Never Walk.
The (nearly) Perfect Running Shoe
People who know me, will know that I have a slight obsession with (running) shoes. I just like sneakers and don’t seem to be able to settle with a running shoe for long - always on the lookout for something which supports my running form better, which feels more natural on long and tempo runs and which simply doesn’t get in my way while running. This seem to have changed recently…
First things first
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… Here’s how it started: When I started running again (after a longer hiatus), I went to a local sports shop and bought a pair of Asics. The sales guy put me on a treadmill, let me run a bit and recommended a pair which were on sale. Fine with me. After getting through my initial 6 months of easing back into running a halfway decent mileage per week (and with my first half-marathon coming up), I decided to trade up and go for something more “professional” (or so I thought). I went to the Asics store in London, got the full “we measure your feet and gait and find the perfect shoe for you” ordeal and ended up buying a pair of Asics Gel Kayano. Well - all that tech didn’t really do me any good: After running the Berlin Half-Marathon I ended up with two black toenails (and consequently lost both nails). Turns out that my feet seem to swell up quite a bit while running and the expertly fitted shoe was too small.
With that experience under my belt I decided to give another highly rated shoe a try - I went to a local running shop and got them to fit me the Saucony ProGrid Omni, still believing that I need to run in a lot of cushioning and a decent amount of stability (as this was what all the running magazines kept telling me). To make a long story short - I never really liked the shoe. It felt too heavy, too stiff and simply got in my way too much.
Going barefoot
I started buying a bunch of other running shoes just to try them out - Adidas, Saucony’s neutral running shoe Pro Grid Triumph… I didn’t like any of them. They all somehow felt wrong.
Which led me to a rather extreme experiment - going barefoot (or better: running in Vibram FiveFingers). The experience was pretty enlightening - I quickly learned that feeling the ground under your feet is an amazing feedback mechanism for your body. Don’t having a large heel-to-toe drop let me strike the ground in a much more natural (mid-foot) way. Everything just felt better - except the fact that running without any cushioning and guidance after all those years in shoes is hard. And if you’re as competitive as I am, you end up doing too much too soon… Which led to a rather nasty Achilles heel injury which sidelined me for 4 months (and revealed a significant instability in my ankle which I since solved with lots of awesome Pilates - but that’s a different story).
Trying to find the compromise
After my adventurous journey into the land of barefoot running I figured that I need something in the middle - shoes with minimal heel-to-toe drop, thinner soles which let me feel the ground, light and flexible… in summary: Racing flats seemed to fit the bill nicely. So - more shoe buying. I started out with a pair of New Balance 905 (in which I ran the California Marathon), tried the Adidas Adizero Mana (which I didn’t like as they seem to have a rather small footprint and put you pretty high up from the ground which leads to a lot of instability), Nike’s Lunar Fly (way to squishy for me) and finally gave Newton’s zero drop shoes a try. The Newton’s worked pretty well - but their somewhat weird and in my eyes a bit gimmicky “Action/Reaction” technology again seems to make the shoe somewhat unstable and puts you too high up from the ground.
The (nearly) perfect shoe
After reading a couple of reviews (and here) of Saucony’s Kinvara, I decided to give the shoe a try. Their weight (or better: lack thereof), minimal heel-to-toe drop (4mm) and low to the ground feeling intrigued me. The first thing you notice when you put these guys on is that they just feel good. They have a sock-like feeling and don’t toy around with any stability features - combine that with a sole which has just enough cushioning to give you a nice ride without moving your foot too far away from the the road (thus giving you tactile feedback from the ground) and you have a shoe which just feels right. The one feature which stands out with the Kinvaras after running in them for a couple of weeks on roads and trails (mainly fire roads) is the sheer fact that you forget that you wear them! This is the first shoe which I completely forget about while running - they don’t get in my way, enable my foot to strike in a natural way and provide enough cushioning that even after doing 12 gruesome (and beautiful) miles up and down the trails of the Sierra Azul Open Space my feet felt great.
The one thing I wish they would have is a more ergonomically correct toebox - the Kinvaras follow the standard design of a pointy toebox, which doesn’t seem to work too well for me (my toes always feel a tiny bit sore after long runs). I would love to see the Kinvaras in a version which has a wide toebox which accommodates proper toe spread while running.
Having said that - you should give these guys a try. They are reasonably cheap - I got my pair from Running Warehouse for $70 incl. shipping. For now I seem to have (finally) found the shoes I am happy with! :)
