphene developments
G-Grip is not the only product development using Graphene conducted by Inov-8.
The F-Lite G300 released at the end of 2019 as an all-round training model use Graphene enhanced material not only G-Grip used as an out-sole, but also “Graphene Infused Lifting Stabilizer” used for the heel part of mid-sole. hanks to Graphene, this mid-sole is strong enough for stable weightlifting training, yet light enough for cardio training.
In addition, the running shoe GENTEN released by Descente at the end of last year also uses an outsole developed by Inov-8 and using tuned Graphene for road running.
A joint development project between Inov-8 and the University of Manchester is ongoing. With the cooperation of the state-of-the-art research facility at the University of Manchester and world-class knowledge about Graphene, Inov-8 can continue new Graphene enhanced material development. I look forward to the launch of new shoes that are more comfortable and unique new Graphene enhanced materials in the future.
How was the story about Graphene? When I heard about the development of Graphene enhanced out-sole, I didn’t know anything about Graphene, but I was so surprised when I visit the University of Manchester. After seeing a reaction from the market, I was very sure that this products will be a super hero product for Inov-8.
I tried to tell you as accurately as possible about the Graphene product development story, since Inov-8 members put their heart and soul into this project.
If you have any questions or comments, please comment.
Thank you for reading this blog.