KEEN's Walking Shoes Tailored for Trails! Exploring the Functionality of the Trail Shoes "450 DIRT"

From Portland, Oregon, comes the outdoor footwear brand KEEN. Released in 2023, the walking shoe "WK400" aims to make walking more efficient and enjoyable than ever, utilizing the KEEN.CURVE technology that encourages coordinated movement. It has garnered significant attention.

Introducing the trail-specific "450 DIRT" from KEEN’s walking collection, designed to roll forward smoothly thanks to its uniquely developed curved sole. What kind of shoe is it exactly?

Shoes for Comfortable Walking on Trails

The development of "WK400" was undertaken by Rory Fuerst, Jr., the eldest son of KEEN's founder and the creator of one of the brand's representative models, "UNEEK." He focused on the concept of “walking,” dedicating three years to design and development, culminating in over 8,000km of field testing.

The sole of "WK400" is designed to follow the arc of a circle with a radius of 400mm, while in the case of "450 DIRT," this radius increases to 450mm, resulting in a slightly more gentle rocker angle.