Review of the NNormal Tomir Trail running shoes
A long overdue review, after 7 months!
Encountering NNormal
I discovered NNormal relatively early - pretty much when the brand launched.
I liked its philosophy "Your Trace, No Path", i.e. aiming at being responsible
and decreasing its footprint.
This is summed up on this page:
- Durability: products made to last
- Circularity: reuse/repair/recycle
- Carbon Neutral: NNormal shares the carbon emissions for each of its products
- Transparency
The brand got founded by Kilian Jornet who teamed up with Camper, with the name being a play on words: designed in Mallorca and tested in Norway - hence Nor-Mal.
NNormal Community
One thing that NNormal did differently is betting on the power of its community, and very early they launched a Telegram channel, which I joined, and which as I write this article, counts around 4.000 members.
Folks exchange about various topics, motivating other runners on their training and upcoming races, giving advices etc.
I even managed to meet Mathieu, who's part of the community, during the Trail
de Saint Jacques by
UTMB!
And I know that some members of the community will also be running the Nice
UTMB trail like me, at the end of September.
Buying the Tomir
As I briefly mentioned in a previous article (in French), I wasn't especially planning on buying NNormal shoes anytime soon, as I just bought 2 pairs of Altra (Mont Blanc BOA and Olympus), so I had 3 pairs of trail running shoes (if you add the Salomon Ultra Glide).
But when in a sports store in Chamonix, looking for some Merinos gear (which they were in fact not a reseller of), I stumbled upon a NNormal corner, and of course had to test!
Specifications
Nnormal being a young brand, they have only 2 models:
- the Tomir, which is more a "do it all" and adapted to all terrains
- the Kjerag, which is meant to be for performance/races.
I chose the Tomir and here are quick specifications:
- the outsole is made of Vibram Megagrip and Vibram Litebase
- in terms of weight, they're in the average range, i.e. not super light, but not heavy either - 298 grams in EU size 42
Look
I chose the purple model, and they really look good - see by yourself:
What I like is the lacing, which is not straight but follows your foot, making
your feel more comfortable.
Also, the tongue has a kind of notch so your foot positions ifself naturally.
Fun Fact
I realised while looking for specifications that I bought the waterproof version of Tomir, not the "default one" - I can't say I really tested them, but thought it was fun to mention :-)
TEST!
Wrong size
When I tested the Tomir, they only had a French 46 size, which is the same as
what I'm using with Altra, but it felt a bit too large. Sadly, they didn't have
the size just below, but rather the one after (which must be 44 2/3 I believe), and
would have been too small.
So I decided to stick to 46, after having done a few tests walking/jogging
inside the store.
I bought those shoes in December, and I'm writing this article in August, so have now enough runs to give my feelings: 46 is definitely too big. This doesn't mean I cannot run with those shoes, but the comfort level is not on par with my other running shoes. And looking at other runners' feedback on the NNormal Community Telegram channel, I'm pretty sure the Tomir does good - it's just that because mine are too big, my foot moves too much.
Now make no mistake: I still use them for short runs (10-12 kms), without too much elevation, but if I'm going for a long, hilly run, I'd rather use another pair.
Wrap Up
I have mixed feelings about those Tomir: having the wrong size didn't help, so I don't want to sum it up as "bad shoes", cause clearly they are not - that would be same issue with any shoe.
In the meantime, I have bought a pair of Kjerag at the right size, and this
changes things slightly :)
I'll write an article about them soon, but I'll probably try again the Tomir
(in correct size that time) once my other shoes are worn out!