Earlier this year I was in the market for a new pair of zero-drop racing flats to replace my last pair of aging and very thoroughly worn Inov-8 Road X-treme 138s. I searched the net high and low and didn't find very much so I turned to Twitter…

I got nowt, however I did find within an hour of posting that tweet the Altra Golden Spike, hence the follow up tweet.

Well imagine my excitement this morning when I discovered my prayers may just well have been answered when I stumbled upon slide 7 in competitor.com's First Look At 2018 Running Shoes Showcased At Outdoor Retailer:

Altra Vanish-R

(I'd link directly to the slide but competitor.com seem to make it deliberately hard to do so).

Sadly they included no other details so I hit up my old friend Google and found just the information I was after in Altra Footwear Announces Three New Road Shoes With A Fast and Light Theme:

The Altra Vanish-R:

Introducing the Vanish-R, Altra’s first racing flat, and at just 14 mm stack height and only 3.9 ounces, a truly elite shoe.

“Hitting sub-four ounces was a major goal for this shoe, because we know that’s what the really serious runners want,” said Altra founder Golden Harper. “The Vanish-R feels the most like there’s no shoe, more than any shoe out there. It simply vanishes from your feet and your consciousness, to focus on the race.”

The Vanish-R is a chameleon — a road shoe, a fast flat or a spikeless racer for track and cross country — all with Altra’s signature Footshape™ toe box and Zero Drop™ platform. Engineered mesh on the forefoot of the upper fits like a glove, while reinforced mesh locks in the heel. Vanish-R has the lowest stack height and lightest weight of Altra’s shoes. Colors in unisex sizing will be black, yellow/gray, dark blue, racing red and neon yellow/pink.

MSRP for the Vanish-R is $100, available in February 2018.

Altra has pretty much delivered exactly what I asked for and check out the weight: 110.56 grams!! That's lighter than the Inov-8's I loved (the 138 in the name is their weight in grams).

I want! I want! I want! And I want now! I've got six months to find my size and then try and get a pair of these bad boys into the UK without costing me an arm and a leg in import duties.

If anyone wants to send me a pair for review, red in UK 10-11, depending on how true the sizing is, would certainly go down a treat 😉.