THE MAKING OF X-TALONG
It’s a misty, overcast and cool Tuesday morning in mid-winter. Myself and 220’s features editor Matt are in Staveley, a village four miles north-west of Kendal. It’s an area inhabited since around 4,000BC whose name derived from the woodworking industry that thrived in this part of the world. Staveley literally means ‘field of staffs’. It’s also synonymous with graphite.
Legend has it graphite was discovered here in the 16th century and, later on, fuelled a roaring trade in pencils. That historic calling card is all rather apt as we’re in the Lakes to dig deep into the story of Inov-8, one of British sports manufacturing’s major success stories of the past 20 years, off the back of their new run shoe, the graphene-infused X-Talon G235.
BORN FROM THE FELLS
Inov 8’s offices are nestled in an outdoor industrial playground alongside Haglofs UK, the huge Wheelbase Bike Shop and, one for canine lovers, Dogs for Development. They’re all shadowed by the imposing Cowan Head mountain where we’ll test out the G235s after our guided tour. It screams adventure. We’ve organised to meet up with the team, hell bent on uncovering how this northern brand has grown from selling shoes out of
