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UK Gear’s training shoes were originally designed in association with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC). These elite fitness professionals were closely involved in the development and tested our products in some of the most inhospitable conditions on Earth. Only when approved by the Military do we consider our products... Built to survive.

PT-1000 - Impressive Performance! Philip Spiers

>>11 November 2011

Day 1: 47 miles run
Day 2: 39 miles run

Hi UK Gear,

I first heard about UK Gear shoes several years ago from my brother who was serving in the British Army. He used to rave about his UK Gear shoes that he used for physical training (PT). Last year, I heard rumours about a running shoe that could 'last for a thousand miles' in the ULTRA community, at events and in forums. When I checked the claim out on-line, I saw that the shoe was in fact UK Gear's PT-1000. I decided to purchase a pair, and have never looked back!

Since I purchased the shoes, I have used the them on numerous occasions, on varying length runs over different terrains and conditions and have been pleased with the performance.

I recently signed up for the ULTRA race John O'Groats to Land End (JOGLE) tester weekend, and took my trusty PT-1000 running shoes along with me.

The weekend of the JOGLE Tester run however, was the longest single run that I had done in the shoes. This was going to be a test not only on how well I performed, but on how well the shoes performed running on road and pavement only.

Day-1 started at 7am and due to the nature of the training weekend I was looking to cover the 47 miles in around 10-11 hours, as ultimately this would be the kind of pace I would be setting in the first few days on the JOGLE.

The shoes performed very well on day-1 with no issues at all! They performed exactly how I wanted them to. I was worried that the slight rigidity of the shoe and the hardness of the sole would give me some soreness on the bottom of my feet, but they were perfectly fine.

On Day-2 I had toyed with using a different pair of running shoes to avoid compounding any potential issues that I might have picked up on day-1. However, as I had no issues I opted to use the PT-1000’s again.

The first 20 or so miles I had no issues, and the shoes performed exactly how I expected them to.

Over the next 19 miles or so my lack of endurance training began to show. My running gait altered considerably to more of an 'Ultra shuffle'. I am very familiar with this running stance but normally after around 100 miles into a long ultra.

The problem I found with this type of running shuffle is that you only pick your feet up enough to avoid scraping the road surface. This style however does kick up any loose bits of fine gravel, this inevitably finds its way into the shoe. I found myself having to stop every few miles or so to tip out this loose debris.

Obviously this is not a design flaw with the shoes as such but a lack of my endurance fitness. However I am slightly concerned that after a few days on the JOGLE this running style will be fairly normal, I think I am going to need to find some gaiters which will fit the shoes to avoid this.

On completion of day-2 I assessed my feet and found that I had no blisters and more importantly no potential areas of break down. This had always been my worry with consecutive days using the same shoes.

Overall I was very impressed with the way the shoe performed over the weekend. The tester weekend was the longest 2-days I have ran this year, purely on road - so I was expecting some kind of foot damage but I did not have any. The only issue I had was a sore left ankle which went after a days rest. I put this down to my running stance and not the shoes.