Has anyone tried the Sketcher GOrun shoes? (Read 2382 times)

Are those the ones that Meb endorses? 

Nobby - that wasn't me, wish it was tho! I do have Invisible Shoe Huaraches tho. Am in middle of relacing into slip on mode to make them easier for me to use. I keep messing up the toga style and rubbing top of foot. They are good for helping get foot landing right - they make a ton of noise if you land wrong - really reinforces "running quietly" more than shoes do! LOL

Should have mentioned that I did handle the Sketchers while at the mall. Very flexible and light weight which got me interested in them. I'm not quite ready to buy running shoes again tho, but might at the right price - very cheap. Oh, an ad also said they can be used without socks. List price of $80 is reasonable but higher than I am willing to pay at the moment. My feet don't cost anything and I got my Sprints & Skele-Toes at bargain shop pricing. Even my END OTG's were on clearance and I paid $20 for them. They all have miles to go on them before needing replacement and I haven't been wearing the shoes much anyway. Still as it gets colder the Sprints & BF don't provide much protection. 

Am I the only Firefly/Serenity fan who keeps seeing GOrun as GOram/GOrram?  No?

I just went for my first trial run in the Go Run, and I am still shaking my head in disbelief that I absolutely LOVE this shoe. I mean, Skechers?? Really? Now, I haven't tried them on a long run yet, and I still question what the durability will be, but my initial thoughts on the Skechers Go Run is that it is everything I was looking and hoping for.

I have always been a neutral runner, but in the last year I have really dedicated more effort to my form and developing a more efficient footstrike. I have had some great results and have been very pleased with how things were going, but with the slight change in my form to a more forefoot impact, I was starting to notice some soreness of the toes and tendons on top of my foot, along with the occasional blister on a toe, which has never been something I have experienced before. I was already curious about the Go Run from hearing about it here and there, and especially with Meb's endorsement and results with the shoe, but what really got me wanting to try them was the video I watched reviewing the shoe and them talking about how when you are running more on the forefoot, your toes need room to expand with impact and toe-off. This was like a lightbulb turning on for me. The slight issues I had started to experience with soreness and blisters was directly related to the timeline of me making the slight changes in my footstrike. The reviewer said that the toe box of the Go Run was much roomier than many shoes, which he loved, and that the narrow fit of the more minimal shoes was kind of contradictory of the "natural" footstrike. This really seemed to make sense to me. So I went looking for the Go Run to try on and see how they felt.

Let me just say, I would have likely never even tried these shoes on if not for Meb's endorsement and the fact that the guy rocked a 2:09 marathon PR wearing them! And it still took everything I had to talk myself into trying them on. I mean, they ARE Skechers, right? They can't possibly be a good performance running shoe!

And where did I find them? At the mall. So here I am, trying on Skechers at the mall for my running shoe. You have got to be kidding! I find my size and slip them on... My first thought? Wow! These things are SUPER comfortable. And I immediately notice the roomier toe box while maintaining a good snug fit to the shoe, which I really like. As I take a few steps in them, I can really feel the awkward sensation from the "Go impulse sensors" that are built into the rear of the shoe to "remind" you to stay on your mid/forefoot. But as I do a little running in place and land on my forefoot, I don't notice them at all. From everything I have read, the concept seemed solid, that the shoe wasn't supposed to "force" better footstrike, but rather give you input and "remind" you when your form started to slip. Well, the show fit great, felt awesome, and I was digging the concept, but it still took an entire lap around the mall for me to talk myself into buying a pair of Skechers to run in. But I did.

Since I obviously didn't have the chance to go for any sort of real run at the store in the shoes, I was skeptical about how they would feel when I did. So I tried them on the treadmill first, figuring I could probably still return them if I didn't like the way they felt. Much to my surprise, they felt great. Just felt super smooth and comfortable, and I didn't notice the impact sensors at all. So I went outside. Even more to my surprise, they felt better on the pavement. What I noticed was that they didn't change anything about my footstrike and I didn't feel anything from the impact sensors. But when I experimented with letting my form get lazy and tried to heelstrike a bit, the impact sensors became very obvious and did exactly what they were advertised to do. It was like the shoe saying, "Hey, relax, loosen up and get back up on your midfoot." It is really nothing more than the fact that the shoe starts to not feel smooth and you feel an awkward pressure in the back of the shoe. But like I said before, it doesn't "force" you into a certain footstrike, or make your foot do something by force. If you read the info on the shoes, it simply does what is advertised. And the overall shoe fit and feel was fantastic. They are also extremely light at an advertised 6.9 ounces, which is how they feel, and far more flexible than any other shoe I have tried, without crossing that line into the "barefoot" type shoes.

In my opinion, if you have good form with a mid/forefoot strike, these shoes are awesome and are exactly what I have been wanting. If you have a tendancy to heelstrike and are working on better form, these will likely help in that process. But if you are a heelstriker and haven't already worked on form, but expect these shoes to "fix" it for you automatically, I think you are in for an uncomfortable ride and these really aren't the way to go. They seem to have plenty of cushioning and support for daily miles, but are still a minimal shoe I wouldn't recommend to anyone who isn't a pretty efficient and lighter runner with good mid/forefoot strike, or in the process of developing it and have already been working on it.

So there you have it. My initial take on the Skechers Go Run. Again, keep in mind that I have yet to run a long run in them (I intend to do 17 miles in them on Sunday and will report back) and I still don't know how the durability will be over the life of the shoe. I have my doubts that the shoe will hold up past 300 miles, but they have proven all my other doubts wrong so far, so we will see. But for now, I am blown away and very impressed.

Feel free to shoot me any questions or what other info you might want to know. You can view my log to see what type of runner I am and the training/miles I do.

Chris, you'll obviously know more after your long run, but how do you think these compare to the Adizero?  I loved the Adizero but I found that my foot rubbed the wrong way causing blisters on the bottom of my foot.  I'm currently wearing Hattori's but I'm worried they won't be enough protection against the roads at my cottage (thick rock to help prevent wash-out).  Large stones hurt when you land on them the wrong way in the Hattori's.

Yes, I only have my initial opinions to go on right now, but I have been doing the majority of my miles in the adizero Ace3. Compared to the Ace, and other adizero models, the Go Run is much more comfortable for me. I like a good snug fit, but the toe box and forefoot of the adizero line has always been a bit narrow for me, although not enough to offset all the pros of the shoe versus that one con. But like I said, as my forefoot strike developed in this past year, I was in fact starting to experience some minor issues due to the narrow fit of the adizero. The overall fit and comfort of the Go Run is better for me, and the roomier toe box is key. The Go Run feels as responsive as the adizero, but the Go Run is WAY more flexible, and slightly smoother transition. And I was really happy with the Ace in this department, so that is saying alot for the Go Run. To me, it feels like it will support the miles just like the Ace did for me, but will just be a much more comfortable ride. Put it this way, I have run in the adizero line up for 3 years now and have loved them, but the Go Run has me wanting to switch. At least for my daily training shoe. I will likely still race and workout in the adizero adios. But I haven't been this excited to run in a shoe for years.

In Sketchers!

ik,r?

Meb does it again! Wins the Trials, sets another PR, goes sub 2:10.... in Skechers!

Hey, thanks for posting that in a thread having nothing to do with the Trials.