At this stage, we went away with our OG "River Rocks" outsole design and went with a more simplistic version of the same design. This is more of a lifestyle silhouette but we still wanted the traction to be more dynamic for all sorts of activities. With this view, you can get a clearer idea of the outside visible window into the H2prO tech.
March 31, 2023. Behind the scenes our engineer and factory were testing and solidifying the H2prO cushioning system. Despite what it appears, this is engineered drastically different than how Nike does their Air bags. What makes this system work is Pascal's Law and hydrostatic pressure (think of a water bed) but what's difficult here is stability - we didn't want it to be shaky and too much movement from the water inside. We tested stability columns for this prototype. Not the biggest fan of the stabilizers but we'll see if we can make adjustments.
April 28, 2023. I woke up and checked my email to find quite possibly the greatest image of all time - the first ever usable prototype of the Hydronaut. I couldn't have imagined that this project would ever come this far and come out this perfect. The river lines, the H2prO, the upper, etc came out perfect. We couldn't wait to get this prototype in hand, but first it has to go over to our engineer for some testing. We skipped some posts here simply because of showing the inner workings of the H2prO tech which our factory says is highly proprietary.
The day has finally come for the first ever Hydronaut sample to arrive. Up until this point, it didn't actually feel like this project was a reality. I was a bit scared to try on the first sample because I didn't want to get them dirty but this was the first ever test. The results were incredible. The feeling of the H2prO cushioning is extremely smooth and remarkably dampening. This is thanks to Pascal's Law that states when pressure is applied to water in a sealed container, it distributes that pressure equally in all directions. The first thing I did was take an long walk to help myself believe that this was real. I'll be honest and say, I did keep the Hydronaut by my side all night consistently waking up throughout the night to make sure it wasn't just a dream.
Although the Hydronaut's cushioning was incredible, I couldn't help but feel that it could be even better. I decided that the stock insole might not be enough to push the limit of the sneaker so I did some research on sustainable insole brands that work with independent projects such as ours. We landed on Ortholite and Blumaka which both make incredible insoles. Blumaka happened to appear much more passionate and mission oriented so we decided if we ever do some sort of release, we would be thrilled to work with them. Their insoles worked wonders with the H2prO system and amplified the results.
This will be the "Proto-Run" of the Hydronaut. Prototype 001. After testing out multiple activities: jogging, basketball and walking I can say this prototype performs remarkably. I think we should go ahead and remove some of the stability columns to get that much closer to only getting the feeling of walking on water. So far, its extremely smooth and adjusts instantly to the terrain you're walking on, essentially molding to the surface (not 100% but around 80%). The silhouette itself feels heavy in hand, but on foot, all of the weight is at the bottom which gives a lighter but stable feeling.
August 2, 2023. I'm going to be honest, this second colorway sample's quality was extremely off. Perhaps it was rushed but the colors were not blended and the outside was extremely stiff-looking. Despite this, I was still excited to see this second iteration in person and provide much needed feedback to improve the overall quality. Strangely enough, this first sample came out much better than the second. Hopefully we can execute this better on the third attempt.
October 17, 2023. The official "1st Run" of prototypes 002, 003 & 004. During this run (which is drastically different from "proto-run" has had a massive change to the H2prO system. Instead of 10 columns, I had our engineer test out 3 total. One in the forefoot and two in the heel. We also went with a higher quality "typographical" gel print on our "river lines". The materaisl have also be extensively updated with 100% ocean-recycled plastic upper. Think of these as what we want the public to experience if we ever were to release a run. Unfortunately each "run" will have minor difference that are out of our control, but we want to keep details as accurate as possible.
