Shoetubers have done it again.

Why are shoetubers even giving opinions on shoe prices? They probably have more shoe boxes than books in their homes.

The trick is to be 1 or 2 cycles behind what everyone else wants. For example, by the time the next version of the Superblast comes out, the original will cost much less.

The housing rush from a few years ago has come to shoes.

Find on the cheap at Marshalls, etc.

+1 Got my current favorite (trail) shoes about 1-2 years after they came out during the end of holiday blowouts, including a couple pairs at 75% off (50% sale stacked with another 50% off coupon on official adidas eBay store). They still sell the same exact shoe, same color way for full price at my local REI.

The shoutubers really hyped up the Novablast 3, I believe Kofuzi rated it his #1 daily trainer. They were selling for $140 and there was no way I was going to pay that when there were so many decent options for less than $90. Then the Superblast came out and people started to forget about the Novablast 3. The 3s currently sell for $109.95 but the 4s are coming out in December which will bring the price even lower, well under $100.

Exactly my point. Absolutely, none of the Nova blast lineup was worth over $130. The whole point for me is a lot of people aren't noticing the $10 increases every single year on daily trainers. I believe that the superblast was an experiment by Asics, just like the Mach x was an experiment by Hoka to see just how far they can push the threshold of the daily trainer and see how many people buy an overpriced shoe.

Because at the end of the day if your favorite influencer tells you that this shoe is great and you should go and buy it and look at my smile, then a lot of people are going to continue to go into credit card debt and it's just a waste of money for a lot of sad souls.

At some point it's your money. Do whatever you want with it. If you have the means great, go for it. Buy your shoes, but I just notice how these companies are taking advantage of people.

And to the comment about inflation, I don't think inflation really hits these companies as hard as other industries. Yes, we do have to think about shipping the shoes from overseas via the sweatshops but the cost of labor is not exactly increasing.

Most of these dudes are scammers trying to get theirs. Very difficult to trust any of their information.

I'd never heard of this guy, but I seriously doubt that shoetubers have a significant impact on shoe prices. Their price points are influenced primarily by the price points of their major competitors in other brands.

As far as the Artist is concerned, it's a great shoe. The original Artist was (and is) a tremendous value. I did a track workout today in my old original Artist and came home to find my new Artist in the mail. Atreyu is a small company and it's been obvious from their emails that they planned to release the upgraded Artist this fall. When they released their new Artist, I placed my order the same day.

I did a track workout a few hours ago in the original Artist and came home to find my new Artist in the mail. I'm looking forward to running in them. My only knock on the original Artist is that they were a little heavier than the other carbon plate supershoes. That said, they remain my most comfortable supershoe. I can't wait to get out of my other supershoes after a workout, but I can go grocery shopping in the Artist after a workout.

The problem is, that that also got a lot more expensive.

As long as I can remember I got last years models for around $75. Now after Covid it's $100.

And now you can't count on the 15% off Running Warehouse anymore.

totally used to do this with the Pegasus but I got my first pair of Superblast as a gift and now I can't go back but of course only one model is out so had to take my second pair (purchased by me) to 1000 mi to justify the cost lmao

"Absolutely, none of the Nova blast lineup was worth over $130."

Not worth it to you, and not worth it to me, but worth it to the people who bought them.

i own a pair of the artist and as much as i want to love them, they are not even close to being a super shoe. carbon plate yes, but that’s where the super ends. they week give you zero benefit over other normal shoes.

People here have criticized SJD and rightfully so, but when people point it out that shoetubers like kofuzi are no better, they get offensive.
The truth is: there are no good guys in grifting business.

Shoetubers are an embarassment and Kofuzi might as well be legless. His times are cr@p for the amount of effort he put in over the years.

If a company uses a durable foam, that's fine. Nike isn't worth it and their durability isn't that great. I guess you have to factor in how much you depend on that energy return, some are willing to pay extra to knock off a couple extra seconds from their 5k or whatever.

I'd argue that not a single shoe on the market is actually worth its retail price. My strategy is I refuse to purchase shoes for anything over 65% of its retail price. Sometimes that means buying shoes in lightly used condition, but if you're diligent there is ALWAYS a significant discount you can find. In the past few months I got the adizero SL for $36, the Vomero 16 for $42, the On Cloudswift 3 for $85, Adios Pro 3 for $125, all of those were brand new.

Here is my beef. Not trying to talk us into buying all these shoes that they got for free. I understand that. I just don't like some aspects of the modern review. Minor complaint:

The memorized 'disclosure' about getting free shoes. They all burn a minute on this. "All opinions are my own." Are they told to say those exact words?

Major complaint:

Gussetted. Lockdown.

I have worn a lot of shoes. I am old and was running before starting high school. A lot of miles in a lot of different shoes. I wore 2 pair on this morning's workout. Moreover, I was a teenager in the pre-Nike era. They existed, but they had not taken over the high school sports market. So unlike later generations, no choice was made for me and enforced by peer pressure. I had to actually decide between a bunch of choices. There was no default that everyone wore. I'd go into a shop and check out a bunch.

I still do. And you know what I have never thought of? Gussetted tongue. Lockdown. I tried in a couple things I'd never worn before in a store just yesterday. Those things never came to mind. I do not care about, and have never thought about, gusseted tongues other than while watching a video. Lockdown has never occurred to me. I am aware of the word only from ShoeTubers. I have never said it. I have never heard anyone say it in real life. I also have never the word gussetted before or since.

Removing these 2 non-issues could cut minutes off these things.

Kofuzi’s disclosures (which seem to impress the teenagers on the board) are meaningless. The guy gets flown around the world by ASICS and gets them to pay for his shakeout runs (free Kofuzi x ASICS tees and food).

With that being said, lockdown is very important to me.