Puma’s Faas line of running shoes have made an impact on the running shoe industry for their style and have surprised some with solid performance, especially for those buying into minimal and natural running shoes. The Faas 400 is a new lightweight performance trainer with a great fitting, socklike upper and a flexible, lightweight midsole [...]
Get outside in the Sonic Glove. So let’s face it. The latest craze is barefoot running. Love it or hate it, it’s the “in” thing right now, and companies all over the globe are scrambling to put out shoes that fit the bill. Merrell is not one of those companies. Read that again – [...]
Biom – dare to be looked at. But don’t fall over. Ecco. Not the first name that comes to mind when the words “running company” are uttered. Yet any time a company puts a running shoe on the market for $195.00, you have to believe that they are attempting to make a play at becoming [...]
Say Hello to Neutral Nirvana. Some think that the term neutral describes a lack of pronation correction. Literally, an absence of technology which somehow makes the shoe less of a buy. Some companies are even guilty of using more tech laden shoes, pulling a correction last out of it, and putting it on the market [...]
Run Happy… for a really, really long time. Neutral shoes can be a lot of things. Some neutral shoes are designed for the fleet footed – energy efficient runners who skip along the road, hardly seeming to touch the ground. Some neutral shoes are tanks – they plow through just about everything you put in [...]
RevLite – if you haven’t tried it, get yourself some. New Balance came through in a big way this year, and not just in a single shoe. Numerous shoes on the lineup got a complete overhaul, and the 905 is one of them. Now deemed the 1190, the 905 got more than just your standard [...]
Run Happy? Yes, please. In the race to strip down, rethink, and re-innovate shoes to fit the barefoot movement, some companies seem to have lost sight of that one simple fact. Just get out there and run happy. Brooks hasn’t forgotten that some people don’t want to jump on (or off, rather) the barefoot wagon. [...]
If you’ve never given wave technology a try, give it a go. You might just surprise yourself… To begin with, I ran in barefoot shoes just about all summer. I was looking for shoes with less structure, less padding, less… well, everything. Really, even though it all started innocently enough (I was looking to [...]
K-Swiss has deep roots in fashion athletic footwear and, in recent years, has been pushing to become a formidable player in true performance running footwear. With their ‘Tubes’ line of shoes, I think they’re attempting to bridge the gap. The new K-Swiss Microtubes 100 Fit running shoe is an outstanding value at MSRP $80, looks [...]
One would think that New Balance would run out of room to upgrade. Eventually, they would just hit a peak and be done with it. Especially on a no frills, entry level neutral cushioned shoe. It seems that an overhaul of the shoe was completely unnecessary for this year’s release. After all, the 759 (it’s [...]
We here at AGR will go to extremes to test gear. We do it so that you will know with absolute certainty that when the going gets tough, your gear gets going. Over the years, we’ve thrown all that we had at all manner of gear. It’s with some chagrin now that I have [...]
Some cushioned shoes err on the side of softness – it’s as if they replaced the original pronation correction with mysterious material, somewhat like the consistency of cotton candy. Other cushioned shoes err on the side of stiffness – they may lack that marshmallow feel, but there’s hardly any flex to the shoe. It’s no [...]
We’ve all seen, heard of, or tried barefoot running by now. It’s been all the rage for a few years now, and shoe manufacturers are getting hip to the fact that it might just be here to stay. Built on a tradition of running “naturally,” barefoot enthusiasts have literally chucked their own shoes out [...]
I was pretty excited to give Karhu a spin. Any brand that lays claim to such a runner as Paavo Nurmi is well worth checking out, at least in my book. And while I’ve no hope of ever running in Olympic competition, it’s fun to check out the roots of what launched your latest pair [...]
While not having a large running line up, Pearl Izumi is definitely making a bid to become more popular in the running community. We here at AGR have been big fans of all the Pearl Izumi gear we have tested thus far; from what we’ve seen, it’s all been quality product, whether it’s shoes, shorts, [...]
Clydesdales. Really, it’s an unfair term, since the heavy footed feminine side of the species gets to be called “Athena.” Really, we should coin a new phrase – but since popular nomenclature terms the heavy-footed large runner as such, I will acquiesce as well. So, clydesdales – look no further for a long distance shoe, [...]
I don’t know exactly what Reebok changed in their running line up a few years back. I don’t know who the dev team is, where they’re located, or who is running it for them. But whatever they are doing, they should keep it up. I’ve run several long distance runs in these, both indoor and [...]
Inov-8 has long been a staple of the trail running community. Without making a huge splash, they’ve been analyzing and assessing natural biomechanics since before you were born. Okay not quite, but since 2003 – and we’ve all been awaiting their foray into road running shoes (announced WITH a splash in October of 2010) eagerly. [...]
Last years Ravenna was one of the first shoes to build a bridge between neutral shoes and stability shoes. Brooks rightly guessed that there were those out there who only needed a little pronation control as opposed to a complete and utter correction of pronation. Their goal was also to cut weight without sacrificing overall [...]
My first impressions of the Adidas Adizero Aegis were a bit biased – I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Adidas running line, and it shows through in numerous reviews I’ve posted here at AGR. After only a few test runs, I was ready to write these off – however, after a break [...]
In the 890, New Balance is following a growing trend in the running market. With the popularity of minimalist and barefoot running, they are seeking to stay competitive in the market today by stripping down shoes to the essentials without sacrificing quality. The movement has been termed “purposeful design” and they seem to have [...]
While many running shoe companies are following the trend in that less is more, Reebok has decided to take a different approach. As you will notice in the Spring and Fall 2011 running shoes, many companies are starting to reduce the amount of cushion and material that is put into a shoe. The reason for [...]
Over the years, I have tested out a number of Puma running shoes and I must admit, I have never been a huge fan. It seemed as if they spent a little too much time focusing on soccer cleats and fashion, but not enough time on their running shoes. So when I received the new [...]
