Arc’teryx Creates New Footwear Category With Vertex Alpine

As one might, Arc’teryx leaned on its outerwear construction expertise when designing the new Vertex Alpine upper. With a full GORE-TEX liner to seal out rain and snow, the upper is sewn from over thirty pieces and joined with the same lamination techniques found on jackets like their iconic Alpha SV alpine shell. But the big material innovation story—and what has come to define this second generation Vertex—is not the lower profile upper (which reportedly still does well at keeping debris at bay) but what anchors it, and its wearer, to the Earth.

But first let’s back up a bit. Broadly speaking, the most popular approach shoes win the hearts and minds of climbers by providing hiking boot support in a low top shape. After hiking a few (or many) miles to the base of a crag or boulder, climbers typically kick off the burly footwear in favor of their favorite grippy climbing shoes. Rethinking the approach shoe as a true lightweight alpine shoe, the Vertex Alpine’s goal was to provide capability to move through varied alpine environments with speed, and without the need for a second pair of shoes.

Consulting from their stacked roster of athletes, Arc’teryx Product Testing Specialist Adam Campbell (who is also an Arc’teryx athlete himself, of course) fed the product designer team detailed feedback from the likes of climbers Mike Gardner and Sam Hennessey, and mountain runner Janelle Smiley throughout the development of the Vertex Alpine. Working closely with these athletes, Adam bore the burden of getting out into the mountains with them to download the feedback as it occurred.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/arcteryx-vertex-alpine-design-history