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It is a great time to be a runner. Today’s smart shoe designers are using advanced materials, new geometries, and creative combinations of foams, plates, fabrics, and soles to create models that are faster and more comfortable than ever before. Many shoes in Outside Online’s exhaustive running shoe roundup (found in its entirety here) are franchise models, in their second, fourth, 17th, or 21st(!) iterations, representing the best of what they have been in the past and integrating modern technologies to give us awesome new versions.
The editors at Outside Online tapped three lead testers (more on them far below) to sort through over 130 pairs of running shoes for their exhaustive guide. Below, they’ve pulled out the three best racing shoes from literally thousands of miles of running, rated the pros and cons, and synthesized their testers’ feedback to give you the nitty-gritty on the best all-around supershoe, the best marathon-distance racer, and the best choice for shorter events.
All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.
$260 at Puma (Women’s) $260 at Puma (Men’s)
Weight: 9.3oz (unisex) Stack Height: 40–32mm (unisex) Drop: 8mm Sizing: 7-11,12, 13 (men’s): 5.5-11 (women’s)
Pros and Cons ⊕ Durable, lively midsole ⊕ Comfortable, form-fitting upper ⊕ Long, smooth toe roll ⊗ Requires a powerful stride to fully leverage the shoe’s benefits
Testers marveled at how smooth and speedy the new Fast-R 2 felt. “As a 5K to half marathon racing shoe, this has the potential to be among the fastest shoes on the market,” raved tester Brock Bulter of West Chester, Pennsylvania. What’s the secret sauce? A new midsole compound called Aliphatic-TPU lies under both the heel and the forefoot and offers industry-leading rebound while being more durable than the more commonly used TPU or PEBA foams.
Leveraging insights from the original Fast-R, Puma performed a top-to-bottom redesign, retaining only the decoupled design that allows the rearfoot and forefoot to move independently.
Embedded in the high-yielding midsole is a stiff, aggressively curved, full-length carbon fiber plate that extends beyond the toe to enhance its lever action, springing you forward with every step. Puma claims the foam/plate combo results in an astonishing 46% more energy return than the previous version of this shoe. We agree that the FAST-R 2 seems to give back more energy and feels faster than the original. Brock said that during a fast-paced track workout, he ran quicker in the Puma FAST-R 2 at the same effort than in other super shoes. Complementing the race-ready underfoot ride is a comfortable, form-fitting woven mesh upper that’s hard to get on at first, but once your feet are in, fits like a glove.
Regardless of their ability or their footstrike, testers unanimously agreed that this shoe stood out as one of the best super shoes they had tried, especially for shorter, sub-marathon distances.
$275 at Running Warehouse $275 at Hoka
Weight: 9.3oz (M10/W11 Unisex sizing) Stack Height: 39–32mm Drop: 7mm Sizing: 5-13, 14 (men’s): 6-13, 14, 15 (women’s)
Pros and Cons ⊕ Amazing rebound off forefoot foam and aggressive rocker plate ⊕ Comfortable sock-like upper ⊕ Stable ride for supershoe ⊗ One of the heaviest supershoes ⊗ Stiff ribbon laces can be difficult to tie tight
Designed to be Hoka’s pinnacle marathon racing shoe, the Hoka Cielo X1 shines in the bounciness department. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more lively ride. Thanks to an aggressively-scooped carbon fiber plate sandwiched between two layers of energetic PEBA foam, the sensation is as close to running on a trampoline as you’ll find. The shoe’s asymmetrical shape follows the path of your foot through the gait cycle, which, combined with wings on the sides of the plate’s forefoot, make the shoe feel stable at speed with the propulsive rebound all directed toward forward motion.
However, our test team unanimously agreed the Cielo X1 is tuned more for midfoot and rearfoot runners with a sweet-spot pace in the 5:30 to 7:30 per-mile range. Brock Butler, a powerful forefoot runner from West Chester, Pennsylvania, noted, “Turning up the pace (beyond 5:30 per mile) requires a lot of effort. I feel like I’m fighting the shoe and its intended use.” On the other end of the range, veteran runner Jonathan Beverly found the Cielo X1 “comfortable, propulsive—and fast” when he hit 5K pace in the 7:30 range, but “clumsy” during an easy 9-minute per-mile cooldown.
We found the soft sock-like knit upper with a stretchy tongue and secure heel counter comfortable and form-fitting. The thin-knit material is durable and extremely airy. Testers noted the Cielo X1 had a wider toe box than most supershoes and praised the extra room for allowing a natural toe splay. Testers had mixed feelings about stiff, non-stretchy ribbon-like laces. Matt Setlack of Ontario, Canada, said it was “impossible to keep them tied up,” while tester Scott Burns of West Chester, Pennsylvania, enjoyed the “lightweight design that provides a secure and tight tie.”
When we stayed within the sweet spot range, the Cielo X1 emerged as one of the most fun supershoes we’ve tested to date. The combination of the bouncy midsole, aggressive forward-propulsive rockered geometry, and well-contained, comfortable upper is hard to beat.
$160 at Asics (Women’s) $160 at Amazon (Men’s)
Weight: 7.7 oz (men’s); 6.5 oz (women’s) Stack Height: 36–29mm (men’s); 35–27mm (women’s) Drop: 7mm Sizing: Men’s 6–15; Women’s: 5–12
Pros and Cons ⊕ Bouncy, snappy ride encourages quick strides ⊕ Breathable mesh upper ⊕ Value-priced for a plated shoe ⊗ More prescriptive roll than super trainers with flexible plates
The Asics Magic Speed 3 proves that low cost and high performance aren’t mutually exclusive. Priced nearly a hundred dollars less than many carbon-fiber super shoes, these are “the best bang-for-the-buck 5k-to-half marathon racing or speed workout shoe on the market,” said one tester. Asics swapped the carbon/TPU blend plate in the Magic Speed 2 for a full-length carbon fiber plate that’s noticeably more snappy and forward-propelling. That, coupled with a soft and responsive double layer of Asics’ top EVA-based midsole foam, results in a “light and bouncy ride” that “inspires speed,” noted one tester.
Complementing the magic in the midsole is the same form-fitting, airy, mesh upper material seen on the brand’s top-tier, carbon-fiber, marathon-racing models. The result is a shoe that one tester said, “Feels as connected to your foot and the ground as an old-school racing flat, but delivers a lively boost that compares to top-end super shoes without being so trampoleny that it slowed my cadence or altered my stride.”
When choosing a road running shoe, the first step is to determine the type of running you’ll primarily be doing in them. Do you need a speedy racer, a shoe that offers comfort during long, slow jogs, or a versatile trainer that can handle various distances and paces? Next, consider your preference for the feel of the shoe’s cushioning: do you like a soft, forgiving ride, a more energetic, bouncy sensation underfoot, or a firmer platform that provides better ground feel? With advancements in foams and technologies, many shoes today offer cushioning without compromising responsiveness or stability. However, each shoe balances these characteristics differently, providing a spectrum of options to choose from. The key to finding the perfect running shoe is choosing the one you’re most comfortable with.
Once you’ve narrowed the search to a certain type of road shoe, you need to find a pair that complements your unique body and stride. Every runner’s body, gait, speed, experience, and ride preferences are different, so every runner will interact differently with each running shoe. The shoe that your best friend or your sister-in-law loves may be uncomfortable for you and make running feel slow, sluggish, or even painful. Finding the perfect pair of road running shoes is a seriously personal affair.
The process for choosing the best running shoes is a matter of finding the models that both fit your foot and also feel best when you’re running. To determine fit and feel, there’s no substitute for trying the shoes on and running in them.
When assessing fit, first pay attention to length. You need room at the end of your toes as your feet lengthen during their dynamic movements on the run. A rule of thumb is to allow a thumb’s width between your longest toe and the end of the shoe. Runners often wear a running shoe a half or full size bigger than their street shoes.
Ensure that the shape of the sole and the upper matches your foot shape. The sole should be as wide or wider than your foot for the whole length, and match the curve of your arch comfortably. The shoe should hold your foot securely over the instep, while allowing the ball of the foot and the toes to splay and flex when you roll forward onto them. Your heel shouldn’t slip when you lift it, and the arch should be able to dome and lengthen naturally. Nothing should bind or rub as you roll through the stride.
If the shoe fits, it’s time to take them on a short run on a treadmill, around the store, or, ideally, down the block and back. Every running shoe has a unique ride created by the type and density of foam in the midsole and the geometry of that foam: its thickness, width, heel-to-toe drop, molded sidewalls or flares, and forefoot flexibility or rocker shape (plus, in an increasing number of models, the presence of and type of embedded plate). Each of these elements interact with each other and your stride to determine how the shoe reacts on landing, how much it cushions, how stably it supports, how smoothly it transitions from landing to toe off, and how quickly and powerfully it rebounds.
The best way to choose the shoes that complement your body and stride is to find the ones that feel right on the run. Benno Nigg, the world-leading biomechanics professor who proposed this method of shoe selection, calls it the “comfort filter,” but makes clear it is far more than how plush the shoe feels when you step into it. What you want to assess is whether the shoe allows and supports the way your feet want to move, what Nigg calls your “preferred movement path.” In the right shoe, while running at your normal pace, you will touch down where you expect to land, roll smoothly and stably through the stride without noticing the shoe, feel both cushioned from and connected to the ground, and push off naturally, quickly, and powerfully. When this comes together you’ll know that you’ve found your pair.
It’s likely that several shoes will feel good on your feet. To find the most comfortable, it helps to compare them back to back, like an eye doctor will do with corrective lenses: flipping between “A” or “B,” “1” or “2.” You may also find that different shoes feel better at different paces or level of fatigue, and you may want more than one pair. In fact, research shows that wearing a variety of different shoes is one of the few proven ways to reduce injury risk as it appears to vary the stresses on your feet and joints.
Running shoes have long been marketed and sold as prescriptive devices to help runners stay healthy, but there is little scientific evidence correlating shoes, or any specific shoe properties—like cushioning or pronation control—with running injuries. Medical professionals say that it is highly difficult to determine whether a runner needs a certain type of shoe, and studies have shown that prescribing shoes using traditional methods like treadmill gait analyses or wet-foot arch height tests don’t consistently reduce injuries.
Don’t assume that you need more cushioning or more stability if you have sore joints, or if you’re a heavier runner, or if you’re a beginner—evidence doesn’t support many common beliefs. The best way prevent injury is find two or three different pairs that feel right on the run, ease into using them, and vary your shoes, your running surface and your pace regularly (plus avoid rapid increases in your training load and work on improving your mechanics).
Freelance journalist, editor, and author Lisa Jhung has researched, tested, and written about running shoes for the past decade and a half, much of that time for Outside and Outside Buyer’s Guides. She coordinates a fleet of female shoe testers out of Boulder, Colorado, and says her home office is a perpetual obstacle course of cardboard boxes and piles of running shoes. Lisa’s written about gear of all kinds for numerous national magazines as both an editor and freelancer, including a stint as the Shoes & Gear blogger and trail running microsite editor for Runner’s World.
A high school jumper and occasional sprinter/hurdler, she started running—really running—after walking off the collegiate volleyball team, and moved on to road and trail races of any distance, triathlons, adventure races, and mountain running. She’s happiest testing rugged trail shoes on gnarly terrain, and also loves a good neighborhood jaunt…but is almost always looking for ribbons of dirt. Lisa is the author of “Running That Doesn’t Suck: How to Love Running (Even If You Think You Hate It)” (2019) and “Trailhead: The Dirt on All Things Trail Running” (2015).
Cory’s passion for running started over 30 years ago in high school when he became the number six ranked runner in the nation at 3000 meters his senior year. After high school, he competed at Villanova University, earning two NCAA Division I Championship showings. Today, he’s determined not to let age slow him down and competes on the national master’s circuit, running a 4:12 (4:30 mile pace)) 1500 meters and 9:04 (4:52 mile pace) 3000 meters in 2021 at age 43. He prefers a hard track workout or tempo run over an easy long run any day but also appreciates a challenging trail or mountain run.
His obsession with running shoes started in 2014 when he wrote his first shoe review for Gear Institute. Since then, he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of running shoes, clothing, and gear for Outside, Runner’s World, Footwear News, and other outlets. He has a soft spot for speedy shoes over heavy trainers but loves dissecting all shoes equally and thinking like a product engineer to explain the why behind every design detail. Cory is the Founder of Run Your Personal Best, an online running coaching business, and since its inception in 2014, has coached runners’ to over 100 Boston Marathon Qualifying times.
Jonathan fell in love with running his freshman year of high school and quickly became fascinated with finding the perfect pair of running shoes. That quest got a boost when he became editor of Running Times in 2000 and started receiving every new model as they were released. The parade of shoes continued while he served as shoe editor for Runner’s World, then editor of PodiumRunner, and currently fitness gear editor at Outside. Having now worn nearly every running shoe created in this century—and a fair amount of those dating back to the early models of the ’70s—he’s given up on finding the one best and now relishes the wide variety of excellent options.
Once a 2:46 marathoner regularly doing 50+ mile weeks, recent injuries and his age have reduced his volume by about half and slowed his easy training pace to around nine-minute miles—but he says he still enjoys an uptempo workout or two each week. Beverly is the author of the book Your Best Stride which explores how each individual’s gait—and thus shoe preference—is unique. He enjoys getting scientists’ take on new shoe trends and trying to describe the nuances of each shoe’s ride.
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