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.