Back in June, after being frustrated with how quickly I saw my Hoka running shoes start to show wear and tear, I went to get fitted again. This time around, I tried a pair of New Balance 1080s. Initially, they felt really good, very lightweight, and breathable. I felt that I had enough cushioning without anything too bulky. After a while, I started to notice my heels were hurting after walking anything over 2 miles. I figured it was my socks or maybe having the shoes tied too tight. I didn’t really consider it being the shoes themselves.
With the Hoka’s, I could see visible wear and tear on the bottom of the shoe. They were getting fairly slick. The New Balance shoes, however, did not show the same wear and tear. I never thought about looking anywhere other than the bottom of the shoe.
The inside of the shoes where the heels hurt, split, and were coming apart entirely. No wonder my feet were hurting. Whenever I have bought new shoes, I have added them to the Garmin so that I can track the miles on them. When I bought the New Balance shoes, I fully expected to get more miles out of them compared to the Hokas. Guess I was wrong.
Maybe running shoes just do not get that many miles out of them anymore. Maybe I am just really hard on my shoes. Maybe in the past, I thought I was getting more miles from a pair of shoes but didn’t really know since I wasn’t tracking that type of thing. When I talked to the shoe store about the Hokas, they did say a common complaint about them was the “low miles” before they started to wear out. That was one of the main reasons I moved to New Balance as I hoped to at least have a pair of shoes that had more life in them.
Given that I have a discount at Nike, it seemed like a no-brainer to get a pair of their running shoes. Any time I have been to a running store and been fitted, there was never a recommendation to buy Nike. Most of the stores hardly carried any Nike running shoes at all. Nike has always felt good to me and lasted. I hopped online and grabbed a pair of the React Infinity Run Flyknit 2s.
Here’s to hoping that I get more than 250 miles out of them!