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Teva 2026 Previews: Trailpeak, 2026 Line Presentation and Teva’s Trail Run DNA with Michael Wardian
Dec 4, 2025
Teva 2026 Previews: Trailpeak, 2026 Line Presentation and Teva’s Trail Run DNA with Michael Wardian
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0:00
We're with Nick at Tea here at the
0:03
running event and we're going to talk
0:05
sandals and near sandals.
0:08
Go for it, Nick.
0:09
Thank you. Well, Sam, first of all, well
0:11
done on pronouncing it tea and not tea.
0:14
Uh 10 points to Gryffindor. Uh what
0:19
what I would like to share with you kind
0:21
of before we kick off is the origin
0:23
story of Tea. Um, and cuz I think it's
0:27
really cool to hear where the brand has
0:29
been and the journey that this brand has
0:31
been on because it gets into why this
0:34
product is here today.
0:36
Excellent.
0:36
So, 1984, uh, Mark Thatcher is a river
0:41
rafting guide on the Colorado River. Um,
0:44
and he's getting really tired of losing
0:45
flip flops. And uh one day he takes the
0:49
Velcro wristwatch strap off of his watch
0:53
and attaches it to a flip-flop and lo
0:57
and behold an entire ankle or something
1:00
right around the ankle and lo and behold
1:02
a brand new foot.
1:06
Absolutely.
1:07
We have some really cool early
1:09
prototypes.
1:10
Okay, good. Good.
1:11
Um so that was in 1984.
1:14
Okay. Fast forward 1995, Tea releases
1:18
our first road running sandal called the
1:21
Response.
1:21
Okay.
1:22
Uh in 2000, we released our first trail
1:25
running sandal
1:26
called the Raptor.
1:27
Okay.
1:28
In 2001, our first trail running shoe
1:30
comes out called the Elder.
1:32
From 2002 to 2009, we sponsored the US
1:36
trail running team. And this is
1:39
prewestern
1:41
states and UTMBB
1:44
uh fervor.
1:45
It was the pictures. I found an old
1:47
Google Drive on the internet with
1:49
pictures from that era. And uh it's a
1:52
little less pump and show than what you
1:55
see today.
1:56
Longer hair and no shirts.
1:58
Exactly.
1:59
Uh and and so kind of within that whole
2:03
timeline, Teva was making trail running
2:07
shoes for racing uh and for we were
2:10
making hiking boots and then we were
2:12
also doing whitewater lines and
2:14
outfitting athletes and we also
2:16
sponsored the TE of mountain games and
2:18
could basically outf athlete for every
2:21
action sport activity within it. So, we
2:25
kind of took a little bit of a hiatus
2:26
from being as performance focused as we
2:29
were and kind of leaned into a little
2:31
bit more of the lifestyle stuff.
2:33
And after kind of during CO when there
2:36
was a huge uptick in everyone starting
2:40
to run and be outside more
2:42
um where they were six feet separated,
2:45
uh we started to kind of lean back into
2:48
our heritage roots and I wouldn't say at
2:50
this point we've leaned in. I would say
2:52
we've jumped two sandals in, okay, to
2:55
being that back to that performance
2:57
heritage.
2:58
So that kind of brings us to where we
3:00
are today.
3:01
Okay.
3:01
Uh I'll quickly speak to Aventrail. The
3:04
sandal and shoe launched in 2004. Mike
3:08
Wardian was wearing an initial prototype
3:10
uh on the Appalachian Trail. Uh, and you
3:13
can kind of see us starting to bring
3:15
together the benefits of a sandal into
3:20
the capabilities of a shoe. Then we get
3:23
into the Aventrail R2T. The sandal uh,
3:27
here
3:27
R2T stands for road to trail.
3:30
Road to trail out the front door down
3:32
the street to your local trail and come
3:35
on home.
3:36
And you can walk in them, too. Uh, I
3:38
would say the amount of people who now
3:41
wear these for walking purposes because
3:43
they're super lightweight, 230 g for a
3:46
men's 9. Um, you get a really nice uh
3:50
three points of adjustability. And you
3:53
also get that aeropne
3:56
breathable upper, so you get the
3:58
support, the comfort, and the
4:00
lightweight feel. It's pretty unmatched.
4:03
Um, and it has a full trail run rocker
4:06
profile. So you get a really nice just
4:09
heel totoe roller.
4:11
New in uh autumn of 26, we say autumn,
4:15
this is going to be a 51 launch um is
4:18
the R2T shoe. So bringing that kind of
4:21
same bottom unit in just to more toe
4:24
coverage. And then also new will be the
4:28
hurricane
4:31
trail setter.
4:34
Uh, and this is going to be a more
4:38
stable, comfortable
4:40
entry level trail running. Right.
4:45
I'm going to take a two second break to
4:47
talk about why the heck is Tea making
4:50
trail running sandals.
4:52
Um, and I would say there's three main
4:54
benefits in a sandal that you can't
4:57
quite get in a shoe.
4:59
Okay.
4:59
One, your foot on foam.
5:02
So all of these wonderful foams that all
5:05
these brands are telling you about,
5:07
they still have strobable construction.
5:10
So there's boards and glues and sock
5:13
liners and there's anywhere between 4 to
5:14
7 mm of additional material.
5:17
So you lose that energy efficiency and
5:19
that energy return here. Your foot on
5:21
foam. It's from the foam into your foot
5:24
every single step, every single mile.
5:26
The other benefit that you're going to
5:28
have that's unique is three points of
5:29
adjustability,
5:31
right? So, no two feet are the same,
5:35
right?
5:36
And
5:38
depending on what you ate or what you
5:41
drank or how good of night's sleep you
5:43
got
5:44
can change.
5:44
It can change. So, when you go to put
5:46
this on in the morning, you can tune
5:49
that fit
5:50
to make sure that it feels comfortable
5:52
on both left and right. your feet swell
5:54
during a run, you can stop and quickly
5:57
make adjustments to make sure that the
5:59
fit feels good for the next 10 miles
6:00
you're going.
6:02
The other advantage is the foot
6:04
naturally wants to have toe sway.
6:07
So, as you go from heel and roll to toe,
6:11
your toes naturally want to do this and
6:13
then curl because it thinks we're still
6:15
running on dirt from 20,000 years ago.
6:19
You can't do that in a shoe, but you can
6:22
absolutely achieve that in a sandal.
6:24
So, but wait a minute. There's a bunch
6:26
of shoes in front of us here. So, how do
6:28
we adapt adjust the
6:33
sandal kind of ethos to a
6:36
performanceoriented shoe and not lose
6:39
it? Sam, you just asked such good
6:41
questions, man. So, while the toe spllay
6:45
is going to be a difficult thing to
6:47
replicate in a closed toed upper,
6:51
we are able to bring in a couple of the
6:53
additional benefits of a sandal into a
6:55
shoe.
6:56
So, this is our new Trail Peak.
7:00
Trail Peak. Yeah.
7:02
This was designed um with being able to
7:06
kind of run off trail in mind. So to be
7:10
able to scramble a little, to boulder a
7:12
little,
7:13
there's some toe stuff, there's some
7:15
coverage. Yeah,
7:16
absolutely. So it was all about being
7:18
able to maybe go off trail a little bit
7:20
and kind of choose your own adventure.
7:22
So you'll see a 3mm lug on the outsole
7:26
um in this nice chevron design. We have
7:28
a ton of testing videos where our
7:30
athletes across nine different mountain
7:32
ranges through North America
7:34
in different surfaces talked about how
7:36
they felt confident and secure on trail.
7:39
We also brought in a full length SCF
7:42
ATPU into the
7:44
midsole of the foams these days.
7:46
Everybody's talking about it, right?
7:48
So, our new Hyper Comp plus SCF ATPU
7:53
um is super responsive.
7:55
We actually swapped this out after
7:57
getting a bunch of athlete testing
7:59
feedback that they didn't feel like they
8:01
were getting the pop or the response in
8:04
the previous
8:07
gentleman next to us. Absolutely. Hi,
8:09
Michaelian.
8:11
What What do you What do you say about
8:13
this guy?
8:14
I I say I can't wait to try it, dude.
8:15
Like, so I've I've been part of the
8:17
testing protocols, but I haven't got the
8:19
new one yet.
8:21
So, this is super exciting. So, for me
8:22
to like get to see it in action and then
8:25
uh knowing how much of our feedback's
8:27
been utilized to like improve it over
8:30
the course of the different iterations,
8:32
it's super cool. And it reminds me of
8:34
like some of the shoes I use coming up.
8:37
And so I'm really excited to get to put
8:39
this
8:40
because you you go 5k to ultramarathons
8:43
to the AT in sandals tea sandals.
8:47
Yeah.
8:48
So you use a sandalike construction
8:53
for everything.
8:54
Yeah.
8:54
And fast. This guy's fast.
8:56
Yeah. Yeah. So I've been running like
8:58
230 marathons in the uh Aventra RT.
9:02
Those right here. Uh but I also use
9:04
those for the 50 mile national
9:06
championships and uh won the 50 to 54
9:10
age group became national champion in
9:12
the those same shoes. Uh and then to see
9:15
the product like evolve, right? So like
9:18
uh the first version the Avent trail
9:20
over here is what I used basically I ran
9:22
the entire Appalachian Trail in these uh
9:25
and then to see like how they've taken
9:28
that same design and so they've taken
9:29
the R2T and then they've made this
9:32
lightweight version. So I I'm excited to
9:34
like try these on like especially if you
9:37
know you're going to be going through a
9:38
lot of water crossings or whatever like
9:40
how well they're going to drain. And
9:42
that's just using like our heritage from
9:44
the water background. Uh, and then I'm
9:47
excited for these for I'm thinking these
9:49
are going to be a great shoe for
9:50
anywhere from like VKs, so like very
9:53
short fast stuff up mountains to about
9:56
100K. And then I want to test them for
9:59
over 100K. Right. So I've tested them up
10:01
to about 40 to 50 miles.
10:04
And how does the uh ATPU foam feel
10:07
compared?
10:07
I haven't got to try that.
10:08
Oh, that's new.
10:09
That was a new version. That
10:11
Wait a minute.
10:11
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
10:13
That that doesn't fit him. Sorry.
10:14
Yeah. Yeah. I would bring in uh our
10:17
trade marketing uh who's a former
10:19
Solomon athlete and he actually was able
10:21
to try. I asked him to run in both
10:23
versions
10:25
and he said his response back to me was
10:28
I couldn't get the previous version off
10:30
my feet fast enough.
10:31
Well, that's what it feels like.
10:33
It does. And we also did some Instron
10:36
testing. It was a 12% improvement in
10:39
energy efficiency and return over a
10:42
previous SCF EVA. Another super
10:44
critical.
10:45
Yes. Yeah.
10:45
So going to ATPU over an EVA has had a
10:50
massive impact on
10:51
So this this um stack height weight and
10:55
and then we're wrapped with that.
10:56
Yeah, absolutely.
10:57
And you know the price and when we're
10:59
going to be get when when's he getting
11:00
them? When I'm getting them.
11:01
So I'll mention we talked about the two
11:03
things that we bring in from a sandal.
11:05
One is we're we've gone to a different
11:09
construction on the inside. So, we only
11:11
have 2 millimeters of a TPE sock liner.
11:14
And then, as you can see in the upper,
11:16
we have six points of adjustability.
11:18
These are independent moving wings
11:22
that you can see X-rayed through the
11:24
upper. So, when you adjust the speed
11:27
lace,
11:28
it creates that fit system that provides
11:31
a security similar to a sand.
11:33
So, those two elements you ask like,
11:36
yeah, how do you bring those into a
11:37
shoe? That's what we've done. 30.5 mm to
11:42
24.5 mm. So a 6 mm drop.
11:45
Um weight on this is 232 g.
11:49
What's that in ounces? That's uh
11:51
it's about 8 o
11:52
8.1 ounces.
11:53
Excellent. Yeah.
11:55
Lugs.
11:56
And then um the price on this is 160 US.
12:01
That's awesome. We are not aware of
12:03
another trail run products with full
12:07
length SCF ATPU at that price point with
12:11
the additional feature set that you're
12:12
going to see here.
12:13
That's excellent. And you got some grip.
12:16
Got some Michael. You're going to cuz
12:18
nobody's going to touch you.
12:19
Yeah, it's going to be really fun. Like
12:21
I'm I'm very very excited about this
12:24
this I mean our whole our whole suite of
12:27
shoes, but this is uh definitely going
12:29
to be a pinnacle.
12:30
So that's Peak.
12:32
Yeah, Trail.
12:33
Trail Peak. Trail Peak.
12:34
Thank you very much, Sam. Appreciate you
12:36
coming through.
12:38
Dominic, great job on the camera.
12:39
Yeah,
12:40
he's got steady hands. I got to shake.
12:42
Yeah. Yeah.
12:43
Doctor says