Tag Archives: Brooks

Ghost 10 & Bondi 5?

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Did I finally find a shoe rotation with the Brooks and the Hoka? Nobody has wasted more money in the eternal (infernal) shoe search than I have. What an interesting couple of weeks shoe hunting. I think I finally learned my lesson about buying shoes online based on someone else’s review. That is a fool’s errand. Its like most times when someone hands out advice on any subject, the advice is based on their own parameters, not the needs of the one seeking help.

A trip to Scheels shed a lot of light on the subject. The Under Armour HOVR Phantom showed some potential, but walking around the carpeted shoe area tells you nothing about how a shoe is going to run. It just doesn’t have the street cred that the Bondi does, which they were out of. The same went for the Asics Gel Nimbus 20, maybe, but to spend $110 on a maybe? There needs to be an independent and objective scoring system on running shoes. Not based on the reviews of people in the business of selling shoes.

Since they didn’t have the Bondi we came back to JAX in Ames. There was the Golden Shoe, the Bondi 6 for $150! But there was also the Bondi 5 on clearance for $119. Hmm… The 5 felt as good if not better than the 6 and its $31 bucks cheaper so I went with the 5 (I looked it over good to make sure it wasn’t a return). Until you run in a shoe several times you really can’t make much of an assessment. And with the “cheap” shoes at $100 bucks and the pricier ones in the $180 range, its an expensive crapshoot.

Picking them up on their way out at clearance is really the only way to go. By the end of a shoes model year, the verdict is generally in. The price has come down to make room for the new model. Its a win-win. Out of the box on a Sunday morning I ran 90 almost incident free minutes. There was a slight burning sensation on the ball of my right foot. Was it the untested running socks? Was it the shoe? Was it a quirky one-time issue with my foot? We’ll find out over the weeks and months ahead.

Hopefully I’m through searching for the “perfect” shoe. I have a couple that are quite good enough for me. The Bondi comes it at 11.5 ounces for the right shoe, and 12 ounces for the left shoe. Not close to the advertised 10.4 for the Bondi 5. Which is okay with me. What’s a few ounces in a shoe, when you’re carrying an extra 20 pounds around the midsection? The thing I noticed right off was that your foot feels well supported and protected in the Bondi. Not some gimmicky thing with gel in the heel or a sock like elastic around the ankle.

With any luck next year I’ll be able to pick up the Ghost 11 and the Bondi 6 on clearance and the manufacturers won’t have mucked them up too bad. Its crazy but for me the Ghost 10 is a softer shoe than the pricier Bondi. The Bondi ride isn’t harsh at all, but its nowhere nears the fabled “running on marshmallows” softness some reviewers talk of. The Bondi might have a smoother gait transition (meta-rocker). One thing I noticed immediately in the store is that the Bondi 6 is dramatically more breathable than the 5.

Another interesting aspect of the two shoes is an aspect brought up on a YouTube video by a Connecticut College cross country coach. He was saying that it is best for your feet to rotate between 2 or 3 pairs of shoes during the week as your feet/legs will benefit from the differences. Its all about avoiding repetitive stress injuries by mixing it up for your body. Differences in cushion, arch support and heel to toe drop are among those aspects. He said mixing it up in a drop range of 4 – 12 mm is good. In this case the Hoka has a 4 mm drop, the Brooks a 12 mm.

[The Bondi 5 is a strange shoe. After a week of running in it I’ve decided its not hard, its not soft, it just is. As I noted above its weight coming in at 12 ounces is actually heavier than my leather Hoka Bondi Walker! (The leather walker weighs just 10.9 ounces) How the heck is that possible?? The alleged “softness” of the Bondi is all based on a sustained marketing focus, not reality.]

Also of note is the article on socks in the August Runner’s World. Unbeknownst to me was the premise that you do not want cotton socks for running. They just hold the sweat and keep your foot damp. What you want is the polyester in socks like Balega and Feetures that “wick” the moisture away from your skin. And trying out these new socks this past week I tend to agree. I think I definitely like the thinner socks here in the summer, and will relegate the thicker socks for cool weather. Walmart has less expensive versions that seem to do well as opposed to spending $15 a pair for the name brands.

Who can you trust? Running with wolves…

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Never again! You drop $150 on a couple of pairs of running shoes (last years models on clearance) and find out after the first run they are crap. It wouldn’t be so bad, but you’ve been doing it off and on for 5 years. Ghost 8, Kinvara 6, 1080v6…. the list goes on and on. “Well dummy, you need to do a little research before you buy!” Good God, do you have any idea how many magazine articles I read and how many YouTube reviews I’ve watched?? The bottom line is most running shoes cost between $120 to $180, and they are selling us crap!

Runner’s World ironically just had a list of 6 shoes that were “plush rides” (read cushioned). I know for a fact the New Balance 1080 is at best medium soft like Sole Review said. I bought it! I ran in it! I know! Its not a soft shoe its a joke! If Runner’s World think its a soft shoe they either are lying or need to get in a new line of work! Their original Zante, a lightweight shoe, is softer then the “plush” 1080! Its insane! Never again. I will never buy another Saucony or New Balance. Brooks? Maybe… you’ve stiffed me on so many shoes…. Here’s a list of the absolute dogs:

  1. Brooks Ghost 8
  2. Brooks Glycerin 11
  3. Saucony Kinvara 6
  4. Brooks Pure Flow 6
  5. New Balance 1080v6
  6. New Balance 1080v7
  7. Adidas Supernova M
  8. Hoka One One Bondi 5

Runner’s World reviews are worthless. They push a certain group of manufacturers and leave out the most obvious ones (in the above mentioned list of plush shoes they don’t include a single Hoka). On YouTube there’s a guy called ‘Ginger Runner’ (Ethan Newbury I believe), who seemed to have a fact based point system, but cost me a hundred bucks when he recommended a brick called the Kinvara 6! Fellow YouTuber Jamison Michael isn’t bad, but you have to read between the lines. He’s evidently getting free shoes too and doesn’t want to be overly honest.

One of the most glaring examples is the toe box on the Clifton 5 and the Bondi 6. Watching the You Tube reviews you’ll hear the reviewer say, “For the longtime buyer of this shoe you’ll be glad to know Hoka widened the toe box…” After 6 years they get the toe box right?? We pay $120 to $180 for most of these running shoes, and it takes them 6 years to get the toe box right?? Saucony is one of the worst for this, with their narrow little torture chambers.

Its too expensive to run with these wolves, they will eat you alive! There’s got to be a cheaper way to find a good shoe.    Sole Review

You gotta wonder what they’re thinking sometimes…

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Brooks Ghost 11

Brooks finally gets it right with the Ghost 10, and what do they do? Muck it up with the Ghost 11! After trying the 6 and 8, the 10 seemed like the first truly cushioned Ghost. A great shoe to run in. Then I read they only continue their DNA BioMoGO Loft foam up to the mid-foot! The forefoot is firmer than the 10! They run into a problem because their Glycerin is their premier neutral cushioned running shoe at $150, so they have to keep it ahead of the Ghost at $120. So make it’s foam a little thicker and call it good. Don’t stop the Loft midway through the shoe!

Hoka One One (it goes back and forth from “oh nay oh nay” to “1 1”) comes out with the Bondi 6 and doesn’t put it in stores! Oh they will eventually, but for now they have some marketing strategy where you can only buy it online from their site. I don’t want to tell them their business, but you gotta think they’d sell more shoes if they put them in stores… me, I’m trying to help the brick and mortar.

New Balance wants me to buy the 1080v8 at $150 bucks. Yeah? The v6 was a dud. I’ll have to think long and hard on that one… (Forget it, the v7 is a hunk a junk, no way I’m buying the v8)

The other thing I can’t figure out is what is 1 company doing with 30 or 40 models of shoes? You need a light, medium and cushy shoe. You need it in road and trail. And you need it for a neutral foot and a support foot. That’s 12 shoes. Not 40. And once you find one that works don’t muck it up! Although I was never lucky enough to try it, from what I hear the original Clifton was the shoe to end all shoes! So very light, so very cushioned, they had to change it and never make it again!


New Balance 1080v8

[One of the best shoe review sites I’ve found is Sole Review . Unlike Runner’s World and some others, these guys don’t worry about offending the shoe manufacturers.]

 

Brooks Pure Flow 6

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Goodnight! What the hell were you thinking Brooks?? The Pure Flow 6 is easily as bad as the Saucony’s Kinvara 6. I gave my pair to the local clothes closet charity. Its like running in clogs! How do you go from making a wonderfully fantabulous shoe like the Ghost 10 to an absolute shoe wreck like the Pure Flow 6? It’s not that much of an exaggeration to say its like running in a wooden shoe. Its supposed to be “lightweight” and it comes in at 9.4 ounces. Yes I have a kitchen scale.
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So after I gave them away, tonight I ran in their competitor from New Balance, the Zante. I lucked out and found a pair of the originals in a shoe shop in Canada. They come in at 7.8 ounces. THAT’S lightweight. And soft…. you have incredible oneness with the ground, but really cushioned. I hadn’t appreciated them fully until I’d wasted my money on the Brooks. You can’t ask any more out of a shoe.
[Sunday 4/22 update. Did the Sunday morning “long run” in the Zante for an hour. With a gun to my head I couldn’t have done that in the Brooks. Feet felt even better after the run.]

Brooks brings it all together in the Ghost 10

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Its nice to get your money’s worth once in awhile ($120 at Emerhoff’s). There are too many great shoes available for $120 or less to pay more than that. Not to mention getting the pricier shoes at a discount once they have been out a year. The Ghost had always been a supportive shoe, now it has gotten a lot cushier and lighter (one shoe weighed 10.3 ounces, the other the advertised 10.4). None of the problems you read about in customer reviews of other shoes; no hotspots, it breathes, the laces stay tied, no “too much arch”/”not enough arch”, no the toe box is too small, or its not wide enough (it is available in EE for those numskulls who try to stick their wide foot in a D shoe) great heel counter.

Brooks will no doubt change it when they release the 11 next year but they shouldn’t. The only changes they should make are cosmetic (unless they want to make it even lighter). A lot of the reviews you watch on YouTube or read at Amazon are full of it. They weren’t in this case. I started catching a lot of buzz online about the Ghost 10 in early June ahead of its July 1 release date. Cushier, lighter, plush upper, they were right. I took a chance and had my local shoe store order a pair the first day it was available. A great shoe worth every penny.

Podiatrists seem to take Brooks seriously, as Brooks takes making shoes seriously. Neutral shoes, stability shoes, motion control shoes, serious damage can be done to your body, joints and nervous system if you’re not running in the right shoe. Its just nice to get in on the ground floor of a great shoe, and not a clunker.

Sunday morning with Kinvara 6!

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Interesting shoe. The lightest I have at 7.9 ounces. Beautiful morning for a test run. Saucony Kinvara fits tight on your feet. Every previous shoe I’ve ever had fits like a 9.5 American. This tight fit loosens up some with each mile. The snug fit is appreciated on corners especially, no perceived risk of sliding off your shoe base. You corner well. You also have to figure its going to expand a little with wear, like breaking in a new pair of gloves.

I hadn’t planned on getting a new pair of running shoes before winter, but when I saw these prior year shoes (Kinvara 7’s out now) on Amazon for $72.61, I couldn’t pass them up. A lightweight shoe is what I’m into. A Hoka One One Clayton purchase is planned for the spring. When you flip the shoe over and press on the heel with your thumb, it is definitely a firmer heel then the Clifton, Zante or Ghost. But then, few people have an actual ‘heel strike’. The rest of the sole is quite soft.

I’ll be curious to see how they feel as the miles accumulate. Right now it is a nice shoe, but the Clifton’s actually feel rejuvenating for your feet as you run. The Kinvara’s let you run forever! They are lightweight shoes built for running lots of miles! I also think the edge might go to the NB Zante for comfort ahead of the Kinvara. Also the New Balance supports American manufacturing more, though I’m not sure to what degree. I’m still searching for the shoe that takes 40 years off your legs.

[I ended up either throwing these away or giving them away. Hard and tight is not what you want for a running shoe. Ginger Runner on YouTube as an example just raves about Kinvara, all I can think is there’s a financial incentive. I’d be embarrassed to make something so bad. In over 20 pairs of running shoes its the only one that couldn’t get the size right, not to mention their sole was so hard it was a traction hazard.]

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Purchased from Salk Trading, 172 Trade Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40511