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Many crucial components go into executing the perfect race weekend: you need the right tools, a well-rested, expert team, a reliable, fast car, and you need high-quality team kit.

A comfortable team is a more efficient team. If the team’s kit is too tight, itchy, or poorly ventilated, minds will be elsewhere, unable to focus on anything but the discomfort they're feeling, making it harder to perform at their best.

It’s for this reason that K-Swiss poured so many hours into designing the Aero-Active II, knowing the impact a comfortable trainer, with the right cushioning, traction, and ventilation, can have on the team.

“We needed to design a product, a single shoe, a single model built like a Swiss army knife,” says Rudy Manival, K-Swiss’ Director of Product. “We had to create a product with maximum versatility for a very large and diverse team. We had to perfect what worked and fix what didn’t.

“We had learnt that some on the team were a lot more active than others in their roles, and that activity can be measured in steps. Some, such as the engineers, spend most of their day standing. Others, like the folks responsible for managing the tyres, sometimes walked 40,000 steps a day!

“Other aspects involved a slip-resistant outsole and a flexible, yet stable midsole. The goal was to package all these insights into a product that would support the needs of every single team member. This was the brief for the Aero-Active II.”

We sat down with K-Swiss’ Rudy Manival, to reflect on the successful partnership, get an insight into their design process, and uncover how the Aero-Active II was inspired by McLaren’s Formula 1 cars.

When McLaren teamed up with K-Swiss ahead of the 2023 season, it combined more than 120 years of experience in the sporting industry. Founded in 1966, just three years after McLaren Racing – and in the same year as McLaren’s Formula 1 debut – K-Swiss have been making sports shoes for nearly 60 years.

Initially tasked with creating a “bespoke performance-based footwear collection” for the team to wear at race events, K-Swiss have also since dropped ranges for fans to purchase.  

The Los Angeles-based brand’s roots are in tennis, but it has long since expanded into other sports, including Formula 1, and uses many of the same fundamental design principles across its range of footwear.  

“We’ve been innovating in this field for nearly 60 years. We are experts at maximising human potential via product solutions,” Rudy says. “The first ever K-Swiss x McLaren shoe was developed from an existing K-Swiss chassis to include some of the critical performance deliverables such as lateral support, underfoot cushioning, grip and moisture management.”

As part of their research, the K-Swiss design team visited the McLaren Technology Centre at the start of the partnership and then the Miami Grand Prix in 2024. On each occasion, they carefully studied how the team and its individuals worked and the environment they were in, while also taking a closer look at the cars, hoping to draw inspiration from them.

“It is rarely possible to design a product that will balance form and function to perfection, without taking inspiration from the environment it will live in,” Rudy says. “At the very beginning of this partnership, we visited the McLaren Technical Centre and drew inspiration from the MTC itself, but more importantly, from the cars on display.

“In 2024, I travelled with our lead designer, and we were given access to the entire team, over the course of a four-day Formula 1 race weekend, at an incredible venue, in a city I love,” Rudy adds, discussing their trip to Miami. “We spent time in the garage and could observe the mechanics and engineers. We could talk to the men and women responsible for the tyres.”

Each new release has been designed to improve on its predecessor, as the team moved on from creating footwear only for the race team, to creating them for fans as well, culminating this year in the Aero-Active II, their pièce de resistance.

“As we began the ideation and design process for the Aero-Active, and because we started from a blank page, we made sure to improve on all aspects, while incorporating some of the visual cues from our visit to the MTC,” Rudy says. “The Aero-Active is built on a foam midsole that offers better cushioning while solving some of the challenges we faced with the Tubes Technology chassis.

“We needed a clear understanding of each and everyone’s role and expectations from such a product. As I said earlier, we must listen to the voice of the athlete. Communication is key. That means keeping the team updated on all aspects of the product creation process, sharing regular updates, and testing repeatedly while ensuring the highest possible level of quality and product integrity.

“Our focus has really been on ensuring the shoe would perform the same way from race weekend one through 24. We had received feedback that some team members were having issues, mostly with cushioning and the midsole losing some of its properties. So, we tested different foam densities and agreed on a compound that would provide a similar level of comfort, while maintaining a satisfactory resilience level.

“Our product is built from consumer insights, and the number one rule is to listen to the voice of the athlete!”

Uniquely, the Aero-Active II quite literally draws inspiration from our Formula 1 car, with parts of the shoe resembling the front wing and air vent.

“We created what we call a visual centre that included the shape of the front wing end-plate, as well as the chevron-shaped air-intakes on the engine cover, both visible on the sides of the Aero-Active I and II. Our designers are obsessed with details, and there are many others we could have drawn inspiration from.”

For the race team, practicality and comfort are the most important factors, but for the fans, style is just as crucial, while both want the product to be easily identifiable as a McLaren piece.

“As you can imagine, we don’t just design, build, pack and ship a bunch of shoes to the team,” Rudy says. “We work together with the McLaren licensing department, which has very strict, yet necessary guidelines, to ensure every partner aligns with the seasonal creative direction. 

“To be honest, this is not too restrictive a rulebook, and it still leaves room for our designers to be creative. That said, we need to be extremely careful with branding, logos, and especially use the exact shade of papaya on every product we create and manufacture.

“While our partnership is limited to being the team’s official footwear supplier, our design team has early access to the team kit designs, including graphics and colours… The colour blocking and striping of the team polo, for example, are clearly visible on the Aero-Active II.

“And a more personal note, I’ve been making footwear for many, many years. I have worked with top athletes across multiple sports, and while our goal is to provide the best performing footwear, it also has to look good, and I always look and make sure it does!”

While Rudy will always take great pride in their work, as a lifelong Formula 1 fan, there’s an extra layer of satisfaction in seeing the McLaren Formula 1 team wear trainers they've worked on.

“We take great pride in seeing our footwear worn by Lando, Oscar, and the entire McLaren Formula 1 Team,” Rudy says. “We watch all the races, the Drivers’ Parade and presentations. We follow what’s happening in the stands and in the paddock from Thursday through Sunday, and it feels amazing to be part of F1. I have been an F1 fan from as far as I can remember. It is a privilege to work with F1 and a team like McLaren.”