A few seasons ago I took an inspiration trip to Amsterdam. I was excited just to be in the city. The people, the museums and the ar-Chetecture.  I knew that I had a new hiking project coming my way. No brief yet just a hole in the line to be filled and a potential opportunity to capture a bit more market share in this area.

I happened upon a sporting goods store that specialized in cycling, in-line skate and speed skating. I found out that speed skating Is something of a pastime in the netherlands and that the Amsterdam locals skate on the frozen canals during the winter.

After looking at the apparent speed of the speed skates with their riduculously long blades I had an idea. Why not fuse the esen-Tial elements of alpine hiking and speed skating into something different yet still individually dentifiable.

I'm inspired by automotive design. The bmw z4 has creases and cuts very fast looking yet stable. This was the basis for the outsole design of my hybrid hiker.