Nutritional Revolution Podcast · Kyla Channell, MSc Nutrition & Human Performance

What If Your Shoes Could Coach You? Inside Avelo’s Smart Shoe Running Tech

·53 min·1 clip

My biological age was 41 when I was only 31 years old.

Kyla Chanel welcomes Rowe Metzer, the founder and CEO of Avelo Running. He lays out the aim of building the world's smartest running shoe and helping runners become faster, stronger, and more resilient. The shoe is presented as a coaching tool, not just a tracker. Sensors built into it are meant to give runners feedback while they are moving. A big part of the conversation is impact. Rowe explains that impact is not something to eliminate, but something to understand and progress with care. The body adapts through repeated exposure and recovery. If the load climbs too fast, injury risk goes up with it. Kyla keeps bringing the discussion back to the practical side. Where is a runner starting? How much impact is the body already handling? What needs to change week by week so the body improves instead of breaking down? Those questions give the episode its shape. Cadence becomes one of the main examples. The shoe can coach cadence in real time with audio coaching and a metronome. That matters because cadence is one of the interventions that has been studied for both injury reduction and running efficiency. The episode treats it as a usable lever rather than a magic fix. Pace comes next. Rowe explains that faster running produces more force, and more force means more load on the body. The relationship is not simple or linear. That is part of why the conversation stays focused on context instead of slogans. Kyla also asks whether terrain like hills or descents changes the impact story, and Rowe answers that ground reaction force varies with several things. The episode keeps circling back to what a runner can actually feel and measure. The tone stays warm and curious. Kyla reacts with real interest as the technical pieces get unpacked. Rowe answers in a way that keeps the science accessible without flattening it. The exchange feels like an interview, but also like a working session on how to coach better running. Another thread is the value of broader data. Rowe points out that a lot of running research has leaned on narrow samples. The episode leaves room for the idea that real-world runners are more varied than the study populations that often shape the field. That gives the technology a bigger ambition than performance for a single type of athlete. Kyla's questions keep pulling the discussion toward application. The episode is not trying to impress with jargon. It is trying to make a new form of feedback feel useful on an actual run. By the end, the idea of a shoe that coaches you in motion feels less like a gimmick and more like a next step in how runners learn about their own bodies. The interview closes with Kyla sounding genuinely excited to see the shoe reach runners.

As heard by us

A smart running shoe turns cadence, impact, and progressive overload into everyday training feedback.

The episode follows Kyla Chanel in conversation with Avelo founder and CEO Rowe Metzer about a running shoe built around sensors and feedback.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a smart running shoe that helps you understand impact as you run.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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