My dad keeps a bird field guide by the kitchen window with pencil ticks next to every species he’s spotted. I’ve inherited absolutely none of his patience, but I did inherit the format. This is the entry I’d write for the shoe that’s been living by my front door for three weeks.
TechLoom Zipline (Calceus apl ziplinus)
Size: Small for a running shoe with this much sole. Listed at 7.7 oz. Picks up easily with two fingers, which I do more often than necessary, just to be surprised again.
Identification: Look for the cords. Thin hollow lines wrap the whole upper like someone traced the shoe’s outline in string. APL calls these the Ziplines, and they’re where the name comes from. There’s no zip. I checked. Twice. The upper underneath is a single layer of knit with ribbing around the tongue and collar, so it stretches over your foot instead of fighting it.
Plumage: Unusually varied for one species. I counted ten colourways on the homepage, including Almond Butter / Ivory, Fusion Pink / Flamingo, Ivory / Sunset, Shark / Royal Navy / Daydream and one called Fatigue / Countryside / Ivory, which is also how I’d describe my Sunday. Mine is the plain Ivory. The field guide notes that Ivory specimens are easy to spot and very hard to keep clean.
Call: A soft, low thud on pavement. The midsole is APL’s FutureFoam with their Soufflé sockliner on top, and the whole thing is pitched as maximum cushioning, so it doesn’t slap, it sort of lands.
Behaviour: Leans forward. There’s a slanted plate sandwiched inside the midsole meant to push you into the next step, and on my usual 5K loop I noticed I was drifting ahead of my own pace by about the second kilometre. Not dramatic. Just a gentle, constant suggestion that I could hurry up. The drop is 8mm, if that’s a number that means something to you.
Habitat: Filed under running, but spotted most often in my case at the supermarket, on the school run for my niece, and under a desk. The homepage currently has it at the front of their Fall 2026 “Campus Explorations” drop, so APL seems to agree it has range.
Conservation status: Expensive. $350. That is a lot for any shoe, and I’d only suggest it if you actually run or stand for hours and have been putting up with a sole that’s gone flat. It’s tagged as a bestseller on the site, and some colours have already been through a back-in-stock cycle.
Where to observe: APL ships free and handles free returns within the US, there’s 10% off if you sign up for their text alerts, and they offer Afterpay if you’d rather split the $350 into four smaller shocks. One sizing tip I didn’t know: all their shoes are unisex, so if your women’s size sells out, go down a size and a half in men’s (a women’s 9 is a men’s 7.5).
I found mine through this link to Athletic Propulsion Labs. Affiliate link, so a small commission comes my way if you buy, and it costs you nothing extra.
Pencil tick added. Dad would be proud, or at least confused.