{"id":1020,"date":"2024-12-20T22:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2024-12-20T22:20:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:20:53","slug":"the-best-of-2024-running-shoes-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/post\/the-best-of-2024-running-shoes-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best of 2024: Running Shoes of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brian Metzler<\/a><\/p>

Picking the best running shoes of the year can be a thankless task. On the plus side, many runners will find confirmation that they\u2019ve been running in some great shoes and discover that there are others out there to consider. At worst, of course, it could create a firestorm of never-ending debate that drags on into the new year, until the time when a whole new crop of shoes hits running stores. The good news is that a lot of great shoes debuted in 2024 and there are many more on the horizon in 2025. Having wear-tested and logged miles in more than 80 shoes this year, here\u2019s a rundown of what I think are the best models of the year.<\/p>

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Best Road Racing Shoe: Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1<\/strong>
<\/strong>Weights: <\/strong>4.1 oz (women\u2019s 8); 4.9 oz. (men\u2019s 9)
<\/strong>Heel-Toe Offset:<\/strong> 6mm; 39mm (heel), 33mm (forefoot)
<\/p>

The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 is all about superlatives. It\u2019s the most expensive racing shoe ever made ($500), one of the lightest ever made (4.9-ounce spec weight for men\u2019s size 9), and one of the fastest. It\u2019s also one of the least available (the rumor is that fewer than 2,500 have been produced since its inception in late 2023), but it\u2019s fairly durable<\/a> for such a light and minimally designed shoe. The key feature is the layer of Lightstrike Pro foam created in a non-compression molding process that reduces weight and increases energy return. Combined with the featherweight upper that\u2019s reminiscent of a pair of track spikes, it\u2019s a shoe engineered for speed. It should come as no surprise that the Pro Evo 1 shined all year in big road races \u2013 including Ethiopia\u2019s Tamirat Tola winning an Olympic gold medal in the men\u2019s marathon in an Olympic record (2:06:26) on the streets of Paris in August. Other notable results for the Pro Evo 1 included Benson Kipruto\u2019s victory in the men\u2019s race in the Tokyo Marathon (2:02:16), Sisay Lemma winning the men\u2019s race in the Boston Marathon (2:06:17), Peres Jepchirchir\u2019s victory in the women\u2019s race of the London Marathon (2:16:16), and Tigist Ketema winning the women\u2019s race in the Berlin Marathon (2:16.42). A sterling year for a next-generation shoe.<\/p>

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Best Road Training Shoe: Hoka Mach X 2<\/strong>
<\/strong>Weights: <\/strong>6.4 oz (women\u2019s 8); 9.1 oz. (men\u2019s 9)
<\/strong>Heel-Toe Offset:<\/strong> 5mm; 38mm (heel), 33mm (forefoot)<\/p>

Hoka\u2019s Mach X 2 ($190) was greatly overhauled with a lighter, faster construction, a more curvy rocker geometry, and a slimmer, race-like woven upper with more padding around the heel collar and a thinner tongue. Although it\u2019s light, cushy and energetic, it doesn\u2019t feel like a typical maximally cushioned trainer, and that\u2019s what makes it great. While most max-cushioned trainers are noticeably thick and sometimes mushy and unstable underfoot, this one seems like a shoe that\u2019s much lower to the ground and more stable. How did Hoka do it? The wing-shaped, semi-flexible Pebax plate gives the shoe snappiness without being overly stiff (like a shoe with a carbon-fiber plate), so it allows your foot to flex naturally when the shoe bends as it rolls through the midstance moment of a stride to the toe-off phase. The bottom line is that it\u2019s light and agile enough to run fast workouts, and cushy and comfortable enough to do longer runs.<\/p>

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Best Trail Racing Shoe: Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra<\/strong><\/p>

Weights: <\/strong>8.1 oz (women\u2019s 8); 9.3 oz. (men\u2019s 9)
<\/strong>Heel-Toe Offset:<\/strong> 8mm; 38mm (heel), 30mm (forefoot)<\/p>

One of the first super shoes for trail racing, the Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed Ultra <\/strong>was built to be fast and responsive on milder trails without a lot of rocks, rocks and other obstacles. It doesn\u2019t have a carbon-fiber plate embedded in the midsole, but instead has four hardened-Peba stability rods embedded in the forefoot of its energetic EVA-blended Lightstrike Pro midsole and a dramatically rockered shape that creates an extremely propulsive ride. Among the key performers wearing the Agravic Speed Ultra this year were U.S. runner Eli Hemming, who ran away with the OCC 57K men\u2019s race in Chamonix, and South African runner Toni McCann, who wore a pair to dust the field of the women\u2019s CCC 100K race. It\u2019s admittedly not very stable on rugged and rocky terrain, but it can fly on smooth dirt trails, gravel roads or mildly technical routes. (Apologies to the Hoka Tection X 3, which gets an honorable mention as the best trail racing shoe and best training shoe of the year.)<\/p>

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Best Trail Training Shoe: Merrell Agility Peak 5<\/strong><\/p>

Weights: <\/strong>9.0 oz (women\u2019s 8); 10.2 oz. (men\u2019s 9)
<\/strong>Heel-Toe Offset:<\/strong> 6mm; 39mm (heel), 33mm (forefoot)<\/p>

I ran more miles in the Merrell Agility Peak 5 ($140) than any other trail running shoe this year, mostly because it checked all of the boxes for my typical trail runs in Colorado. It has an ideal mix of cushioning and protection to run on just about any kind of terrain \u2013 smooth dirt trails, semi-technical trails, dry trails, wet trails, gravel roads, and even sections of paved or concrete paths, if necessary.  The shoe is built on a soft, cushy layer of Merrell\u2019s FloatPro Foam midsole foam, a lightweight, medium-density material that has loads of softness without being mushy or unstable. The one-piece engineered mesh upper is more breathable and durable than the previous version, with better ventilation and reinforcing TPU overlays on the lower part of the sidewalls and around the toe bumper. The outsole is made from a lightweight web of Vibram Megagrip rubber that includes 19 chunky, low-profile directional lugs under the forefoot and 10 more under the heel. It\u2019s not ideal for super-gnarly craggy ridgelines, but it\u2019s pretty good on most other types of trails.<\/p>

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Bonus: Most Innovative Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike LS<\/strong><\/p>

Weights: <\/strong>6.4 oz (women\u2019s 8); 9.1 oz. (men\u2019s 9)
<\/strong>Heel-Toe Offset:<\/strong> 5mm; 38mm (heel), 33mm (forefoot)Hellen Obiri won the Boston Marathon and earned the bronze medal in the 2024 women\u2019s Olympic marathon wearing a pair of shoes that looked like they came from space. The On Cloudboom Strike LS has a custom, lace-free upper that creates a second-skin wrap around each of Obiri\u2019s ankles. The shoes have so far only been built for On\u2019s elite athletes. They\u2019re made one at a time in On\u2019s shoe lab<\/a> in Zurich, Switzerland, with a unique LightSpray technology that creates a thin form-fitting upper around the mold of a foot. Amazingly, that process utilizes a single 1.5-kilometer long synthetic filament that is spun by an automated robotic spray machine in a fast one-step process that results in a breathable, elastic and seamless upper. The uppers are heat-infused to the chassis of the consumer-available Cloudboom Strike<\/a> super shoe (a great shoe, sans the custom upper) \u2013 which have a carbon-fiber plate sandwiched between two layers of Helion HF hyper foam \u2013 to create a fit that\u2019s adaptable to the precise shape and volume of a runner\u2019s foot.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brian Metzler Picking the best running shoes of the year can be a thankless task. On the plus side, many runners will find confirmation that they\u2019ve been running in some great shoes and discover that there are others out there to consider. At worst, of course, it could create a firestorm of never-ending debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixminutemile.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}