Impact

Graphene in sports footwear

The group’s graphene-enhanced rubber and foam are in inov-8’s running, hiking and fitness shoes. Developed with the Cumbrian brand from 2017, they made the G-SERIES, launched in 2018, the first sports shoes to use graphene.

Side view of a bright green and black inov-8 TRAILFLY ULTRA G 300 trail shoe, with G-FLY printed on the thick black midsole.
inov-8 TRAILFLY ULTRA G 300, with the G-FLY graphene-enhanced foam midsole.
The underside of a green inov-8 shoe: a black lugged rubber outsole with a green Graphene Grip badge at the heel.
A G-GRIP graphene-enhanced rubber outsole.

From the lab to the trail

In 2016 the group showed that graphene improves the mechanical properties of rubber (Carbon, 2016). inov-8’s chief executive, Ian Bailey, then approached Aravind Vijayaraghavan about using it in shoe soles. One meeting led to two funding awards: an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account project and an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with inov-8, with Nadiim Domun as KTP Associate. The first graphene shoes were on sale 18 months after the idea, against the industry’s usual three years or more.

G-GRIP outsole

Graphene-enhanced outsole rubber that is 50% stronger, 50% more elastic and 50% harder wearing, lasting more than 1,000 miles in testing. It eases the usual trade-off between rubber that grips but wears quickly and rubber that lasts but slips. It launched in 2018 in three G-SERIES shoes: the MUDCLAW G 260 for muddy mountain running, the TERRAULTRA G 260 for long distances on hard-packed trails and the F-LITE G 290 for the gym. The G-SERIES had inov-8’s best pre-orders for any shoe, and the TERRAULTRA G 260 sold out a month after launch.

G-FLY midsole

The first graphene-enhanced foam in a running shoe’s midsole, launched in 2021 in the TRAILFLY ULTRA G 300 MAX for ultra-distance running. It gives about 25% more energy return than standard EVA foams and resists compression, so it keeps its bounce for longer: trail reports showed it still performing after 1,200 km, double the industry standard. Development took two years, with more than 50 graphene–foam mixes and 40 athletes testing prototypes. The group ran the laboratory ageing tests, in which aged G-FLY foam still returned more energy than some unaged foams.

Results

  • By 2021, graphene-enhanced shoes made up more than half of inov-8’s sales.
  • Innovate UK graded the KTP “Outstanding”, its highest grade (2022), and inov-8 appointed Nadiim Domun as Senior Materials Engineer to continue the work with the group.
  • Damian Hall finished fifth at the 2018 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in TERRAULTRA G 260s, the best British men’s result since 2010, and later set the fastest time for the 185-mile Wainwright’s Coast to Coast (39 hours 18 minutes) in graphene-enhanced shoes.
  • Jasmin Paris won the 268-mile Montane Spine Race outright, setting a course record, in graphene-enhanced shoes.

Awards and reviews

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G-SERIES, G-GRIP and G-FLY are inov-8 product names. Figures are as reported by The University of Manchester and inov-8 at the time.