2nd Annual: Your Worst Shoe Purchase of the Year

Hoka One

Too soft - tore my meniscus.

Easily the adios 5. Was hoping it wasn't as bad as the adios 6 looked and about the same as the adios 4, but the upper is terrible and it doesn't feel as smooth to run in. Not necessarily a bad shoe though, but compared to Boston 9s, streak 7s, and Asics metaracers, it is an easy choice.

Also, this wasn't asked, but the metaracers might be the best choice I've ever made and found them 60% off somewhere.

Hoka Carbon X. the shoe felt way too big. Like a clown shoe. Even though I enjoyed a Carbon X about two years ago.

Best by far is the Mizuno Wave Rebellion. Plated shoe, Good for training and racing.

Worst was the Brooks Hyperion Pro 2. Slow and painful.

Supralapsarian wrote:

Best by far is the Mizuno Wave Rebellion. Plated shoe, Good for training and racing.

Worst was the Brooks Hyperion Pro 2. Slow and painful.

Worst for me was the New Balance 890 v8, I’m unclear what this shoe was good at other than being bad at everything.

Agree on the Mizuno Wave Rebellion, best show of the 2020’s for me so far!

Adidas Ultraboost 21.

Like wearing a pair of bricks.

Salvatore Ferragamo Tramezza Double Monkstrap. Hand made but the wrong size was shipped. When I attempted to exchange, the correct size was no longer available.

ASICS Novablasts.

Got my first blister in years after using them for an 8 mile run. And its a fairly big one.

Will try them on shorter 3-5mile runs. If they still cause trouble I'm shelving them.

Freedom 4. POS shoe.

Freedom 3 is still great.

Nike Pegasus 35. Demolished my heel.

Yupp, that zoom fly 4 for me as well. Mights as well use those old vaporflys instead of those cheap imitation.

TwanValTwan wrote:Worst for me was the New Balance 890 v8, I’m unclear what this shoe was good at other than being bad at everything.

To be fair, it was a better shoe than the 890v7 which for me was unrun-able. But, relative to the 890v6 (which I loved), the 890v8 sucks.

Nike Dragonfly. Not because it sucked, but because I had to pay $290 for it on StockX.

React miler for me. Slows down my miles by 30-40 seconds and cuts my ankles if I don’t wear long socks.

ASICS Novablast. Bought it after becoming interested in it through a Kofuzi video and other online reviews. There isn’t anything that’s particularly bad about it, but it’s the shoe I find myself picking the least often to run in, so even though I wouldn’t quite describe it as “worst”, if I had to buy one less shoe this year, they’d be Novablast. They are kinda maximalist for my preference with no additional bang like carbon, and their toe box being on the narrower side used to bruise the big toe on my (longer) right foot but I fixed that bruising issue using a shoe stretcher. I had figured I should have a maximalist shoe or two in my rotation, but between Novablast and Nike Tempo Next%, my two maximalist pairs, I’d always want to pick the Tempo.

New Balance Rebel 2. Flared up some metatarsal issues I have.

Magicspeed

Really disliked the carbon x. Liked the alpha fly and endorphins.

I have yet to try the new invincible reacts. Believe they have zoom x?

The old reacts were slow bricks. Terrible in cold weather. Impossible to tempo in. Slowest shoes I’ve ever worn.

Saucony Triumph 18. For me, this is anything BUT a maximal soft cushioned shoe. Lots of material between my foot and the ground, but it’s not nearly as soft, responsive and bouncy as just about any decent Nike out there right now. Glad I got it at 1/2 price.