ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mitch Lenett has been in the shoe business all of his life.
But as the pendulum swung in recent years from minimalist, barefoot-style shoes to the extreme of running with plenty of cushion, Lenett found an interest in one company putting its focus where he says others have not.
“I was in Montreal for something else and I was looking at some of the brands and I stumbled upon a company called Unify Brands out of the UK,” Lenett said.
“Right away I connected with this guy and became friends with him. And he says to me, ‘Have you heard of this new running brand True Motion?’ And I said, ‘No. Tell me about it.’”
Those five words have positioned Lenett in a space where he has an abiding faith in the innovation of True Motion — a German-engineered running shoe he’s bringing to market for the first time in North America through his Allentown-area startup Blue Note Brands.
That’s the short version of how Lenett ended up as the latest player in a global running shoe market projected to see healthy annual growth for the foreseeable future.
But the longer version of the story is worth telling, especially as True Motion shoes roll out to the Lehigh Valley and onto the feet of the region’s running enthusiasts and beyond.
‘They’re correcting, where we’re eliminating’
If anyone could see the potential in a running shoe that promises to reinvent the wheel, it’s Lenett, whose parents owned The Athlete’s Foot at the Lehigh Valley Mall when he was a kid.
“I grew up doing this. I worked for Nike, and I’ve been in the business for a long time,” Lenett said.
When it comes to running shoes, he understands that brands such as Nike, Brooks, Saucony and Hoka will get the lion’s share of the attention.
But he also believes True Motion is “a brand and a shoe that impacts and makes a difference. And it's not like anything else.”
Behind True Motion is a biomechanical innovation and concept called U-TECH, a horseshoe shaped cushioning material designed to center the point-of-force for runners under the mid-axis of the foot, reducing load and improving alignment compared to other leading brands.
That means providing a pain-free experience during the run, and reducing the risk of injuries up to 50%.
It’s not just a talking point, Lenett said. There’s data to back it up.
“They did this study called the Run Better Project, where they brought in between 1,700 and 1,800 runners in Germany," he said.
"And it was a year-long study where they asked people to use the shoe of their choice — didn’t matter what it was — run in that shoe for the first portion and then run in our shoes.
"There were all these great shoes and no one had figured it out."Mitch Lenett
"And they gathered the data and they were stunned at what they found.
“Only U-TECH, only the True Motion shoes reduced injuries consistently across the board by up to 50 percent. Up to 50 percent fewer injuries, because they were looking at this data and they’re like, ‘The rate of injury for runners is almost exactly the same as it was in the '80s.’
“There were all these great shoes and no one had figured it out. They put posts in to stop pronation, supination and, you know, stabilize. So they're fixing, and they're correcting where we're eliminating."
He said that what that does is "upon heel strike, locking it in, the mantra is 'center your run,' so everything is centered once your heel is locked in.
"This centers immediately and drives the force directly through the knee. The knee was meant and built to withstand force. That's the way it was supposed to be. Right?
"Once your heel is locked in, it goes down slowly, almost like like a like an elevator. So it reduces the force."
‘A match made in heaven’
Lenett’s pitch to True Motion to become an exclusive distributor put the cart before the horse, so to speak, in that Blue Note Brands had yet to be formed when talks began.
“How it started was I called my other partners," Lennett said.
"One is David Edge, a two-time Olympic marathon runner for Canada. He’s a bit of a running legend in Canada. And he said, ‘This is amazing.’”
Dr. Adam Teichman, who is affiliated with St. Luke’s University Health Network and specializes in podiatry, also was on board as co-founder and chief executive officer/medical director.
And Miles Olson came in as vice president of sales, leveraging an extensive 30-year career in the distribution industry.
“All of us were immediately all in, and one thing led to the next and we got distributorship," Lenett said. "And you know, we didn’t really even have a company at that point.
“We’re on a Zoom call and they’re like, ‘Huh. On one hand, you guys don’t really even have a company.’
"And I said, ‘True. I’m not gonna lie to you, but we’re in the process of forming one.’
"And one of the owners said, ‘But you know, we love that.’
What True Motion loved was the formation of a dynamic startup with an in-house medical director, not to mention the collective experience of everyone involved.
Lennett said, “They said, ‘We love that you’re going to focus on us. So it was really like a match made in heaven.”
‘This just feels right’
“Hi USA, True Motion has landed,” the company announced recently on its social media platforms.
“In cooperation with our partner Blue Note Brands, we launched our award-winning running shoes in the US this spring. Our first retailer: Keystone Running Store in Allentown (1042 Mill Creek Rd, Lower Macungie) — and that's just the very beginning.”
Chris Schmidt, Keystone’s vice president of operations, said he had 42 pairs of True Motion shoes in an initial shipment at the beginning of March and the Lehigh Valley’s running community took notice.
“By the beginning of April we were pretty much out, and we were expecting another shipment beginning-to-mid May and it’s been pushed back a little bit, so we’re hoping within the next two weeks we get more,” he said Tuesday.
"By the beginning of April we were pretty much out."Keystone Running Store's Chris Schmidt on the initial sale of True Motion shoes
Schmidt, who has been in the business about 40 years, described True Motion shoes as having “some decent cushioning, they offer the right amount of stability as you're coming down, but aren’t too soft. They give back.”
From his perspective, the engineering of the shoe hits on a number of key points.
“When you come down on them, you feel like you’re making a connection with the ground and it’s working with you as opposed to against you," he said.
"So I think it becomes more efficient, and there’s three ways to take stress off our body.
“One is the absorption and the cushioning, two is to support the foot internally and three is to make that efficient. If we can get you from A to B as efficiently as possible, it’s going to go a long way in making the foot very happy.
“I think this shoe does all three things for you. It gives you a cushion ride without being too soft. It supports the foot from heel to toe and, by its technologies, helps to keep you in the right position.”
For Schmidt, it’s the first time he can recall a brand not only launching into North America through the Lehigh Valley, but his store being the very first point of sale.
That means he gets to see the first impression and the first time people slip them on, which is crucial.
“The first reaction is that people have been running in them, people have been standing in them and people have been walking in them," he said.
"And we’re hearing things like, “The fit is nice, that feels good. And they're very responsive shoes.
“When I put them on I thought, ‘Man, this just feels right.'”
