For two years, SCARPA deconstructed and reconstructed a new and different concept of footwear, gradually entrusting its design to technological research and the insights of those who would ultimately use it on the trail. Thousands of kilometers, varied terrains and a succession of prototypes emerged through a process where scientific intuition met the perceptions and experiences of various professional alpine runners. From this blend emerged two interpretations of the same exploration: Alien Sky, built around the pursuit of lightness and precision; and Alien Ultra, designed to return energy and preserve efficiency.

Chamonix, both the narrative birthplace of the project and an open-air laboratory for contemporary alpine running, served as the destination where this journey found its most tangible expression in the experience of running in nature. Three complementary voices recount this journey: Francesco Orrico, SCARPA’s Alpine Running Product Manager, and athletes Luca Del Pero and Peter Frano.

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager

‘Not From This Planet’ presents Alien as an attempt to understand a technology seemingly originating elsewhere and translate it into something designed for human performance. How did you arrive at this creative intuition, and how did it connect with SCARPA’s entry into the worlds of trail running and ultra-trail?

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager: “It might seem like an obvious conclusion, given the name itself, but for us it was actually the result of a much deeper process of reflection that only fully emerged towards the end of development. We found ourselves with two shoes unlike anything we had created before: two models that disrupted the ordinary conventions of product design. Everything about them felt unconventional, almost extraterrestrial. Historically, the name Alien belongs to SCARPA’s roots. It identifies our most advanced products in ski mountaineering: Alien represents what separates itself from the rest, what is designed for competition, where the clock and pure performance become the only real measures of judgement. The connection with trail running therefore came quite naturally. Innovative combinations of materials, entirely new geometries and unprecedented forms began to define an unexplored horizon, one made possible by an extraordinary collective effort.”

Beyond the science-fiction metaphor, what was the initial intuition behind a project that, even for those of you working with product development every day, seemed to belong to territory that was still unexplored—almost alien—for SCARPA? And how much of that original idea survives in the two shoes we see today?

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager: “Listening, and the passion for creating. And by listening, I mean a very focused attention to the needs of the athletes who developed these shoes alongside us. It was not simply a matter of listening to what they said, but of interpreting what remained unspoken: the spontaneous gestures of running, the instinctive reactions of elite athletes when they begin pushing beyond their limits. What truly made the difference was the daily synergy within the team. From the very first day, we continually pushed ourselves to do more, refusing to take anything for granted. We did not necessarily choose the most obvious solutions; quite often, we pursued the ones that initially seemed strange, improbable, even impossible. We would look at one another and ask: Will this actually work? The beautiful thing is that we never simply told ourselves no. We always tried. Perhaps I will disappoint people by saying there was no single moment of genius from which everything emerged. The truth is that, from beginning to end, there was a genuine sense of enjoyment throughout the process. And that is precisely the same energy we hope people feel when they open the box and put the Alien on their feet.”

Alien Sky and Alien Ultra emerge from the same research, yet they seem to embody two distinct philosophies of movement: on one side, proximity to the ground, precision and immediacy; on the other, protection, energy return and continuity over many hours. At what point in the development process did a single research language begin to divide into these two different expressions? And what compromises did you have to accept in order to preserve the identity of each shoe?

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager: “From the very first day, we were actually working along two different paths, but never opposing ones. The intended use of each shoe was clear from the outset. If anything, what happened was almost the reverse of what one might expect. We began by following two separate directions and, at a certain point, realised that we had developed technological solutions that could be shared across both projects. We studied them and then applied them to each model: the fundamental construction of the upper, the materials, the lacing system, the gaiter, the outsole compound and the midsole architecture. There were no compromises. Whatever was required to achieve maximum performance, we implemented, without being afraid of becoming too specific. We imposed no artificial limitations upon ourselves, and that freedom allowed the strongest ideas to emerge naturally, defining step by step the distinct identities of Alien Ultra and Alien Sky.”

An athlete can communicate an extraordinary range of sensations about a shoe—descriptions that may feel extremely precise to the person running, yet remain difficult to translate into millimetres, geometries and materials. In your dialogue with Luca, Peter and the other testers, how did you transform those subjective bodily sensations into objective design decisions?

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager: “That is part of the know-how: the ability to interpret both the words and the gestures of a runner. Once again, it comes back to listening. It helps enormously that those of us within the development team share the same passion for running, and that we have spent countless kilometres alongside the athletes ourselves. We understand, at least in part, what they are feeling while they run. That background allows us to translate something apparently abstract, a sensation, into tangible components, geometries and technical choices. In other cases, the process worked in the opposite direction. An intuition might begin on paper, then be transformed into a prototype, assembled and immediately taken into the field in order to challenge or confirm the original theory. Ultimately, the secret was exactly that: an uninterrupted and completely direct dialogue between the product team and the athletes.”

This year, Chamonix represented one of the first contexts in which Alien could finally exist fully outside the development process—on the feet of athletes and within one of the most emblematic environments in global trail running. For you, having followed the project from its foundations on the product side, what did it mean to see years of research, prototypes, corrections and testing finally enter a real and shared experience?

Francesco Orrico, SCARPA Alpine Running Product Manager: “Childlike euphoria. I think it resembles that mixture of joy and apprehension my son feels when something beautiful happens, but part of him is almost afraid that the magical moment might suddenly end or be interrupted. After two years of development and moments when it seemed as though the entire project might have to be set aside, seeing something we had created together as a group of friends finally working in the real world, visibly distinguishing itself, was almost impossible to describe. We had worked side by side with athletes of the highest level to create something so unexpected, something that at times seemed almost unbelievable. And when we finally had the opportunity to wear the shoes ourselves, for me, Gianluca, Marco and Carlo, it felt like breathing pure air. The kind of breath you take at the summit of a mountain after a long run: the fatigue disappears, the mind empties, and for a moment, all that remains is happiness.”

Luca Del Pero, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner

You first encountered Alien Sky when it was not yet a finished product, but rather a succession of prototypes and possibilities. Can you remember the first version you wore and, above all, the first sensation it gave you? Which of your observations or physical impressions proved most crucial in shaping the final shoe?

Luca Del Pero, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “Absolutely. I remember the first prototype, and the first time I wore it, very clearly. I was at a training camp in Tenerife and decided to test it on the trails around Teide, on raw volcanic rock. A kind of terrain that leaves virtually no room for error. I think that first shoe weighed less than 200 grams. The upper was already very similar to the one we have today, almost like a sock, and the initial feeling was excellent. The fit and sensation were immediately very positive. The outsole and midsole, however, came from the old Spin Race, so the construction was extremely minimal. I remember having very good sensations on the climbs, but I cannot say the same about the descents. Those were quite traumatic and very slow because, with so little support and such a low platform, I could feel virtually every single stone beneath my feet. It became clear that those were the two areas we needed to work on. From that point onwards, every version represented a step forward from the one before it, until we arrived at the shoe we know today. And honestly, in its current form, I cannot think of anything about it that I do not like.”

On technical terrain, running fast begins with the ability to read the ground: choosing a line, anticipating a foot placement, understanding how much risk to accept before the foot even touches the surface. Alien Sky was designed to enhance precision and connection with the terrain. During testing, did you feel that the shoe was simply accompanying the way you already ran, or did it gradually allow you to interpret the mountain differently?

Luca Del Pero, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “I think the shoe was designed and developed very much around my needs, my way of running, and the way I personally interpret trails and the mountain. With previous models, I had never felt quite as comfortable as I do with Alien Sky. There had always been some form of compromise. With these, however, every time I put them on I feel as though I enter a state of complete flow and connection. They allow me to express my running and my potential at their fullest.”

The more sophisticated a shoe becomes, the more it should arguably disappear from the athlete’s perception. After spending so much time running in the mountains while helping to develop Alien Sky, what does the ideal meeting point between body and technology look like to you? Is the perfect shoe the one you forget you are wearing, or the one that genuinely changes what you thought your body was capable of doing?

Luca Del Pero, SCARPA Athlete & Apline Runner: “I do not think technology should ever alter the true nature of the human body. Personally, I prefer shoes that follow and adapt as closely as possible to our natural running biomechanics, rather than trying to distort or fundamentally reshape them through technologies and constructions that can sometimes become almost incomprehensible. For me, the perfect shoe is the one you forget you are wearing. And I would say that, with Alien Sky on my feet, that is exactly what happens.”

This year, you had the opportunity to wear and test Alien in Chamonix, within one of the most iconic and symbolically charged environments in global trail running. Beyond performance and results, what did it mean to experience that moment in a shoe whose creation you had directly contributed to? And what did you feel when you finally saw it move beyond the world of prototypes and enter the reality of competition, spectators and lived experience?

Luca Del Pero, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “Chamonix has, in every sense, become the home and epicentre of mountain and trail running. The atmosphere you experience there exists nowhere else, and only during that particular week. It is, in many ways, the absolute summit of the global trail movement. This year, the fact that UTMB week coincided with the launch of Alien Sky and Alien Ultra made the experience even more special. Knowing that something I had personally contributed to developing and refining was being unveiled there, in those days, in front of that audience, gave me an enormous sense of pride and satisfaction. More than anything, I felt grateful to SCARPA and to the entire team for involving me so directly and for believing in me as part of such an ambitious project.”

Peter Frano, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner

In ultra running, the body is subject to constant transformation: the biomechanics of the opening hours are not the same as those of the eighth or tenth hour, precision gradually begins to deteriorate, and fatigue can alter even the way the foot meets the ground. How do you test a shoe while accounting for that continuous evolution? And what were you able to communicate to the developers of Alien Ultra after many hours of running that no laboratory—and perhaps no other form of testing—could ever fully reveal?

Peter Frano, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “Developing a shoe intended for ultra running is extremely complex, and I think that is precisely why athletes should always be directly involved in the development process. You can design extraordinary shoes in a laboratory, but then there is the reality of running. And within that reality, the body changes profoundly as the hours pass and fatigue accumulates. Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to test the shoes in several races that were less important to me competitively, as well as during a number of long training runs. Those situations allowed me to observe how my body actually responded inside the shoes, and how the behaviour of the shoe itself changed in relation to my biomechanics as fatigue gradually increased. I think that kind of experience is extremely difficult to reproduce anywhere else. Only after many hours of running do you really begin to understand what is happening to the body and, consequently, what a shoe still needs to offer when the precision of movement begins to decline.”

Alien Ultra was developed around ideas such as energy return, continuity, stability and efficiency. And yet, after many hours of racing, the very meaning of ‘performance’ begins to change. When fatigue becomes profound, which sensations do you still want the shoe to provide, and which ones should progressively disappear so that you can simply continue moving forward?

Peter Frano, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “First and foremost, I do not want to feel any pain or discomfort. Likewise, I do not want external elements like stones or dust to interfere with the foot inside the shoe. If a shoe can give me the sensation, and more importantly the actual possibility, of continuing to run with less effort, then that is exactly what I am looking for. In ultra running, everything revolves around energy conservation. You have to preserve energy wherever you possibly can.”

You describe yourself as a perfectionist, and the very nature of product testing requires you to observe your own movement with an almost obsessive degree of attention. During the development of Alien Ultra, did you discover anything about the way you run that you had not previously been fully aware of? In other words, beyond what you contributed to the construction of the shoe, did the shoe reveal anything to you about your own running?

Peter Frano, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “These shoes reminded me once again that I am a runner who naturally tends to land on the forefoot. In certain situations, that can certainly be an advantage, but on particular terrains or under specific conditions it can also become a limitation. There are shoes that, in some way, are able to compensate for or forgive certain aspects of your running technique. Alien Ultra does not really do that. And precisely because of that, it forces you to remain very conscious of the way you run, of how your foot lands, of how you distribute your weight, and of how your movement changes according to the terrain and the accumulation of fatigue.”

This year, you had the opportunity to wear and test Alien in Chamonix, within one of the most iconic and symbolically charged settings in the entire world of trail running. Beyond performance and the final result, what did it mean to experience that moment in a shoe whose development you had directly contributed to? And what did you feel when you finally saw it leave the realm of prototypes and enter the reality of competition?

Peter Frano, SCARPA Athlete & Alpine Runner: “It was incredibly satisfying to see the shoes finally unveiled officially, not least because from that moment onwards I was free to answer openly all the questions people had been asking about them. Perhaps I contributed in a small way to their development, but there are a great many people behind these shoes and an enormous number of hours of work. There are professionals who deserve far more recognition than I do for everything they contributed throughout the process. At the end of the day, I am only an athlete. And precisely for that reason, being able to wear them during the most important ultra-trail event in the world was a genuine honour.”